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Zodiac | 
 enlarge | Director: David Fincher
Actors: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $6.39
You Save: $8.59 (57%)
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Rating:  233 reviews
Sales Rank: 154470
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 157
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: 7904323
UPC: 032429043238
EAN: 0032429043238
ASIN: B001AGNMJE
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: September 9, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Most orders shipped within 24 hours. All items include original artwork and packaging. We ship FIRST CLASS International/Domestic for single disc orders. Satisfaction Guaranteed!
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Product Description
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/09/2008 Run time: 157 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
Closer in spirit to a police procedural than a gory serial-killer flick, David Fincher's Zodiac provides a sleek, armrest-gripping re-invention of the crime film. It surveys the investigation of the Zodiac killings that terrorized the San Francisco Bay area in the late -60-early -70s; Zodiac not only killed people, but cultivated a Jack the Ripper aura by sending icky letters to the newspapers and daring readers to solve coded messages. But the film's focus isn't on the killer. We follow the reporters and detectives whose lives are taken over by the case, notably an addictive crime writer (a sartorially splendid Robert Downey Jr.), an awkward editorial cartoonist (Jake Gyllenhaal), and a hard-working cop (Mark Ruffalo). Fincher and his brilliant cinematographer Harris Savides are deft at capturing the period feel of the city, without laying on the seventies kitsch, and James Vanderbilt's script doles out its big moments to major and minor characters alike. Fincher's confidence is infectious; the movie glides through its myriad details with such dexterity that even the blind alleys and red herrings seem essential. The well-chosen cast includes unexpected people popping up all over: Anthony Edwards as a lunch-bucket homicide cop; Charles Fleischer as a mysterious suspect; Elias Koteas and Donal Logue as small-town policemen whose districts are hit by Zodiac; Chloe Sevigny as Gyllenhaal's sweet-natured wife; Brian Cox as the media-friendly lawyer Melvin Belli, so famous he once appeared on Star Trek; and the mighty John Carroll Lynch, as a supremely creepy suspect. The film is based on non-fiction books by Robert Graysmith (he's portrayed by Gyllenhaal), although Fincher and co. did extensive research on their own. The result is a propulsive whodunit without (thus far) an ending, but the uncertainty makes the film even more intriguing. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 228 more reviews...
 "Titwillo, Titwillo" December 16, 2008
As a person who was mesmerized by Robert Greysmith's book, I did not think any movie production based on the same events could compare. I was wrong. This is a wonderful movie, if you like true crime productions, and mind boggling even if you don't. As a young Army wife who took a two week TDY to SF, I found myself staying in an el cheapo motel right next to The Presidio where Zodiac, who was still active, had done some of his most heineous handiwork. I was frightened and always looking over my shoulder. As a true crime buff, I had stayed aprised of his activities. I have even visited the Zodiac website many times since, where you can hear a recording of a Zodiac suspect's actual voice. Chilling. Who was the Zodiac? Their best canditate has been cleared by DNA lab results of sealing one of the envelopes with his own saliva. He was a clever guy, however and possibly tricked another person into sealing it for him before he put the address to the SF Police dept on it. Police science will most probably give us the answer some day. Jake Gyllenhaal as Greysmith is superb, as are the scenes that try to help us get inside the mind of the killer and the man obsessed with catching him.
 Dear Editor, This is the Zodiac Speaking December 5, 2008
The worldview of Director David Fichner has always been a dour and dark one. From his first big splash of the wildly underrated Alien 3 and the the genre redefining Se7en, he approaches the noir of details like few others. However, this attention to the underbelly takes a toll on "Zodiac," a serial killer film that spends more time on the soul killing of the killer's trackers than on the killer itself.
The movie is basically a two-parter, with the first detailing real-life San Francisco Chronicle reporter Paul Avery (an animatedly off-center Robert Downey Jr, giving early glimpses at his soon to exlpode comeback), an SF Homicide Detective David Toschi (Mark Ruffalo) and the killer as he picks off his victims in a rather non-sensationalist manner. The victims pile up and the city is thrown into paranoia, Avery and Toschi become obsessed with catching this modern-day Jack The Ripper. When he stays constantly one step ahead of capture and cunningly taunts his pursuers, everyone involved begins to spiral down. Once Avery suspects he is in the killer's cross-hairs, he no longer can report and soon becomes another kind of victim.
