Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (17-24)
Johnny Depp's Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness (2024)

8/20/2023

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest/Luftslottet som Sprängdes (2009) - Alfredson's yawn-worthy Millennium conclusion

 

Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, again smoking on a poster for a film, this time for Daniel Alfredson's The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

While avenging angel hacker Lisbeth Salander recuperates and readies herself for trial, Michael Blomkvist continues to investigate the case as a journalist and during his digging through the System reveals a secret branch of the Swedish Security Police.

 

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is written by Ulf Ryberg (Headhunters (2011)) and Jonas Frykberg (Detalker (2003)), adapting the same-titled 2007 novel by Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2005)), and directed by Daniel Alfredson (Roseanna (1993)). It is the third and final film in the Millennium trilogy, based on Larsson's Millennium novel trilogy. The original title translates to, 'the air castle that was blown up', with the 'air castle' being a Scandinavian idiom that refers to a pipe dream.

The film is tiring in length, centering on the 'section' of the Security Police, which remains deeply mystical and hazy. Just as the second film, The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009), also by Alfredson, this one drifts around. 

There are good trial scenes, and Anders Ahlbom Rosendahl (Wallander (2006, TV-series)) is good as hospital administrator and crook Dr. Teleborian. But The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest also involuntarily shows Sweden and the Swedes, (along with Michael Nyqvist's (John Wick (2014)) hero Micke), as a foolishly naive country and people. (True to reality in some ways.)

 

Related posts:

 

Millennium trilogy: The Girl Who Played with Fire/Flickan Som Lekte med Elden (2009) - Sloppy, overlong seconds 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/Män Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) - An exciting adult ride in sadism and mystery from cold cold Sweden

 


 

Watch a trailer for the movie here


Cost: Reportedly 5.3 mil. $

Box office: 44.2 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.33 times its cost)

[The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest was released 27 November (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) and runs 147 minutes. Shooting took place in Sweden, including in Stockholm. The film opened #13 to an 881k $ first weekend in 154 theaters in North America, where it peaked in 208 theaters but didn't achieve a higher ranking, grossing 5.1 mil. $ (11.5 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Sweden with 10 mil. $ (22.6 %), Denmark with 9 mil. $ (20.4 %) and Norway with 5.2 mil. (11.8 %). Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Alfredson returned with Odjuret (2012, TV movie) and theatrically with Skumtimmen (2013). Noomi Rapace (Prometheus (2012)) returned in Beyond/Svinalängorna (2010); Nyqvist in The Woman Who Dreamt of a Man/Kvinden Der Drømte Om en Mand (2010). The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest is rotten at 53 % with a 5.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


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Eagerly anticipating this week ... (16-24)

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