During the last rain-drenched week before his a retirement, a weary city detective (Morgan Freeman) takes a new unseasoned, hotheaded transfer (Brad Pitt) as an astute and diabolically convoluted serial killer begins targeting victims according to the Seven Deadly Sins. David Fincher's grisly and literate police procedural is a great puzzle movie, superbly directed with impeccable, forbidding cinematography even if the ending seems overly morbid and not as clever as the events leading up to it. Freeman is effective (if a bit typecast when looking back) but Pitt is too inconsistent especially during the infamous, crucial, and ultimately laughable finale.

*** 1/2 out of ****

A disaffected auto recall adjuster (Edward Norton), suffering from insomnia and addicted to 12-step groups, finds his life radically changed by a nihilistic, narcissistic soap procuring stranger (Brad Pitt) with their initial creation of underground boxing clubs growing into something more radical, coordinated, and dangerous. From Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, David Fincher’s cutting edge and kinetically crafted Fight Club is often cruel, unpleasant, and ultimately senseless though it strikes a resounding chord while sending out mixed messages. Norton, Pitt, and a crucial Helena Bonham Carter are all at the top of their craft.

*** ½ out of ****

An easygoing, unemployed writer (Ben Affleck), recently moved back to his suburban Missouri home from the big city and living off the fruit of his cold, famed wife's (Rosamund Pike) trust fund, ventures out one morning and returns to find her vanished with only a few scant clues remaining. As the investigation heats up and takes on national media attention, he becomes the central suspect in the case, while passages from his wife's diary offer insight into their complicated marriage and hints as to what happened in the time leading up to her disappearance. Adapted by Gillian Flynn from her own bestselling novel, Gone Girl is a serpentine, dressed up dime novel mystery that doesn't really warrant or benefit from David Fincher's stylish, trademarked treatment. Affleck and Pike are effective enough in their roles, but never really soar, and receive sturdy support from Kim Dickens as a lead investigator, Carrie Coon as Affleck's concerned twin sister, Neil Patrick Harris as Pike's creepy and successful stalker, and Tyler Perry, surprisingly, as a high profile attorney who takes on the case. Despite my issues with the material and also the fact that its twists aren't as shocking as many would lead you to believe, Gone Girl still makes cogent points on marriage and media manipulation, contains several memorable sequences (a wildly bloody one in particular I still can't get out of my head), and thankfully opts for a meaningful, anticlimactic finale that may send you spouting profanities at the screen as it did several people at my screening.

** 1/2 out of ****

While the self-anointed Zodiac killer terrorizes residents in the Bay Area through random acts of manslaughter and cryptic messages sent for publication in the local newspapers, only a cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle (Jake Gyllenhaal), with occasional assistance from an alcoholic reporter (Robert Downey Jr.) and a hotshot detective (Mark Ruffalo), sees the unresolved case to its bitter end, through obsession and personal endangerment. Adapted from a book by Robert Graysmith, the featured illustrator, Zodiac is one of the most detailed films in memory, with its continual barrage of dates and case facts made all the more impressive by director David Fincher's heightened visual style and its ability to maintain a highly intense narrative thrust, these two elements coming to a head in the extraordinarily conceived basement sequence. Gyllenhaal serves as the film's center, Ruffalo is a standout playing the dogged, semi-famous detective David Toschi, and Downey Jr. finds a role suited to his personality (and not the other way around) adding a welcomed sense of humor.

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is in the process of losing his life savings after being lured into libeling a ruthless tycoon. With his reputation in shambles, he takes on a missing persons case, trying to find the niece of a missing industry giant who has been missing for 40 years. Moving to his Swedish island estate, where the only suspects are residents of the island at the time, Blomkvist enlists the talents of a brilliant but damaged investigator (Rooney Mara) to assist in finding the truth behind the mysterious disappearance. Since their initial release, Stieg Larsson's Millenium Trilogy books have garnered worldwide acclaimed, as have the subsequent Swedish films. Despite the initial success of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", the film has been adapted into an American rendering, assumedly because the studios figure the subtitle shy movie going Americans hasn't seen Niels Arden Oplev's original and see a good means to capitalize. Despite this, the new offering ends up being so much more than that. David Fincher, one of the best American filmmakers going right now and at least the great technical wizard in the industry, puts his mark on the series and creates a gritty, and visual sublime near masterpiece. Although Noomi Rapace will always be The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Rooney Mara makes a noble bid for the title and turns in a compelling performance. Daniel Craigis surprising and effective playing the sissified Bloomkvist, and veteran actors Christopher Plummer and Stellan Skarsgard turn in Oscar worthy performances (a scene with Craig and Skarsgard near the end of the film is one of the best I've seen all year). Although I'm hesitant to say so, the more I think about it the more I prefer this version to the original. As I read through reviews of the film, it seems as though critics are grasping for straws in looking for criticisms of this film, in order to subjugate it to the original. The only real criticism I've found or determined is that Fincher's version comes to closely on the heels of the excellent original, and as hard as it is to believe, tops it.