No use delaying the inevitable, its time to go back to the first pairing of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner in today's film:
ZODIAC (2007 dir. David Fincher)
Why I bought it/Why I liked it:
I'm a bit hazy as to how I came about owning this honestly. The faded CEX sticker suggests I paid the sum of £4.00 or £3.40 thanks to the then CEX discount. for this film. Now I'm a bit of a cheapskate so feasibly I either bought it on a whim where I wanted to watch the latest movies that had come out and I'd miss and would opt if I wanted to keep them there and there. You know, sort of like a precursor to this blog.
The second option was that I really liked this film after giving it a rental from the dearly departed Blockbuster Video (Rest in peace old friend) and watching it with my dad and was happy to shell out the money for it.
The third and less likely option was I was such a huge Robert Downey Jr fan after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man a year later that any work that he did in-between must have been good by my reckoning.
I think option 1 is the winner here most likely...
If I think it'll stay in the collection:
Yeah, actually I think it will. As I recall it has really good acting performances from everyone involved and was a really good thriller. I remember really like Mark Ruffalo's performance, a guy whose films I wasn't familiar with at the time and thing Anthony Edwards is REALLY good in this.
In short, I'm looking forward to revisiting it but that classic Fincher run time might hurt it in the long run. Well enough dilly-dallying, time to put it in the PS4 before the day runs out...
The review:
I don't actually know how long ago it was since I last saw this film but I can honestly say I was as riveted to the screen as I was the first time I watched it.
This clearly is a film about performances and everyone really knocks it out of the park. Jake Gyllenhaal is fantastic as we watch a young bright-eyed innocent cartoonist become chewed up and obsessed over the Zodiac killings. We watch him fall in love and ultimately get divorced throughout the course of the film but the audience wills him on to get to the bottom of a case the police can't close.
The police then, Ruffalo and Edwards are again as great as I remembered throughout the film but there are so many great actors that bulk out the rest of the film. A clean-shaven Donal Logue for one, demonstrating why he's the best thing in 'Gotham' by a country mile and other noticeable faces like Elias Koteas and the ever-dependable Brian Cox.
Another fantastic RDJ performance again as boozy journalist Paul Avery whose vices slowly eat him up and his alcoholism gets the best of him. He's like pseudo-Tony!
I love crime thrillers such as these and honestly, Fincher's directing is so seamless, the long run-time didn't feel like a chore at all, easily gliding by as strong performance after strong performance rattled off in front of me. A genuine joy to revisit.
Should it stay or should it go?
Seeing as I've been gushing about it, it's definitely a keeper. It gets a solid 8 out of 10 from me and maybe in hindsight, I shelled out £3.40 because it was so darned good the first time I watched it.
I leave you with a pallid looking Jake enjoying his favourite tipple in the film:
Until next time, I remain,
Matt Major
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