Movies: The Muppets, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Hanna

After weeks of grey and rain, it was nice to have my eyes scalded by the color saturated sparkle-fest that is The Muppets. The movie is loud, cheesy and cheesily-cynical. Jason Segel, Amy Adams and muppet crew travel faster "by map" and get things done speedily via montage. All of which is fine with me. Better than fine, in fact. Even the musical numbers were above average. Behold my new single gal anthem:

Not so much fun is the remake of the Swedish version of the film of the book that is The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. If that sounded convoluted you are not going to enjoy this movie.

Nazis, rape, embezzlement, corporate intrigue, family intrigue, gratuitous shots of Daniel Craig's butt-crack, incest, patricide, and journalistic ethics violations - yes, it is all in there, and it is all too much. I haven't read the novels, but I can guess that even they have too much going on as well. Everything feels lopsided, either under-done or, in the case of the rape scene, over-done. At best it feels incredulous, at worse ridiculous. Aside from the staggering opening sequence, this movie plays out like a lazy episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot.

Hanna is one of the best films I've seen this year.It's an art house thriller. Unlike The Girl With... it feels like a film, rather than a book crammed into a film-form. It's as subtle as David Fincher's film is overbearing and forceful. It's gorgeously shot, the soundtrack (by the Chemical Brothers) is awesome and the acting is spot on.