That's when "Zodiac" lurches into a lumbering and poorly paced second half. Editorial Cartoonist and real-life author of this film's source book, Zodiac, Robert Graysmith becomes inexplicably obsessed with the killer and begins to pick up where everyone else gave up. The problem is that Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) was just incidental to the first half of the film, and he was more annoying than purposeful. When he blossoms into this full-blown super-snoop, it barely seems plausible. And given that almost all the main characters from the first 90 minutes have disintegrated in their failure to apprehend Zodiac, the movie becomes Gyllenhaal's to carry.
As Graysmith's obsession to the case becomes more neurotic, freneticism takes over and paranoid raves/rants/red herrings begin to overwhelm the character and the movie. Gyllenhaal pounding on Detective Toschi's window at midnight in the pouring rain was almost cringe inducing, as was the claustrophobic basement scene with the former film-house owner. Graysmith, like the others chasing The Zodiac ahead of him, soon gets pulled into the vortex with unsavory results. Yet in the first part of the film, there were multiple people getting torn apart in this investigative black hole, making "Zodiac" palpable. Graysmith's trip down the cliff is tedious and, frankly, unbelievable.
While the grim circumstances are played to a fair historical accuracy and with Fichner's customery cool manner, a little judicious editing might have trimmed this to a more palatable film. There are too many detours and sidelines, making "Zodiac" something close to a documentary than a drama, which leaves you without any good guys or bad guys. Towards the end, I just wanted Graysmith to STFU and finish his book, and couldn't even root for the anti-hero suspect (a creepy John Carroll Lynch), because anyone worth cheering for was now soul-dead. The final credit postlogue told the story of just how deeply the players were all affected, but "Zodiac" is primarily about the victims the murderer let live; Toschi, Avery and Graysmith, and how he killed them all the same.
GOOD STORY, SLOW MOVIE November 28, 2008
3 1/2 STARS - I remember the news reports when I was a kid growing up in Sacramento and remember how uptight and worried my parents and others were. When I watched this movie I was so into the story but the movie seemed to be a bit boring and slow. At least they did not HOLLYWOOD it up too much and add unreal blow um up action scenes. True real life really is boring so this movie was about right on. I watched it and dug it but I can't see watching it again...maybe in a couple years i'll see it again.
I say watch it and see what you think. It is good enough to watch at least once.
Overly long but a decent flick October 27, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
There was no way Zodiac needed to be as long as it was. It dragged not long into it, though I really tried to embrace this film. It is a very dry type of film with a lot of different timelines and confusing aspects to keep track of. There is almost too much going on, but at the same time, there really is no actual action. There is some suspence and mystery, but for a film and true life event where there was no acual ending, it didn't really matter. There is alot of facts, but also alot of speculation and fabrication going on with this movie.
The story of the Zodiac killer is actually quite interesting but again, since the case was never really solved, and with the movie not really doing anything except revisiting that span of time, the movie feels a tad wasted.
The acting is really the redeaming quality of this film, with everyone doing a fantastic and believable job, especially Robert Downey Jr and Jake Gyllenhaal. They really worked well onscreen. However, a major fact remains that their respective characters were actually never even friends in real life. According to imdb, their relationship was 'fictionalized for the film'.
Perhaps this film needs more than one viewing to really appreciate it and to understand the key players and the facts about the crimes, but I don't think I can sit through almost 2 and a half hours again of boring dialogue.
Zodiac Revealed October 11, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Zodiac (Two-Disc Director's Cut) [HD DVD]
This review refers to HD-DVD 2-disc edition set. Movie is sort of documentary type trying to accurately portray Zodiac killings from late '60s. It is pretty long at 2:42 minutes and somewhat boring. Killings occur within first hour while speculation and bogus theories continue until the end. Movie is based on the book Zodiac written by Robert Graysmith, cartoonist who worked at the time of killings at SF Chronicle newspaper. His findings about Zodiac are completely bogus pointing into wrong direction. After his book was published, police compared handwriting, DNA sample and fingerprints with Graysmith's main suspect Arthur Leigh Allen and conclusively find that he wasn't Zodiac.
