Zodiac (DVD)

I placed Zodiac at #10 on my midway through 2007 top ten list, and typically a movie in that position will fall off the list once the end of the year rolls around, but getting a second (and third) chance to watch Zodiac on DVD showed me just how good this movie actually is. Truthfully I am shocked at how much more I like this movie now.

My theatrical review criticized the movie for being too long, but now (as promise of a 2-Disc director's cut will be released in 2008) I only want it to be longer. David Fincher knows how to craft a movie and assemble a cast and he couldn't have done any better with this film as Mark Ruffalo was firmly in his element as Detective Dave Toschi and Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal were just what the film needed to give the cast a distinctive and original voice.

One of the things that is most interesting to me about this story is that had the Zodiac killer performed his elementary style of killing now days he would be caught in an instant. If you look deep into this film it isn't about how a killer was clever enough to evade the authorities, it is more about how the authorities got in their own way and prevented one another from cracking the case. If you look at it that way it might diminish the film's effectiveness, but with Fincher's authentic storytelling style and the way the words are read by the capable cast you can't help but being dragged back into the early 1970s wondering just what is going to happen next, even if you already know the outcome.

So many times I get asked how I can watch movies over and over again. The easy answer is that I just love movies and love being taken into another world. However, with the case of Zodiac, it is to watch good actors act under the direction of a man that knows the material inside and out and knows just what he wants. Watching Robert Downey Jr. in any film is an absolute treat and I can't wait to see what he does with Tony Stark in Iron Man, but if you are looking for a creepy, unsettling film that is intriguing from start to finish check out Zodiac in the meantime.

One thing I will reiterate is that there is going to be a 2-Disc Director's Cut of Zodiac released in 2008. Considering this release is a bare bones, featureless DVD you may want to just rent it for now and wait for the longer cut, a cut I am anxiously waiting to see.