Recommendations of the Week [1/29/12]: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Glee & More

(Image courtesy of Yellow Bird)

It's time for another of my Recommendations of the Week. These recommendations can be something that happened in the past week that I read, watched, participated in, etc., or something coming up in the following week. Feel free to leave your own recommendations in the comments section below.

Jeff Dodge's Recommendations of the Week [January 29]:

Movies:
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Foreign Film-Sweden)

A couple of weeks ago, I recommended The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the original, Swedish version. They captured that book extremely well, and I had a blast watching it. And it was only the second ever movie I've seen where I've had to read the English subtitles throughout (the first for me was The Passion of the Christ).

You may have noticed that I didn't recommend the second movie in this trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire. To be very honest, it didn't live up to the first one. But I'm not surprised by that, because the second book didn't do that either. With the third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, there were many great moments. It definitely was better than the second, but there were still many scenes that weren't all that exciting and didn't draw me in. And I did find a few of those scenes in its movie counterpart.

But as an overall movie, they definitely did a good job. To me, the stand-out scenes were the court scenes, seeing Lisbeth walking in all done up, hear her response to questions (or non-questions, rather) and watching her lawyer provide all the evidence. I also enjoyed the final scene, with her and her half-brother. They did it just like the book (as far as I can recall).

Now I'm looking forward to the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo come out on DVD so I can watch it. I've heard great things about it.

TV Shows:
Glee - "Michael" (Tuesday, 8-9pm, FOX)

If this week's tribute episode was devoted to pretty much any other artist, I might not be recommending it. But I am, because of two words: Michael. Jackson. I mean, really. It's the King of Pop, for crying out loud! I've been looking forward to this episode ever since it was first announced. And even before that, I have wanted them to do an MJ tribute for the longest time, and I am beyond excited that they're actually doing it.

It's been two and a half years since his death. And it's still really hard to imagine. To be honest, I didn't become the fan that I am now until he died. You see, because I am in my early 20's, I've grown up mainly only knowing about him through his issues in his person life, with the trial, accusations and all that. Of course, I was familiar with some of his songs as well as with the Jackson 5. But once he died, that's when I decided to go through and listen to all of his hits (and eventually, the rest of his songs). And now I am a fan. I wrote an opinion piece about all this last summer, which you can read about right HERE.

When you listen to many of his songs, it's amazing to realize that all those are his songs. And when you read about the plot of this Glee episode, it gets me even more excited. Over the last few weeks or so, I've written teaser articles about it over at BuddyTV. A few of them are listed in the links below.

Politics:
Florida Primary (Tuesday)
Nevada Caucus (Saturday)

We've had three states vote so far in this year's Presidential Primary season: Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. And we ended up with three different winners each time. Florida is crucial for the two frontrunners, so I'm really looking forward to seeing the results come in.

Websites:
TV Watch Online (@TVWatchOnline)
Bieber Guy (@Bieber_Guy)
BuddyTV

Jeff Dodge Blog:
Recommendations of the Week [1/22/12]: Smash, Alcatraz & More
Quote of the Week [1/24/12]: Lady Gaga
Photo of the Week [1/25/12]: A Snowman Among Snow
American Idol 11 Week 2: The Best from San Diego / Aspen / Galveston Auditions

Bieber Guy:
Review: My Worlds Acoustic Single - "Pray"

BuddyTV (Articles I've Written):
'Glee': Listen to 'Wanna Be Starting Something' and 'Bad' from Michael Jackson Tribute
'Glee' Video: 'Wanna Be Starting Something' from Michael Jackson Tribute
'Glee' Casts Matt Bomer as Blaine's Older Brother
'Glee' Preview Video: Sebastian Stirs Up Trouble with New Directions in 'Michael'

#1 Recommendation: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Sweden)

Tomorrow (Monday, January 30), my next Bieber Guy review will be online over at my Bieber Guy blog. This week's review will focus on the single from Justin Bieber's Never Say Never: The Remixes, "Never Say Never."

Follow me on Twitter @TheJeffDodge. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, either tweet me, e-mail me or leave a comment below.