 |
 |
|
|
buying more than one thing? (uses Multi-Item Price Optimization™) ...or |
||
 |
 |
intereact!Actors: Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Robert Downey Jr.
Rated: R (Restricted)
Retail Price (not our price): $34.99
Release Date: 2008-01-08
Theatrical Release Date: 2007-03-02
Studio: Paramount
Run Time: 162 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Discs: 2
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Product Description
Based on the actual case files of one of the most intriguing unsolved crimes in the nation s history Zodiac is a thriller from David Fincher director of Se7en and Panic Room. As a serial killer terrifies the San Francisco Bay Area and taunts police with his ciphers and letters investigators in four jurisdictions search for the murderer. The case will become an obsession for four men as their lives and careers are built and destroyed by the endless trail of clues.System Requirements:Running Time: 162 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:Â DRAMA/PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA Rating:Â R UPC:Â 097361313146 Manufacturer No:Â 1313142) Amazon.com
Closer in spirit to a police procedural than a gory serial-killer flick, David Fincher's Zodiac provides a sleek, armrest-gripping re-invention of the crime film. It surveys the investigation of the Zodiac killings that terrorized the San Francisco Bay area in the late -60-early -70s; Zodiac not only killed people, but cultivated a Jack the Ripper aura by sending icky letters to the newspapers and daring readers to solve coded messages. But the film's focus isn't on the killer. We follow the reporters and detectives whose lives are taken over by the case, notably an addictive crime writer (a sartorially splendid Robert Downey Jr.), an awkward editorial cartoonist (Jake Gyllenhaal), and a hard-working cop (Mark Ruffalo). Fincher and his brilliant cinematographer Harris Savides are deft at capturing the period feel of the city, without laying on the seventies kitsch, and James Vanderbilt's script doles out its big moments to major and minor characters alike. Fincher's confidence is infectious; the movie glides through its myriad details with such dexterity that even the blind alleys and red herrings seem essential. The well-chosen cast includes unexpected people popping up all over: Anthony Edwards as a lunch-bucket homicide cop; Charles Fleischer as a mysterious suspect; Elias Koteas and Donal Logue as small-town policemen whose districts are hit by Zodiac; Chloe Sevigny as Gyllenhaal's sweet-natured wife; Brian Cox as the media-friendly lawyer Melvin Belli, so famous he once appeared on Star Trek; and the mighty John Carroll Lynch, as a supremely creepy suspect. The film is based on non-fiction books by Robert Graysmith (he's portrayed by Gyllenhaal), although Fincher and co. did extensive research on their own. The result is a propulsive whodunit without (thus far) an ending, but the uncertainty makes the film even more intriguing. --Robert HortonBeyond Zodiac The Zodiac (2005) Curse of the Zodiac (2007) The NovelStills from Zodiac (click for larger image)
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5
1) Here comes the hurdy gurdie man [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This movie was a great surprise for me because I didn't think it would be good and it was great. Love the fact that it dosen't concentrate on the Zodiac but rather the detectives,news reporter, and political cartoonist who's lives are consumed with trying to piece together the identity of the maniac who held the city of San Fransico hostage with threats for over a decade including murdering a school bus full of children by "Shooting out the tires and picking the little darling's off one by one as they get off the bus". If you like crime drama and who done it's you have to love this movie from the director of seven.2) One of the Best of 2007 [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I've always been a fan of real stories with serial killers. I watched the movie The Zodiac and was highly interested in the zodiac killer. Then this movie comes out, a higher budget, more opinionated telling of the tragedy. The way it was drawn out, with the suspense, truth, and few glamorized features, this movie topped my list of best movies. Some call this a horror, some call it a drama, I call it ecclecticly awesome!3) Great DVD.... Finally! [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I would highly recommend this DVD to anyone interested in the lore of the Zodiac. As a person highly interested in the history of this highly publicized unsolved case it was painful to suffer through the weak attempts over the past few years t make a true zodiac movie. The movie was great on all levels, I had to watch it again and again. Naturally, when this 2-disc set came out I had to get it also because it has interviews with people that knew the primary suspect as well as the victims. Spoiler alter coming... One interview in particular struck me as very strange. I am sure that many people that picked this DVD up are wondering... since Leigh Allen's DNA did not match the Zodiac's... is this guy they are interviewing on this DVD (an acquaintance of Leigh) is actually the Zodiac.. a free man walking the streets today4) Great suspense and drama [Rating: 4 out of 5]
This is one of the best crime/mystery movies I've seen in a long time. It's a bit longer than most but that was ok, since I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It had suspense, authenticity and great performances all around. The only problem was that I kept thinking, "I thought they never caught the Zodiac killer, but how could they have made a movie about the case if they didn't?". Well, my memory was correct about the killer never being caught, and that was the biggest disappointment about this movie. Instead of having the satisfaction of seeing Jake Gyllenhall track down the Zodiac to some abandoned warehouse, where our hero would be overpowered by the killer and on the verge of getting skewered before Mark Ruffalo appeared unexpectedly and put a bullet through the Zodiac's heart, we are left with a "climax" of seeing everyone connected with the investigation frustrated and disappointed. It's a bracing but perhaps salutary antidote to our pop-culture of happy endings to see such reality in a Hollywood film. Things sometimes....check that...things_usually_don't work out the way we want them to, but it is a man's duty, and compulsion (which this movie accurately shows women not understanding) to be true to his calling- in this case the pursuit of justice- no matter the obstacles, and that his efforts are still commendable even if their ultimate result is failure. Besides that didactic lesson, the movie provides a fascinating look inside the puzzle-solving nitty-gritty of police work, which was a bit more reliant on the human mind in the pre-computer age. So, my verdict is that this was a winner.As an aside, all the movies and publicity about the Zodiac killer, with his 5 known victims, stands in stark contrast to the media blackout of the Zebra killings, which claimed 71 innocents in San Francisco during the same time period. In that case, a gang of Black Islamic serial killers ritually butchered 71 men and women because they were White. The Black community of San Francisco impeded the investigation and showed no sympathy with the victims. At least one Black police officer conspired with the killers to try and murder a witness against them. Don't you think that would make a compelling drama? Yet, only 2 books have ever been written about the killings, and San Francisco has done its best to throw the case down the memory hole. Hollywood refuses to touch the story because it's politically incorrect. The Zodiac killings deserve remembering, but the Soviet-style deletion of the Zebra killings from public acknowledgment is a perfect example of the second-class status Whites victims have in the eyes of our ruling class when their killers are members of a privileged group. [...]5) A Serial Killer Movie Without ... a Killer? [Rating: 3 out of 5]
Here's my problem with "Zodiac". We know going in that the case of the Zodiac Killer was never solved so basically this is a movie about people looking for something they're never going to find. And I don't know how you define dull? But for me, that's right up there. The performances are all fine. Jake Gyllenhaal is good, Anthony Edwards is good, Robert Downey Jr is always good. And the movie has a nice dark authentic look to it. The trouble is, it's just not scary. David Fincher stays true to his material here and, while that's admirable, it means that we never see the killer, never get into his head and never come to understand his need to kill. So what we're left with is simply a shadowy figure with a gun. A cardboard cutout of a killer. And while if you actually lived through the Zodiac era, that uncertainty, the knowledge that anyone you pass on the street might in fact have blood on his hands might be terrifying, that terror doesn't transfer to the screen. This film received a lot of praise when it came out and was nominated for several awards (Jake Gyllenhaal: "Teen Choice Award" for Actor: Horror/Thriller?) and maybe as a sort of documentary it deserved it. But as pure entertainment (And I have to admit here, I am a fan of pure entertainment.) it falls flat.