Review: Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Photo: Columbia Pictures

In total it took me three days to regain my normal (whatever that is) mental state after seeing a midnight preview of The Girl With Dragon Tattoo and another three to be able to even think about writing a review of it.

Taking on the success of the Swedish movie adaptions of the best-selling Millenuim triology, Hollywood now launches its own version of the $200 million worth franchise with The Social Network director David Fincher leading the way.

The first part in the series introduces us to the investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig), who comes under fire after publishing a libellous article and therefore takes on an autobiography writing job for a retired business magnate who promises to help the journalist in his libel case. Blomkvist soon finds himself investigating a family murder that occurred 36 years ago and have to take help from the prolific hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara).

Those familiar with the book and the original movie knows that the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is not for the faint-hearted and the American adaption is certainly not an exception. Embrace yourself for a two and half hour of captivatingheart-racing unadulterated brick shitting. Helping you to get completely drawn into the thriller is the impeccable acting by Craig and Mara (already strongly tipped for an Oscar) as well as from Stellan Skarsgård and Christopher Plummer.

Despite the fact of having to cram in 500 plus pages into a movie, it still felt awfully long. After the murder case is cleared up we're led on to a seemingly never ending story closure with  sub stories.

The Girl With Dragon Tattoo premieres on Dec 21 in Sweden and Dec 26 in the UK.

Rise of the Mini Fashionistas

My article in HerUni.com

When I was 14 years old, the most fashionable things I owned were probably striped knee socks and a pair of fake Converse – which tells you a lot about my teenage fashion sense.

Did I wear blazers and skinny jeans? No. Did I wear the next season’s Kenzo heels? No. Did I wear Chanel cocktail dresses? No. Could I even spell Chanel? Probably not. But they do. The mini fashionistas, that is.

Earlier this week I contributed a fashion feature for the student website HerUni.com, where I hit out on the (ridiculously) young and fab. Read the whole article here (or click on the picture above).

Review: In Time

Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake in In Time. Photo: 20th Century Fox

I'd love to start off this review with a cheesy time pun like "time is literally money in In time", but that would be disrespectful to director Andrew Niccol who obviously went headfirst for the task of cramming every possible time pun into a 140 minute movie.

In Time is set in a future where everyone's life is dictated by a ticking internal clock - displayed on your arm like a tacky matrix tattoo - which kills you once it hits zero. The only comfort you've got while you earn, steal or have some transfer extra time to you, is that you stop ageing at 25. At the center of this is Will Salas (Justin Timberlake), a good-willing hard worker from the ghetto, who sets out to shake up the system of "the rich lives forever on the expense of the poor" after his mother (Olivia Wilde, yeah really) is cruelly "timed-out".

As much as I love a truly original story idea, I hate being projected far-fetched situations such as a helpless female lead running around in 6 inch heels as if they were a pair of Nike air. The helpless female lead in this case being Sylvia Weis the rebellious rich man's daughter, portrayed by Mamma Mia star Amanda Seyfried who merely convinces us that Sylvia has any guts at all or any facial expressions for that matter.

Timberlake doesn't really meet the Sean Parker standards with his Will Salas neither being rough enough nor affectionate enough. The only one who's leaving this flick with a gold star is Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser. The 32-year-old is impeccably frightenining as Sylvia's 90-year-old aristocrat father.

Apart from time puns, the script (which is written by Niccol) also has a ridiculous amount of oneliners. Only 20 minutes into the movie and the audience have heard enough dowdy oneliners to make 24 Bond movies - leaving the dialogue extremely bleak and cringe worthy.

Despite running out of steam half way and having a pathetic fart as an ending, the concept of In Time together with scattered acting talent (having not mentioned Cillian Murphy, Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki and Matt Bomer) is still impressive enough to be worth a Wednesday evening trip to the cinema.

The long wait

John Lewis 2011 Christmas TV advert

The first time I saw this on TV I actually teared up. It's THE most precious ad I've seen in years (if not ever). The concept is absolutely genius, it's simple yet it hits all the right spots. How come no one has done it before?!

John Lewis, I applaud thee.


On another note, happy advent Sunday everyone!

Eastern promises

Dweller of Eastern things.

Something has happened to me lately. I don't know if it's good or bad, but in terms of finding true inspiration, I'd say it's leaning towards the former.

I'm going to be honest, in the past few months I've been trying really hard to hide my Korean pop obsession. It hasn't been the easiest thing to do. Writing cryptic tweets, private tumblr messaging, creating anonymous blogs -all while hoping it would pass soon enough.

The hoping, as you can tell, has been in vain. What's more, the Kpop thing has turned into a great appreciation for (SE) Asian culture and the minimalism that often goes with it, which prompted the birth of this blog.

It's a portfolio of everything Asian from pop culture to architecture. 'An Asian who likes Asian things', that's the cliché I'm going for here.

'An oasis of minimalist and Asian awesomeness'

A little thing called Fandom

The subject of my fandom for a very long time. Photo: Hollywood Records

I rarely claim that I know a lot about anything. I don't claim to know a lot about movies, photography, politics or whatever. I don't. However, I've come to realise that there's actually one thing that I'd consider myself an expert in; fandoms. Yes, the obsessive, stalkative and screaming kind.

With a little less than a decade of experience (sadly enough), I can say with certainty that I've gone through more or less all of it, everything on the right side of the law that is. Every inch of one's room walls filled with posters? Check. Midnight queuing for a new release? Check. Going abroad for a concert? Check. Waiting outside a radio station in the rain and a temperature below freezing? Check.

What's most often associated with crying or screaming (or both at the same time) young girls, a fandom starts out just like any other interest. Like your fondness over sushi, knee-length skirts or the Young Apprentice (which is rather awesome actually). But for it to turn you into a info hungry, squeal inclined, stalkative fan, there has to be a community of people who shares your newfound interest and a flow of material that keeps it interesting.

Once you've found those things, you're only a few overcomings of pride and a vanished good judgment away from joining me in the rain and minus 5 degrees outside BBC radio 1. Our heavily wired society -make that our heavily wired global society, isn't exactly making it any harder to stay away either.

Being a fan isn't flattering, I can admit that. Most of the time you're impelled to do things that you can't explain, you feel things that you can't explain, you want to buy things but don't know why. You dedicate yourself unconditionally to the fandom with no assurance of getting anything in return. And above all you're frequently subject to ridicule, be it from your friends, other fans or rabid tweeters. It's not glamorous.

However, I've come to think that people who make fun or belittle fandoms, can't possibly have been truly devoted to anything or actually had a fandom because if they would have, they wouldn't be bashing it. Why? Because they would know about the passion and pure happiness one so often feel while being a fan. Practically every waking moment is a natural high. Believe me, it's one of the best feelings there is.

So if you want to keep making fun of people who are genuinly happy, be my guest.