Zodiac (2007)

[Horrorholic]

http://www.thecinematheque.com/poster_zodiac1.jpg
A serial killer in the San Francisco Bay Area taunts police with his letters and cryptic messages. We follow the investigators and reporters in this lightly fictionalized account of the true 1970's case as they search for the murderer, becoming obsessed with the case. Based on Robert Graysmith's book, the movie's focus is the lives and careers of the detectives and newspaper people.

I was having a hard time dealing with the fact that this wasn't in the crime movie list. Best police procedural film ever? What say you?

Definitely one of my favorite films of 2007.

[swivel]

I hated this movie with a passion. They left out WAY too much information. Instead they had the agonizingly long sequences of no action, with bad piano music, that was supposed to create tension, but was just boring. They should not have told the story from the detective's point of view, and his acting was for shit.

What really killed the movie is that it ended right where the actual events began. The really interesting stuff came after the cab driver was killed. And the highschool teacher that cracked the code could have been dramatized better. Too much time spent with the detective's wife getting angry, and the kid acting like he was going to solve the case.

I give the movie a generous 3/10 (you get 2 points by default if I make it to the credits)

[Sea Hag]

I love all the minutae and detail, and watching how the 3 main players (who are all great, especially ruffalo) just kind of went in circles and eventually became jaded and miserable chasing the uncatchable boogeyman rather than just healing their own lives. The part where Graysmith is putting the pieces together for Toski about where Lee lived in accordance to that girl, and he says it's 50 yards away door to door, and Toski asks how do you know that, and he just states matter of factly, I walked it. Just great...

And it's put together so well. Even the segue scenes like the giant pyramid building being built to symbolize a year passing are great.

The cinematography work is some of the best I've ever seen. (more films should be shot in San Fran)

The actual murders are some of the most chilling things I've seen in a film. I could go on and on showering Zodiac with praise.

It's a modern day telling of Moby Dick, a real world companion piece to Seven, the best film of 07 and the godfather of police procedurals. Brilliant!

[swivel]

Sea Hag, you thought the murders were well done? I guess I just know enough about the actual murders for them to have felt watered-down. Before he stabbed the couple, he asked for their keys and money, and the boy was begging to be stabbed first, so he didn't have to watch his girlfriend get stabbed. Zodiac calmly stabbed him several times, but when he went to stab the girl, he went into a frenzy. An uncontrolled rage, almost wickedly lustful. And the guy was still alive to watch, remember, and be haunted by it.

They did nothing with that scene. It really disappointed me.

[Sea Hag]

Sea Hag, you thought the murders were well done? I guess I just know enough about the actual murders for them to have felt watered-down. Before he stabbed the couple, he asked for their keys and money, and the boy was begging to be stabbed first, so he didn't have to watch his girlfriend get stabbed. Zodiac calmly stabbed him several times, but when he went to stab the girl, he went into a frenzy. An uncontrolled rage, almost wickedly lustful. And the guy was still alive to watch, remember, and be haunted by it.

They did nothing with that scene. It really disappointed me.


You're wrong Swivel. The actual guy that got stabbed in said scene took part in one of the docs on the special edition dvd and he talked about how eerie it was that the scene in the film and what really happened were so similiar. Even to the point where, when the camera cuts away from the girl getting stabbed in the film is when he stopped seeing what was happening to her, put his face in the ground and played dead. When he got stabbed he didn't see it coming nor did he plea to be stabbed first. And in the film they even cover how the Zodiac got more into a frenzy with his female victims.

In the doc he and the officers talk about how she was still alive, crying but responsive when the medics took her away (hours after the attack) and they all go back to the scene of the crime. Pretty sad..

I'd upload for ya if I knew how to.

Outside of the home invasion scene in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer no other scene has me filled with dread like that one.

[swivel]

I've seen the doc. And read his testimony. I'm sure it was freaky to see in enacted, but it doesn't change the fact that they left out the gruesome, and unique details.

It just didn't go down like that.

[swivel]

PRAISE JESUS!

I thought I was going insane. You and I are talking about two different films. The Zodiac I saw was from 2006!

Thank the heavens. Now I need to go get this movie to wash the taste of the other one out of my mouth.

Damn, Sea Hag. Of all the inane arguments and disagreements I've had on this forum, this is the very first one to truly trouble me. Something so trivial, and I thought one of us had to be insane! Thank god it was me.

[Sea Hag]

PRAISE JESUS!

I thought I was going insane. You and I are talking about two different films. The Zodiac I saw was from 2006!

Thank the heavens. Now I need to go get this movie to wash the taste of the other one out of my mouth.

Damn, Sea Hag. Of all the inane arguments and disagreements I've had on this forum, this is the very first one to truly trouble me. Something so trivial, and I thought one of us had to be insane! Thank god it was me.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, holy fuck!

So you haven't seen Fincher's film yet?

HAHAHAHA, good stuff.

[Morbid]

Too funny.

Check out the film, swivel. It is an awesome flick. I don't think there will ever be a better film done about those crimes.

[swivel]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, holy fuck!

So you haven't seen Fincher's film yet?

HAHAHAHA, good stuff.

I am soooo relieved. I can go back to trusting your judgment on all things cinema again. The order of the universe is restored.

Edit: Shit, now you guys have to see the crap I sat through, so you can really get a laugh about this situation!

[AnalBreeze]

How did you not know what Zodiac he was talkin' about?
tis only ONE Zodiac film and this is it!
Plus we have 2 other posts about this film... Wake up! :D

[CPL CHUD]

I am soooo relieved. I can go back to trusting your judgment on all things cinema again. The order of the universe is restored.

Edit: Shit, now you guys have to see the crap I sat through, so you can really get a laugh about this situation!Ha! I almost made the same mistake. The new one is really a great flick. I'd say one of last year's best.

[Sea Hag]

There's gonna be a void in this thread until we get a Swivel review. A big, giant, gaping void I tell ya.

[swivel]

How did you not know what Zodiac he was talkin' about?
tis only ONE Zodiac film and this is it!
Plus we have 2 other posts about this film... Wake up! :D

Wha? Where am I?

Ron Paul for president!