Do you know how much of a pain in the ass it was to find this movie on Blu-ray? I wasn’t even sure I wanted it on Blu-ray, since I hadn’t seen it since it was in theaters, but I had hoped I could at least hold it and think about buying it. I went to a Best Buy, and it was out of stock. I went to Newbury Comics, and they didn’t have a used or new version. I went to another Best Buy, and they said they didn’t even carry it anymore. Is this what my life has come to? Paying full price for Blu-rays on Amazon? GODDAMNED TECHNOLOGY!

“So one of us got cast in a huge superhero movie, and one of us was almost cast in a huge superhero movie? Yeah, same thing…”

In 1960’s California, a man starts taking credit for murders that have no suspects and no leads, and he refers to himself as the Zodiac. He sends coded letters to newspapers and police departments, and the codebreakers end up being unlikely individuals. One of those individuals is the cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. He teams up with reporter Paul Avery, played by Robert Downey Jr., to try to be the ones to connect the dots across multiple counties in California. Based on the true story, the leads and the evidence comes and goes, but eventually everything dries up and no one is ever held accountable for all the murders that the Zodiac takes credit for.

David Fincher is so dark. SO DARK. Both in the contextual way and, well, the lack of lights sort of way.

Knowing that David Fincher was directing a film about a serial killer, it was hard to go into it and not expect something that was like Se7en. I think I suffered from that shock when I first saw it, but knowing this time what to expect, I enjoyed it even more. I guess you could say I am a David Fincher fanboy, in that I pretty much love every single film he’s done. Big surprise, I love this one as well. It plays out more like a murder mystery, rather than a psychological thriller. But of course, it’s a Fincher murder mystery, so the attention to detail, especially considering it was based on a true story, is absolutely insane. From using actual newspaper reproductions from that time period to the wardrobe being based on things actually held in the evidence locker, Fincher made sure this film came as close as possible to what actually happened. Even some of the victims said that, without giving specific details to Fincher, the scenes that recreated their encounter with the Zodiac could not have been closer to what actually happened. Yes, this movie is long, just over two and a half hours, but if you like murder mysteries, David Fincher, or just good movies, this one definitely deserves a repeat viewing. Also, the opening 15 minutes are near perfect, and set the tone of the film better than some films have tried to achieve in two hours.

Wolfman Moon Scale