Movie Monday: Girl Who Played with Fire and Dinner for Schmucks

Just a little late getting this out this week, but thanks to the wonders of Google, I am able to make it look like I posted this story on time. It was a very busy week last week (more about that in another post), but I did get a chance to head out and see a couple of movies.


Girl Who Played with Fire - This is the second of three from Stieg Larsonn's Millennium Series. When we were in MN over the summer I had a chance to go and see the first one with Auntie E, who I got hooked on the books the previous Christmas. As luck would have it, Auntie E was in town to help install some damaged wood floors, and so we got the chance to see the second movie together as well. While waiting for the movie to start, we also checked with the third installment was going to be released in the US, and were very pleased to discover it would be release at Thanksgiving, now if we could just find a way to get Auntie E to come to paradise again around Thanksgiving.

The actual movie was just as satisfying as the first, and without doing any additional research, I would guess that the first and second (and possibly the third) movies were all filmed relatively close together. Both movies don't take anything away from the quality of the books they were based on, and do a great job of telling the story. Sure, there are some parts of the book that are left out entirely, but overall, the most important parts are all there.

One of the things Auntie E and I have appreciated about both movies, is the fact that the actors are all normal looking. You can guarantee when a US studio gets a hold of this, everybody will be pretty, and the acting will be average. There currently is a very disturbing rumor going around that Miley Cyrus is being considered for the lead character of Lizbeth.....are you kidding me....I guess all of those years being Hannah Montana have prepared her to be a bisexual, anti-social, violent Gothic chick who also happens to be brilliant. Where is Mystery Science Theater 3000 when you need them? Who is going to play Mikael, Howie Mandell?


Dinner for Schmucks: Funny, and I expect it only gets funnier if you watch it multiple times. I am sure I missed quite a few of the jokes. Steve Carell,as is commonly becoming the case, is genius . It is really weird when guy who looks like an accountant can elevate an entire movie they way he does again and again (40 Year Old Virgin, Date Night, Dan in Real Life). I don't believe The Office has much of a chance to be as funny without him, but I give it a shot next year.

Back to the movie, I really didn't have many expectations for the movie. I figured there would be funny parts, but also quite a bit of schlock. I am glad that I was wrong, because like a great thriller can make your heart race, a great comedy should make you peed your pants laughing or make you feel so uncomfortable for the characters you actually hate yourself for laughing. Dinner for Schmucks was definitely the second, although there were definitely a couple of moments weak bladders would worry about. In an interesting side note, the French movie that this movie was based upon is actually on that list of 151 Movies You Should See, so sometime this year, I will sit down and watch that one as well. It isn't often I would say this, but I really think the American version is going to be very difficult to beat (see above).