Regardless of Graysmith's hallucinations, Fincher's movie is really good. Excellent directing not leaving a single detail untouched with gorgeous HD picture and very nice special effects that brought 70's back to the screen in fullest are worth watching. Thanks to being based on poorly written book I wouldn't give this movie more than 3 stars but the second disc with 3 and a half hours of extras including interviews with two survivors of Zodiac killings and other real life participants make this set superb recap of Zodiac killings worth watching for everyone interested in serial killers. That is why I gave 5 stars to this movie.
What people more want to know is who really Zodiac was. There hasn't been offered a single valid theory that would explain his killings and the man behind them. Only four killings were officially assigned as Zodiac's while the rest are unconfirmed.
1. David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: Shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road just within the city limits of Benicia.
2. Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: Shot on July 4, 1969, at the Blue Rock Springs Golf Course parking lot on the outskirts of Vallejo; Darlene was DOA at Kaiser Foundation Hospital, while Michael survived.
3. Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: Stabbed on September 27, 1969 at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived six stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died of her injuries two days later.
4. Paul Lee Stine, 29: Shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in Presidio Heights in San Francisco.
The key of finding Zodiac is the fourth killing where pattern of killing love couples in rural areas around San Francisco has been broken. I made some research and find out that fourth killing occurred exactly one year after shooting and killing of Michael Bunch, 19-year-old anti-war serviceman while trying to escape Presidio military base. He was confined for being AWOL and imprisoned together with other anti-war servicemen. It is strange that no one noticed this detail. Who is the killer and why?
Killer called himself Zodiac which is a circular or elliptical diagram representing this belt, and usually containing pictures of the animals, human figures, etc., that are associated with the constellations and signs. Duration of one cycle is one year and if you check out his killings you will see that all of them happened between October 11th, 1968 and October 11th, 1969. Motive is most obviously revenge for Bunch's killing and culprit according to Zodiac is society itself. He is most likely left-wing anti-war radical who wanted to change society by killings and terror. From details released by the police he was a GI probably working at Presidio or other military base. The best search for him would be to question all anti-war GIs stationed in San Francisco at that time, particularly group known as Nine4Peace that used to protest by chaining themselves to priests in churches in San Francisco Area in July of 1968.
Sign used by Zodiac is actually Celtic cross which might explain why he used it if we know that GIs protested at churches. It has nothing to do with Zodiac brand of watches and represents sun cross. Zodiac was clearly inspired by religion and mythology in his first deciphered letter when he mentioned his victims becoming his slaves to serve him in paradise. The most difficult part is how did he choose his killing dates? These dates actually reveal true message of Zodiac while cyphered letters were just a decoy.
Zodiac message is Nine4Justice Presidio. First killings were under Sagittarius which is ninth sign of Zodiac, second one were under Cancer which is fourth sign of Zodiac, third one were under Libra which is number seven but stands for justice and final killing was on the anniversary of killing of Michael Bunch. It happened on Presidio Heights and then after killing he went straight to Presidio military base.
If you examine mythology of these astral signs you can find out that Sagittarius is associated with Satyr who represents sex drive. That's why he killed love couples in the first place. Cancer is associated with hydra which represents corrupt society that needs to be cut and sealed by fire to prevent it from further corruption. That's why he kills not talk or try to convince others in his ideas. Libra as already mentioned represents justice. Some also wondered about why Zodiac uses two stamps. All numbers divided by 2 are called even. Since he is done all those killings as a revenge to get EVEN for killing of Michael Bunch then it makes perfect sense to use two stamps to point this out.
I intentionally wrote this review on 40th anniversary of killing of Michael Bunch that started Zodiac killings. I sincerely hope that he will be caught or if dead, his identity revealed to bring back some peace to the victims of his gruesome killings.
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