SPEAK NO EVIL (2022)

 I've seen the trailer for the American remake of this Dutch/Danish horror flick before every new movie I've seen in a theater for what seems like the last year. I can't say that I was very interested in watching it but I kept hearing about how brutal the original European version was so I decided to check it out. While there are some rather brutal events at the very end of the movie(involving a child and a naked Dutch couple) I can't say there's really much here to recommend this to anyone. I've read that the director, Cristian Tafdrup, was attempting to make the point that people are generally more concerned with being polite than appearing rude(inn this case even in the face of some pretty obviously bad signs). While this may be a concern in Europe I'm not sure folks being overly polite is a problem I run into very often being an American(specifically being a New Yorker!). The film leaves the viewer feeling the same frustration that the FUNNY GAMES movies do and I was certainly no fan of those either. 

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST (2009)

 

  The first movie in this Swedish series was a great combo of thriller/horror/action and drama while the 2nd film, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, leaned more heavily into the all-out crazy action-movie genre this one course corrects to more of an all-around action/thriller similar to the first film and is a great way to tie everything up. It's kind of crazy that all 3 of these films were made so quickly and were released within the same year in Sweden, especially since they're all so long. There are 2 versions of this one out there, the theatrical 2 and a half hour cut and TV version that clocks in at over 3 hours! 

 I've never seen the Americanized version of the original movie, released only 1 year after the Swedish one was released in America, and it seems really pointless but perhaps because it was done by David Fincher it won't be as disappointing as I suspect.

 In 2018 there was another American film based on this book series, THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB, but that was based on something written after the original author Stieg Larsson had died and was a bit of a bomb so I'm in no hurry to check that out. 

   

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2009)

  In the 2010's(when this was released in America) this seemed to be a pretty big deal, it was based on a series of books and garnered a big fancy Hollywood remake in 2011, but since then it seems to have dropped off of everyone's radar and I never see it referenced at all. That's kind of a shame since this is a really well-done movie that mixes drama, thriller, horror and action. There's Nazis, rape, serial killing and our main character(Noomi Rapace) is a brooding goth/punk chick. The one downside is that this film, and each of the subsequent sequels, are over 2 hours long! They do move quickly enough that it's not a drag but it certainly makes me never want to rewatch any of these very often. 

PUSHER (1996)

 Throughout the 1990's, after the rise in popularity of Mr. Tarantino, there were a whole slew of these PULP FICTION-rip-off gangster flicks. Looking back at them now most of them were pretty lame. This is another one but luckily it comes from outside of the U.S. from some faraway land called Denmark so that's different. Also it was directed by Nicolas Winding Refn who I hear has made some good Hollywood movies like DRIVE and that movie where Vikings walk around(VALHALLA RISING)  but I've only seen this one(and it's two sequels) and that BRONSON movie which was an interesting mess of a film. Here we deal with a fellow who has a pretty shitty week being a low-level drug-dealer. His friends fuck him over, the cops get involved with his illegal activities, his stripper/prostitute girlfriend is a bit unreliable as stripper/prostitute girlfriend's are wont to be and things go on what can best be described as a downward spiral. Like Mr. Tarantino's films a lot of time is taken up with witty dialogue but here it does help flesh out the main character and get into his head so we can actually relate and give a crap when shit starts to go bad so there is a purpose to it all. There is also the expected smattering of violence and we get a head blown off with a shotgun, a head bashed in with a baseball bat and a few gunshot wounds. Overall I would say this is worth a look if you dig gangster flicks and can deal with a subtitled one. The only bad thing is that since the whole trilogy works together as one big story the ending of this first part makes you want to immediately view the sequels, which, from what I recall, are equally entertaining but quite time-consuming since each one is almost 2 hours long and who has that kinda spare time?
 There was a Bollywood remake of this in 2010(which amazingly doesn't have any song and dance numbers in it!) and then another remake in 2012 which I've heard nothing good about.

REPTILICUS (1961)

 Probably the weirdest thing I've ever heard about REPTILICUS is that apparently the novelization of it is full of sex scenes that almost make it a porn book with a monster story thrown in the middle of it. The movie itself has no sexy stuff at all and is basically just a crappy Danish version of GODZILLA with a big snake-like monster on strings instead of a guy in a costume. It also has a title that is impossible to, in any way, say seriously. There are also supposed to be a few different versions of this out there including the original where the monster flies around. AIP brought this to America and cut out a scene of the monster flying and added bright green cartoonish acid spit that our monster likes to spew on army men and a neat scene where Reptilicus chomps on a guy. Obviously this isn't a very good movie but the monster attack scenes might give you a few chuckles and apparently The Monkees also thought so because clips from this would show up on their TV show occasionally.