Zodiac
-
Rating: NC16
Opening: 31 May 2007
David FincherÂ’s (FIGHT CLUB, SE7EN) adaptation of the Robert Graysmith book masterfully transports viewers to the Bay Area in the 1960s and '70s by drawing on actual case files from the notoriously unsolved Zodiac killer mystery. As a murderer with seemingly random targets starts sending terrifying threats and cryptic codes to police and publishers all around San Francisco, fear and paranoia descend on the city. Through slow pacing, Fincher creates an effectively chilling atmosphere in which he spins a thick web of character-driven plotlines. Early scenes depicting the ZodiacÂ’s first-known murders vividly capture the victimÂ’s fear and agony and will leave viewers haunted.
When the ZodiacÂ’s ciphers arrive at the San Francisco Chronicle, they spark the interest of Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young cartoonist with a penchant for puzzles. As the former Boy Scout earnestly tries to decode the messages, eccentric reporter Paul Avery approaches the case from a career-boosting angle. Meanwhile, a string of investigators from four jurisdictions carry on a complex and unsatisfying search for the elusive killer. Inspectors Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) at times collide with Avery and Graysmith, whose interest in the case extends long after most have given up. -
Serial killers make good villainous subjects for movies, especially notorious ones who never get caught, like Jack the Ripper, spinning off countless of movie adaptations, each with its own theories on who might be the real perpetrator, and responsible for the creation of a subculture devoted to their study and conspiracy theories as natural by products.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/zodiac.html -
It's really a LONG and TIRING MOVIE... Be WARNED beforehand... I think the movie is around 3 hours' run...? Didn't know at 1st and watched it as a midnight.... S*cky....
You'll have to be very much awake and be in the right frame of mind to watch this.... Many trails and run abouts to follow... It's like really going on after a case.. And it's not really like a dramatic movie style where TWISTs and TURNs appear at corners... It's REALLY TIRING like going after a LONG CASE.... The more interesting parts I think are the front parts where the Zodiac got its victims and the ending part where truth finally started to surface...
You'll have to be quite very patient to watch this one....? -
NB, why my friend keep asking me to go watch this movie.
-
I prefer the book.
-
Zodiac Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)
February 28th, 2007
ZODIAC
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2007 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
Rarely has a director switched styles so effectively than David Fincher does in ZODIAC. The director of such terrific films as SE7EN, FIGHT CLUB and PANIC ROOM abandons his usual preference for gore, fast pacing, high action and in-your-face films. In its place, Fincher crafts an exquisitely mesmerizing piece of true crime with a methodically paced and fascinatingly cerebral piece of work that had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Normally critical of films that take more than two hours to tell their tale, I would not want one minute severed from this film's long but always engrossing 158 minutes.
Back in 1969 in the San Francisco Bay Area, a serial killer who went by the moniker of the Zodiac started a reign of terror on the local citizens. Later in the film, we learn the killer's "first" killing wasn't actually his start, but most people mark 1969 as the time the fear began. I was a grad student at Berkeley and can well remember the effect his threats and actions had on the community. What I don't remember are all of the fascinating details of the investigation, which went on for decades.
The producers assembled a great cast for the movie. Sometimes, when too many known actors are in a film, their presence can detract from the movie's overall enjoyment, but not this time. Instead, what they bring is the ability to significantly raise the level of acting ability of the large cast.
With so many excellent actors in the production it is hard to know where to start. And with a case this complicated and well known, it's hard to decide how much to say about the details of the plot.
At the San Francisco Chronicle, where the Zodiac sent many of his coded and non-coded letters, the two main investigative reporters are played by Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal. In a remarkably reserved performance, Downey plays a seriously troubled guy, a reporter named Paul Avery. Avery drank like a fish, snorted coke and looked like an old Beatnik. The killer formed a person relationship with Avery by writing him letters.
In contrast, Gyllenhaal's character, Robert Graysmith, was "just" a cartoonist at the paper. Although it wasn't his job, Graysmith keeps hanging around Avery and the case. Eventually Graysmith becomes so obsessed with it that he quits his job and turns his apartment into a dumping ground for every scrap of evidence he can find, which is all too much for his increasingly estranged wife (Chloë Sevigny).
Four different police departments, not sharing much information with each other, investigated the case until all of the detectives eventually just gave up in frustration. Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards play two of the San Francisco detectives who put the most effort into finding the killer, who just kept killing and writing taunting letters as he was doing so. Elias Koteas and Donal Logue play policemen on the case from other cities. The problems in the investigation are best seen in a scene in which the SF police department asks the other departments to fax them copies of key pieces of evident. None of the other departments own fax machines, so the solution isn't for someone to drive an hour or so but to use the post office to send the information back and forth. It's not surprising then that key facts were never put together and that those that were were not done in a timely fashion.
Always lucid, the film makes but one mistake. The movie ends with a detailed textual description of the resolution of several key aspects of the case. It does this with type that is just a little too small. I could read it, but it tested the limits of my eyesight.
Don't even think about going to the bathroom or the concession stand during this motion picture. You are not going to want to miss even a second of it.
ZODIAC runs 2:38. It is rated R for "some strong killings, language, drug material and brief sexual images" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, March 2, 2007. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas. -
Davif fincher is like a director with a dark style.
He is more interested in making movies which "scar" u psychologically.
He shot to stardon with the masterpiece serial killer movie Seven in 1995. But not many ppl know he 1st directed Alien 3, the last sequel of the alien movies in 1993.. which had the same kind of style.
Check out the internet, his movies have some themes and have been studied by film institutes. -
Hmm si presume Zodiac is like Fincher's earlie rmovie Seven?Originally posted by daface:Serial killers make good villainous subjects for movies, especially notorious ones who never get caught, like Jack the Ripper, spinning off countless of movie adaptations, each with its own theories on who might be the real perpetrator, and responsible for the creation of a subculture devoted to their study and conspiracy theories as natural by products.
Continues at http://anutshellreview.blogspot.com/2007/05/zodiac.html
Nothing beats Fincher's Seven. !0 years on i still remmber this grisly movie and its charsimatic serial killer who is merticulous, cunning and worst of all very patient. -
Fincher's movie are not watched for the twists. THey are for the style and presentation. There is usually a lot of weird lighting and colour tone in his movies which makes for a moody viewing expereince.Originally posted by Devil1976:It's really a LONG and TIRING MOVIE... Be WARNED beforehand... I think the movie is around 3 hours' run...? Didn't know at 1st and watched it as a midnight.... S*cky....
You'll have to be very much awake and be in the right frame of mind to watch this.... Many trails and run abouts to follow... It's like really going on after a case.. And it's not really like a dramatic movie style where TWISTs and TURNs appear at corners... It's REALLY TIRING like going after a LONG CASE.... The more interesting parts I think are the front parts where the Zodiac got its victims and the ending part where truth finally started to surface...
You'll have to be quite very patient to watch this one....? -
so worth to watch it??
-
sounds like a boring movie
-
But not the actual crime.Originally posted by DC+:sounds like a boring movie -
thinking of watching this soon..
-
i watched it le, quite nice.
-
zodiac with zodi anyone?
