The Lindsay Brothers

Category: Movie Reviews

  • Hoffa

    On the one hand, HOFFA is a sprawling epic about the labor battles of the early Twentieth Century, featuring Jack Nicholson in epic, sprawling nose makeup. On the other hand, it has Danny DeVito as Jimmy H’s chief right hand thug — which for all of Danny’s tough-guy persona (and his acting is fine), often feels a lot like going into a street fight against a cadre of Wicked Witches, with only the Lollipop Guild as your wing man.

    DeVito also holds directing honors, working from a gritty script by Hollywood genius David Mamet, and he displays a deft touch, aside from his casting decisions regarding himself. The movie is briskly paced, and full of wonderful period details. Not too many tough guys today running around in berets and suspenders. Nicholson is in fine form, and while he still chews scenery, he at least has the decency to swallow it. The film could have gotten bogged down in too much of the political nonsense around Hoffa’s ascent to the head of the Teamsters, but it wisely stays in the gutter, as DeVito and his thugs start riots, firebomb offices, and stare down mobsters.

    Interwoven through the entire film is an extended sequence of Jimmy Hoffa waiting at a truck stop, in what is clearly meant to be the twilight of his career. The film doesn’t shy away from the mystery of Jimmy’s fate. The solution may not be as earth-shattering as everyone imagines, but it’s true to the story. This intercutting does tend to draw out the length of the film, and they probably could have used another round at the editing bays. But all in all, this is an entertaining drama with excellent acting in the lead roles, and a biting script by Mamet.

  • The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest


    The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo stands as its own story, and one that belonged more to Blomkvist than Salander. The Girl Who Played With Fire delved into Salander’s backstory, and this final chapter in the Millenium Trilogy is really just a sequel to that part. As a denouement, it lacks the same shock and fire of the other movies. In spite of seeing Salander all decked out in mohawk, black makeup, and studded collars (for her murder trial, no less), this is a tamer version of the heroine who fought her own revolution against the establishment in the first two stories.

    It might have something to do with the fact that she spends half the movie in a hospital room with a bullet hole in her head, and the other half waiting in prison or in a courtroom. She’s still sharp, surly, and utterly confounding, but she can’t set anyone on fire, take an axe to their noggins, or blackmail them with hidden videos. She does get one last Silence-of-the-Lambs-esque scene, as the movie ties up the final loose end, but it could have used more of these types of scenes.

    With Salander laid up, it again falls to Blomkvist to spend the movie tracking down the secret government section that has made everyone’s life miserable. Michael Nyqvist is as good an actor as these movies get, but this story is simply less interesting than the serial killer angle of the first film. The film also excises a subplot from the book involving Blomkvist’s partner Erika Berger, turning her into an unsympathetic, easily frightened wimp. Coincidentally, this is Erika’s most screentime of the three films. Too bad they left the original character behind.

    Nonetheless, the film is entertaining, and the resolution is satisfying, though not as explosive as one would hope. Salander still remains one of the great enigmatic characters, and it’s nice to see her making no attempt to re-enter society.

  • The Girl Who Played With Fire

    I read the book awhile back. In it, a character named Paulo Roberto, who is an ex-boxer, fights with a blond giant who can’t feel pain. He almost wins. He certainly saves another minor character from a gruesome death. It’s one of the true highlights of the book.

    And one of the highlights of watching this movie is seeing the name “Paulo Roberto” in the credits, and realizing that he is a real person who plays himself, in a fictional role. Much like Dan Marino in Ace Ventura, but with substantially better acting. And his fight with the stoic Ronald Niedermann is probably the best action scene in a movie that could use a few more of them.

    This movie takes a turn away from the self-contained serial killer story of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, and follows the adventures of societal mis-fit Elizabeth Salander, who is apparently connected on several levels to the darkest secrets of the Swedish government. Unfortunately, all three stories in the “Millenium Trilogy” have a bad habit of pretending to be about Salander, when they’re really more focused on journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and whatever vast conspiracy he’s threatening to unearth this week. Don’t get me wrong, Blomkvist makes for a great protagonist (and is expertly acted by Michael Nyqvist), but Salander often gets relegated to the sidelines (she spends most of the movie hiding out as a murder suspect).

    The movie tends to be more straightforward than the book. If you’re a purist, you probably won’t like that. Subplots are excised, and so are main plots. The central murders of the story are because of an illegal sex trade, but this is barely mentioned again, once we find out Salander’s prints are on the gun.

    The movie ends with a quasi-cliffhanger, as Salander tracks down her long-lost father, who is more or less not happy to be found. If you want all your loose ends neat and tidy, you’ll have to watch part three (THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST).