Stieg Larsson

CHICAGO – David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is an absolute masterpiece, one of the best films of 2011 and one of the best thrillers of the new millennium. After I saw it in December of 2011, there was some question of its quality when compared to the original Stieg Larsson books, the Noomi Rapace-starring foreign version, and even Fincher’s previous work, the amazing “The Social Network.” Ignore all that comparison and just view “Dragon” on its own merits. It’s spectacular.

CHICAGO – With David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” hitting theaters today, there seems to be no better time to revisit the Swedish trilogy that set arthouses on fire last year and appreciate these films from a new angle. Music Box Films recently released a lavish Blu-ray box set with extended editions of all three films along with a complete disc of bonus material. The set includes two hours of footage, detailed material from the books that fans of the bestselling trilogy probably longed for when they first saw them. Now, your vision of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist can be more complete.

CHICAGO – David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” comes with waves of expectations from fans of the Stieg Larsson books, the Swedish original films, the director’s previous beloved works, and even drama over a certain national outlet breaking an agreed-upon embargo.

CHICAGO – Shouldn’t it be called the “Millennium Trilogy”? Or the “Girl Trilogy”? Only the first movie has the words “Dragon Tattoo” in it. Anyway, I’m being picky. Whatever you call it, the three foreign films adapted from Stieg Larsson’s uber-successful series have been now included in one box set that should appeal to fans of the books hoping to have their favorite series in one place.

CHICAGO – One of the biggest pop culture stories of 2010 has to be the various incarnations of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. As millions read the books on their way back and forth to work and David Fincher prepares to turn them into star-making vehicles for Rooney Mara, the foreign-language film versions of the books have been released in theaters and the middle story, “The Girl Who Played With Fire,” was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD.

CHICAGO – Now that the third and final installment of Stieg Larsson’s posthumously published, phenomenally popular book series has been turned into a feature film, the questions emerges: ‘Was it worth it?’ To the worldwide box office and the creatively bankrupt Hollywood, of course it was. But were moviegoers truly satisfied by the experience?

CHICAGO – With “The Girl Who Played With Fire” currently selling tickets in theaters (check out our review here) and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest” selling millions of copies all season long, the trifecta of summer thrills can only be complete with a look at the Blu-ray release of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” It’s a “Girl” Summer.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Movie trilogies often are judged on the strength of their middle chapters. The “Star Wars” franchise wouldn’t have been continually embraced by new generations if “The Empire Strikes Back” hadn’t deepened the characters to such an extent that they became more than mere Jungian archetypes. If “Empire” jettisoned the franchise’s potential, “Attack of the Clones” brought it in for a crash landing.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Literary mysteries are harder to adapt for the big screen than one might assume. The trick is to make audiences feel like they’re discovering secrets right alongside the characters. We want to share in their exhilaration, their terror, their epiphanies.

CHICAGO – In our latest crime/mystery edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-one passes up for grabs for the new film “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”!