babbling blue

I saw the movie “Zodiac“–starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey, Jr–this weekend. Interestingly (to me), when I typed “zodiac” into Google, Google helpfully listed nearby theaters showing the movie and upcoming showtimes and 5 of the top 10 links (including the top 2) were for the movie; 3 more were about the Zodiac killer, which is the subject of the movie. Only 2 of the top 10 links were for anything else, one for the astrological Zodiac and one for Zodiac watches. I wonder how different that list would have been a year ago.

Anyway, enough techno-geekerific musings on Google rankings. I thought the movie was good. I didn’t know much about it going in and was dragged there fearing a gory slasher film (I don’t like scary movies) but I was pleasantly surprised that it was more a of a mystery/crime drama. Sure we saw the killings, but you could generally see those coming. There wasn’t really any excessive gore. But there was still a good amount of suspense. The movie was fairly long (158 minutes), and I would like to say it flew by but that wasn’t really the case. It didn’t drag and I was never bored, but I was definitely aware that it was a long movie. Despite the length, there were still a couple things that were never really adequately explained. I guess the story was complicated enough that even with 2 hours and 38 minutes to work with, they couldn’t squeeze everything in.

If you’re like me before seeing the movie (you may not be, as I tend to be rather out of touch. . . perhaps because I never watch commercials), you didn’t know that “Zodiac” was based on a true story and adapted from two books by Robert Greysmith (who was played by Jake Gyllenhaal in the movie). The Zodiac was a serial killer in California in the late 60’s.

I was intrigued enough that I may check out the Robert Greysmith books, “Zodiac” and “Zodiac Unmasked: The Identity of America’s Most Elusive Serial Killer”. Since the movie didn’t quite put all the pieces together, I’d like to know what I missed. Another interesting google-bit. . . the books didn’t show up at all in the first 10 links. I guess no one reads any more.

Anyway, I recommend seeing “Zodiac”. I think it’s nearing the end of its run, since I was a little late to the game here, but watching it on DVD should be just fine.