Year Released: 2018
Directed by: Fede Alvarez
Starring: Claire Foy, Sverrir Gudnason, LaKeith Stanfield
(R, min.)
Genre: Drama, Action and Adventure

You’ll enjoy the non-stop action, but nothing is particularly memorable. Like a taste of dour cotton candy, this feature quickly dissolves into nothing once the credits roll.

So this time I’m with the critics. This American reboot of the Swedish franchise does not compel.

The Girl in the Spider's Web focuses on the action elements of its source material for a less complex -- and only sporadically effective -- franchise reboot. –Critics’ Consensus

Actually, the whole franchise more or less ran out of steam after the first film, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which had the cerebral feel of the best mysteries of Agatha Christie. Perhaps the overriding sense of doom starts to wear one down. Apparently, it did that to the author, Steig Larsson, who intended to drag the franchise out to ten installments, but died suddenly in 2004 after completing only three.

Critics widely praised the American version of that first film starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, but quite frankly I did not bother seeing it, since the American versions of a superior foreign films – i.e. The Secret in Their Eyes - are usually disappointing.

Now the Americans have rebooted their franchise. The Girl in the Spider’s Web is based on a book penned by the novelist who took over the series after Steig Larsson died. Second Hand Rose all the way. Stand in author and stand in Americanized cast.

Maybe that’s why this film seems more like Jason Bourne meets a mish mash of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Kill Bill, and Mad Max. A kind of generic spy thriller with tons of female angst, and revenge, and gore.

I advise waiting for the DVD or seeing it now on Vudu. And cut the gloom with any of these 5 great Spirit of Scandinavia Cocktails.

–Kathy Borich
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