Movie Review: "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

5. "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" is easily the best movie I've seen in 2010, which may read like damning with faint praise, but this is, in fact, a damned fine movie.

4. This Swedish thriller, based on an international best-selling novel of the same name, packs all the things that makes movies great into its 2-hour, 28-minute runtime.

3. The characters are layered, flawed and terrific with a classic detective pairing of antisocial computer hacker Lisabeth (Noomi Rapace) and magazine reporter Mikael (Michael Nyqvist).

2. The mystery is captivating and filled with unforeseen twists (but not M. Night Shyamalan twists) and there's tense action, graphic violence, romance, sexuality and, well, it's just a really good movie.

1. The book this flick is based on is sure to come to Hollywood sooner rather than later, but I recommend seeing the Swedish version as no American studio will produce a movie of this quality without watering it down from a fine wine into spiked Kool-Aid for mass market appeal.

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"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"
- 2hr 28min‎‎ - Rated R‎‎ - Suspense/Thriller‎ -
Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Cast: Peter Haber, Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, David Dencik, Georgi Staykov
Finney's Flicks Grade: A+

Movie Review: "Robin Hood"

5. Robin Hood is like Batman in that every generation takes a whack at telling the legend, and like late-night infomercials about magic weight loss pills, results vary from terrific to horrific.

4. Fortunately, Ridley Scott's and Russell Crowe's entry into the Robin Hood canon more in common with Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" than Joel Schumacher's "Batman and Robin."

3. The 2010 "Robin Hood" delves into the origin of the classic English folk hero rather than plunge into the traditional stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

2. Scott and Crowe again form a dynamic duo, as with "Gladiator," to provide a worthy entry into "Robin Hood" film lore.

1. Packed with both action and emotion, Crowe is particularly strong as the humble hero and Cate Blanchette plays a strong Lady Marion and Scott provides enough flaming arrows and dead French soldiers to make an enjoyable epic.

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"Robin Hood"

- 2hr 20min‎‎ - Rated PG-13‎‎ - Action/Adventure/Drama‎ -

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy

Finney's Flicks Grade: B+

Movie Review: "Iron Man 2"

5. The real mettle of "Iron Man 2," like it's predecessor, is the cast.

4. Robert Downey Jr. is again magnificent as Tony Stark/Iron Man while Don Cheadle shines as the sidekick, Gwyneth Paltrow glitters as the love interest and even bit players Garry Shandling and Samuel L. Jackson chew up scenery for the betterment of the film.

3. The plot is nicely layered: Tony Stark is dying and acting like a jerk, secret agents, the government, rival industrialists and terrorists want a chunk of Tony's iron hide and there are lots of metal robots for Iron Man and Cheadle's War Machine to blow up in a brilliant bluster worthy of summer movie opulence.

2. The sequel improves on the original in one respect: Mickey Rourke is a delightfully creepy and powerhouse villain and Sam Rockwell's turn as Justin Hammer, the anti-Tony Stark, adds another dimension of peril and skulduggery to the already belabored man in the iron suit.

1. Unlike "Spider-Man 2" and "The Dark Knight," the second "Iron Man" doesn't surpass the original nor does it move the superhero genre forward as those flicks did, but neither does it loose what made the first film so enjoyable: director Jon Favreau squeezing every ounce out of Downey's irrepressible charm in the title role.

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"Iron Man 2"

- 2hr 5min‎‎ - Rated PG-13‎‎ - Action/Adventure‎ -

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Sam Rockwell

Finney's Flicks Grade: B