Product Details

• Actors: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist
• Directors: Daniel Alfredson
• Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Swedish
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Music Box Films Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: October 26, 2010
• Run Time: 129 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (158 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003YOZNAG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,307 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #7 in Movies & TV > DVD > Foreign Films
• For more information about "The Girl Who Played With Fire" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. A researcher and a Millennium journalist about to expose the truth about the sex trade in Sweden are brutally murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and violent behavior makes her an official danger to society. Mikael Bloomkvist, Salander's friend and Millennium's publisher is alone in his belief of Salander's innocence. Digging deeper Bloomkvist unearths evidence implicating highly placed members of Swedish Society-as well as shocking details about Salander's past. He is desperate to get to her before she is cornered-but no one can find her anywhere.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fight fire with fire, September 5, 2010

By 

T. A. Mason "Heaping Coals of Kindness" (Lake Jackson, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Girl Who Played With Fire (English subtitled) (Amazon Instant Video)

Whoever edited the Millennium Trilogy into film is a genius. Stieg Larsson was a good author and his novels are captivating, but he can detail an idea to death. Whereas the screen writer for the films has taken pages, even chapters of Larsson's minutia and delivered the meaning and impact of Stig's over description in a raised eyebrow, a word or a deceptively simple scene. The Girl Who Played With Fire is a bridge between Dragon Tattoo and Hornet's Nest, yet the screen writer has delivered a film that stands on its own. I've read the books and thoroughly enjoyed the films. My husband has not read the books and was impressed by the films. We have seen Dragon Tattoo three times and Fire twice at the theater and can't wait for Hornet's Nest to come out this fall. Although this is a non English film, I found the captioning to be very easy to follow and it did not detract from enjoying the movie. Watch Dragon Tattoo first, then enjoy Fire and the brilliant acting of Noomi Rapace, this woman is a stunner and is perfect in the role of Lisbet Salander. See it.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Powerful sequel to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, August 21, 2010

By 

Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Girl Who Played With Fire (DVD)

This is the second movie out of the Millennium Trilogy. Middle movies often have difficulties, since they end "in media res." That, of course, describes the second of the three works on Stieg Larsson's trilogy. However, this movie is still quite effective on its own merits.

For one thing, the character of Lisbeth Salander has been developed. And she is the focal point of this movie. Noomi Rapace continues her splendid acting in the role. She is not as tiny as the character described in the book (four feet eleven inches tall and about ninety pounds), but she seems to me to capture the character of Salander. She is coldly efficient when taking on people whom she deems "bad" or not leaving her in peace or men who hate women. That is exemplified here in her treatment of one of the "johns" who had been identified by a team--Dag and Mia (boyfriend-girlfriend)--who were in their separate ways examining sex trafficking in Sweden. And of her sanguinary meeting with the two bikers of Sweden's Hell's Angels "wannabes."

The story itself focuses on the murder of Dag and Mia--and of lawyer Bjurman, who was Salander's "guardian." She had been deemed incompetent many years before and was still caught in the system. When her former guardian, Palmgren, was felled by a stroke, Bjurman took over. He was hardly an impartial overseer. In the first movie, Salander had "neutralized" Bjurman. She had a powerful motive to kill him. Indeed, in the end, with her fingerprints on the gun that had killed all three people, she became wanted as the killer.

The book moves ahead from that premise. Her former lover and friend, Mickael Blomkvist, believes her to be innocent and sets out to try to find the real killer. They had not seen one another for a year and their communication is limited to e-mail and other indirect communication.

The movie speeds forward (it hardly seems to be over two hours long) to her inevitable confrontation with her father and a blonde giant who feels no pain (her taser has little effect on him). Her poignant e-mail message to Blomkvist as she headed off to face her father is powerful: "Thank you for being my friend." She "comes back" from the dead, having been severely wounded and left for dead. Her survival is somewhat improbable, but the touching meeting between her and Blomkvist at the end is powerful indeed. Palmgren is never identified as her former guardian (if you have read the books, you know who he is). This movie is closer to the book than the first, but that is not a matter of importance for either. They are both true to the spirit of the book and the key characters. A minor annoyance: At times the English subtitles are hard to read, as they are in light shading and when the screen is light, too, it's a bit tough to read--but, not a major issue.

The ending is powerful, leaving us to wonder what is to be the fate of Lisbeth and how the conspiracy to imprison her because of her father's value to the secret service of Sweden is to end. A worthy sequel to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A girl full of fire, October 8, 2010

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Girl Who Played With Fire (English subtitled) (Amazon Instant Video)

The late Stieg Larsson centered his Millennium Trilogy around cruelty towards women -- and the movie adaptations don't hold back either.

The second movie of the trilogy, "The Girl Who Played With Fire," is a tightly wound thriller that is almost as good as the first. It lacks some of the raw, wild, dark energy, but it tangles together some razor-sharp social commentary (sex trafficking) with car chases and conspiracies. Best of all, it still has brilliant performances by Michael Nyqvist and Noome Rapace.

A year after "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," Millennium magazine has a new reporter -- Dag Svensson (Hans Christian Thulin) and his girlfriend are doing reports on sex trafficking and prostitution. But then Mikael (Nyqvist) finds both of them dead in their apartment, and Nils Bjurman (Peter Andersson) -- the cruel "guardian" who raped Lisbeth -- has been brutally shot in the head.

Since Lisbeth (Rapace) just returned to Stockholm (and threatened to shoot Bjurman), she becomes the No. 1 suspect in all three murders. Even though, y'know, she had no motive for two of them.

Of course, Mikael doesn't believe that she did it -- especially since a hostile blond giant is going around beating up anyone (a trainer, a casual girlfriend) who might know Lisbeth's whereabouts. As Lisbeth goes on her own dark mission, she tells Mikael that he should look for someone named "Zala." But when Mikael starts hunting for information on this mystery man, he also learns more about Lisbeth's dark past...

Lisbeth Salander was something of a mystery in "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" -- we knew she was troubled, a brilliant hacker, and had been in a psych ward. But "The Girl Who Played With Fire" rips away all that mystery and shows us where Lisbeth Salander came from, and how she became a lonely, punky avenging angel. It's pretty nasty, and it ends on a cliffhanger (for crying out loud!).

The biggest problem with this story is that it lacks the raw, primal energy that made the first movie so vibrant. But it's still a tightly-wound thriller with plenty of unpolished fighting, bloody violence, and some moments of bleak humor (Lisbeth "renting" a car after shoving the clerk in a locker). The most disturbing parts are undeniably the flashbacks to Lisbeth's past, both with her family and in a psych ward (depicted in a surreal, blurry-white nightmare).

And it's all wound around more unpleasant aspects of modern Swedish society, centering on cruelty towards women -- sex trafficking in a modern country, and the evil "Zala's" ability to get away with anything he wanted.

And while Nyqvist does a good job here, the real spotlight here is on Noome Rapace. This woman is brilliant -- all lean wildcat energy, haunted eyes and half-hidden pain. While Lisbeth seems to have healed a little from her past experiences (she seems more open and friendly), there's still a river of darkness flowing just under the surface, and Rapace does a particularly good job when Lisbeth goes a-hunting for the bad guys.

"The Girl Who Played With Fire" doesn't have the spark of the first movie, but it still has an electric brilliance and scathing social exploration. Too bad we have to wait so long for the finale!