Zodiac

Had I known that Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey, Jr. were in this movie and that a lot of it took place in the office of the San Francisco Chronicle, I'd have watched it ages ago. Robert Downey, Jr is one of those actors who steals the scene whenever he's on screen. It's hard to take your eyes off of him. In Zodiac he plays a drunken newspaper reporter, which is my favorite kind of person right after nerdy music geek.

Anyway, Zodiac is about a serial killer who terrorized San Francisco in the late sixties and early seventies and the men (yes men, there are like three female characters in the movie all of whom are pointless) who spent their lives trying to apprehend the murderer.

While I am not sure it's the best movie of 2007 like Hotrod claims, it is pretty entertaining if not a tad bit long. 2.5+ hour movies are rough. I have no idea what he was talking about when he yammered on about subtlety and nuance, because I don't think the film's subtle nuanced. But it is engaging and Jake Gyllenhaal kicks ass as editorial cartoonist/Zodiac obsessed Robert Graysmith.

I really only have two complaints -- the lack of females and the length. I don't know why they put someone like Chole Sevigny in a role where she was absolutely useless. I could have played Graysmith's love interest for as much acting ability was needed and for how much the role adds to the film. Which, of course, leads to my other complaint -- the length. Like I said, two and a half hours is rough. after about an hour and a half I felt like I was being held hostage.

I swear that editing is a lost art -- books, movies, songs, so many of them would be so much better with just a little bit of self-restraint on the part of the creator.