Tag: Daniel Craig (Page 1 of 4)

Staff Pick: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2011)

Rooney Mara The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 2011 640

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is one of David Fincher’s best films, which is saying a lot. This psychological thriller was adapted from the novel of the same name by Swedish author Stieg Larsson and fits right into Fincher’s wheelhouse. It’s dark, intense and twisted, and it’s a must-see film.

Story

The film follows the intertwined stories of two main characters: Mikael Blomkvist, a disgraced journalist, and Lisbeth Salander, a fiercely intelligent and unconventional computer hacker.

The film begins with Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), a journalist at Millennium magazine, losing a high-profile libel case against corrupt businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström. With his reputation tarnished, Blomkvist feels he has no choice but to take a leave of absence from the magazine. He is then approached by wealthy retired industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), who offers him a job to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet, who vanished 40 years ago. Vanger believes that Harriet was murdered by a member of his own dysfunctional family.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), a skilled computer hacker with a troubled past, is introduced when she conducts a background check on Blomkvist for Vanger’s lawyer. Despite her social awkwardness and unorthodox appearance, Lisbeth is a brilliant investigator, and her report on Blomkvist ultimately leads to his hiring by Vanger.

As Blomkvist delves into the Vanger family history, he uncovers a series of brutal murders connected to Harriet’s disappearance. He realizes he needs assistance and, after learning about Lisbeth’s skills, recruits her to help him with the investigation. Together, they form an unlikely partnership, with Lisbeth using her hacking skills and Blomkvist’s journalistic expertise to unravel the mystery.

Rooney Mara as Lisbeth

Rooney Mara delivers a stunning and breathtaking performance as Lisbeth Salander, who is one of the more unique and compelling characters we’ve seen in years.

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The 5 Best Casino Movies

Casinos and Hollywood have a lot in common — bright lights, glamorous people, and the allure of fame and fortune. It makes sense, then, that some of Hollywood’s most memorable and well-received releases center on the world of casinos. Take a look at 5 of the best casino movies ever made and the characters that brought them to life:

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Best of Craig

Although it has yet to be given a title, the 24th James Bond film is edging ever closer to filming. The movie will see Daniel Craig return to play the titular spy for a fourth, and presumably, penultimate time, whilst director Sam Mendes is also back.

We owe thanks to Craig. Despite the Cheshire actor facing huge public backlash when cast in 2006, he has managed to rejuvenate the Hollywood franchise. So what are Craig’s definitive Bond moments?

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Casino Royale Movie Mistakes

Casino Royale Movie Mistakes

Released to wide acclaim in 2006, “Casino Royale” was Daniel Craig’s debut as the legendary British agent James Bond. The plot portrayed Bond’s early years in service and the film was so successful that it grossed an estimated $599 million worldwide and Craig has continued in the role ever since.

Nonetheless, “Casino Royale” was not entirely without its faults. There were a number of illogical sequences or filming errors which did a disservice to an otherwise excellent production. Although it doesn’t take anything away from the film as a whole, the following errors will be of interest to any diehard 007 fan.

Airport confusion: In the film, Bond thwarts a terrorist attack on Miami Airport. However, the sequence is actually filmed in the Czech Republic and in these scenes you can see numerous Czech Airlines planes. Unfortunately, Czech Airlines don’t fly to Miami at all! You can however find plenty of their planes at Prague Airport!

Montenegro or Czech Republic? Similar lapses can be seen in the sequences which are supposed to be set in Montenegro, but are actually filmed in the Czech Republic. In one scene, at the back of a restaurant, a public telephone with the Czech Telecom insignia can be seen and when Bond has a drink in the square, there is a sign in Czech for “White Horse.”

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Dream House

Months before its late-September release date, we received notification that “Dream House” would be screened in our area. And then, at the last minute, the screening was pulled. The screening for a movie that starred Daniel Craig, Rachael Weisz, and Naomi Watts…was pulled. That is not a good sign, to say the least. It speaks to a sudden lack of confidence in your product, and the studio has gone into damage control mode in order to preserve whatever box office potential it may still have.

Good call, as it turns out, though that’s not to say that “Dream House” didn’t have a wealth of promise. Will Atenton (Craig) quits his job to spend more time with his wife (Weisz) and kids while writing the Great American Novel, but almost as soon as he’s home, his family is threatened by a mysterious stalker. His neighbor Ann (Watts) is sympathetic, but she’s the only one. Once Will discovers that a mass murder took place in his house, he decides to find out more about the crime in question, only to discover that the trail leads directly back to him.

That’s a pretty damn good setup – the only question is where you go from there, and that is where “Dream House” loses its way. There are a myriad of paths the story could have taken, but damned if they didn’t take the simplest option available. Seriously, the explanation for why things went down the way they did is just head-slappingly dumb, and it kills us that we cannot explain why. Add just one more layer to the story, and this could be one of those “Jacob’s Ladder”-type movies where you never really know what is real and what is fantasy. Instead, they took the easy way out. Sometimes it’s better to keep it simple. This, however, is not one of those times, not when you begin the movie by pulling the wool over the audience’s eyes. If your movie is high-concept, then see it through to the very end.

Anyone who grew up watching M. Night Shyamalan movies – and are therefore always on the look for the hook or the twist – will not miss the clues in “Dream House,” which form a veritable trail of bread crumbs. Hopefully the three leads will make another movie down the road, because goodness knows that under better circumstances, they could create something special. (Universal 2012)

Click to buy Dream House from Amazon

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