The appeal of late Swedish author Steig Larsson’s Millennium trilogy of mystery novels can be summed up in the new title given to the first book by its English-language publishers: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Larsson’s plotting and writing? Compelling in parts but mostly pedestrian verging on plodding. The character of Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading investigative journalist? Serviceable but bland.

No, the real drawcard is Lisbeth Salander, one of the more intriguing figures I’ve encountered in recent crime fiction.

Not only is the complex and acute computer hacker extraordinaire the smartest person in any room she enters, she’s also someone who neither forgives nor forgets. All of which makes her compulsively watchable.

The magnetism of the character is such that Hollywood snapped up the rights to the Millennium trilogy, even though the three novels had already brought to the screen in Sweden, with Noomi Rapace delivering a strong, rigourous performance as Salander.

The American version, however, has its own share of heavy hitters on both sides of the camera, such as Schindler’s List screenwriter Steven Zaillian, Social Network director David Fincher and Daniel Craig playing Blomkvist.

But the real coup of Fincher’s Dragon Tattoo is the casting of little-known actress Rooney Mara as Salander.

Best remembered for her fine work in a handful of Social Network scenes, Mara is all but unrecognisable here.

The kind you don't take home to Mother

But the physical transformation pales in comparison to the tough, verging on impenetrable psychology she conveys – her performance is all the more compelling for the way she makes Salander both dangerous and vulnerable.

And she’s well-complemented by Craig, who sheds his 007 persona to make Blomkvist a convincingly genuine character, capable and driven but also impulsive and at times powerless.

The two actors make a fine team, as do the two characters, who come together to investigate a decades-old mystery involving the disappearance of a wealthy industrialist’s young niece, their efforts slowly uncovering a snake pit of sexual abuse and serial murder.

Even with Zaillian streamlining and finessing Larsson’s novel and Fincher adding his trademark icy precision and underlying sense of pain, danger and damage (especially in the arresting opening credits sequence), the lurid, pulpy roots of Larsson’s source material remain evident.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. There’s always room for a gritty (and occasionally unsettling and upsetting) thriller with a slick surface, and that’s definitely what The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo delivers.

No one scales a skyscraper in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. No one walks coolly away from an explosion. Barely a gunshot is fired.

However, despite all this, or maybe because of it, this adaptation of John le Carre’s celebrated tale of espionage and intrigue is a bracing and gripping thriller, a compelling counterpoint to the secret agent yarns featuring the likes of Bond and Bourne.

Le Carre’s novel, inspired and informed by his own time in the spy game, has been brought to the screen once before, and the 1979 BBC miniseries that starred Alec Guinness as veteran intelligence agent George Smiley was such a quietly and subtly engrossing piece of work that a new version, even three decades on, might have seemed redundant.

But a terrific story like Tinker Tailor is of course open to varying interpretations, and this film does a superb job of not only streamlining the ’70s-era story but deftly exploring new angles and avenues in a way that sheds new light.

It’s top work by screenwriters Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan, and Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson (the justly acclaimed Let the Right One In) brings it to the screen with an understatement and elegance that initially disguises its ever-escalating tension.

And having a high-calibre cast of some of the finest British actors currently working – among them Colin Firth, John Hurt, Inception’s Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch (so good as TV’s Sherlock Holmes) doesn’t hurt either.

First among equals, though, is Gary Oldman, taking on the role of Smiley and tamping down his considerable charisma and entertaining flair for overstatement to convincingly portray a man for whom restraint is a key trait and a vital skill.

The 2012 remake of FACE/OFF took the concept to strange new places

Semi-retired from intelligence agency MI6 (dubbed ‘the Circus’ by those in the know), Smiley is brought back into the fold when it becomes apparent that there’s a traitor in the highest ranks of the organisation.

It’s Smiley’s brief to flush out the mole but it soon becomes evident that the Circus is a tangled web of dubious alliances, hidden agendas and betrayals that go beyond the professional into the personal.

Escapism is not on Tinker Tailor’s mind. This is not a clear-cut, us-versus-them yarn with an ending that puts all things right.

Instead, it’s a tense, thoughtful tale that views love as a vulnerability and trust as a weapon. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy will stick with you for its two-hour running time, and stay with you much longer afterwards.

For a while there, the Muppets were forgotten but not gone.

Sure, they’d pop up on television now and then but their last big-screen outing, Muppets from Space, quickly came and went from cinemas over a decade ago. And their ‘70s and ‘80s Muppet Show heyday seemed to be fading more and more into pop-culture history.

Everybody loves a comeback, though, right? And surely characters as once beloved as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear have earned a second stint in the spotlight after all the joy they’ve provided…right?

Let’s face it, there’s always a chance that a new generation isn’t going to embrace the icons of yesteryear. And what’s so clever about the new movie The Muppets is that it not only recognises that this could be the case, it makes it a pivotal plot point.

Because if there’s something everybody loves more than a comeback, it’s an underdog making a comeback.

Don’t be misled, though, because The Muppets does a lot more than shamelessly cater to the goodwill of the characters’ fans (although let’s be honest, it does do that a bit). It’s a bright, breezy musical comedy that provides plenty of laughs and one or two happy tears.

*sniff*

The story follows average guy Gary (How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel, who also co-wrote the screenplay), his best gal Mary (Amy Adams) and his brother Walter – who just happens to be a Muppet – as they travel together to Hollywood.

A mega-fan of The Muppet Show, Walter is eager to do one thing in Hollywood: visit the studio where the Muppet magic was created.

He discovers to his horror, though, that their studio is empty, run-down and on the verge of being sold to evil tycoon Tex Richman (Chris Cooper).

Without $10 million to keep it from falling into Richman’s mitts, the history of the Muppets will be, well, history. But how to come up with the cash? Why, round up the old gang and put on a show, of course!

The crew behind the camera (including Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, whose zingy, catchy songs make him this movie’s MVP) wisely recognise that nostalgia will only get them so far.

So they’ve jam-packed The Muppets with sly celebrity cameos and wry, wisecracking humour (which is actually in keeping with the original Muppets vibe) as well as plenty of nods to Muppet mythology.

Despite what you may heard, this is not Guy Davis and Anthony Morris at a media screening.

The flesh-and-blood cast is great – there are few better at playing the big-hearted galoot than Segel, the only way Adams could be more adorable is if she carried a basket of puppies everywhere she went and Cooper…well, Chris Cooper has a musical number that must be seen to be believed.

Of course, there’s just as much personality in the performance of Kermit, Miss Piggy and their felt-covered friends. It’s nice to have them back.

In his wonderful documentary A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (something any film lover should track down and watch immediately), one idea the great filmmaker discusses is ‘the director as smuggler’.

By this, Scorsese means filmmakers stealthily sneaking their own personal obsessions and idiosyncratic ideas into seemingly conventional movies.

For most of his own brilliant career, the director of Taxi Driver, GoodFellas and The Departed hasn’t really needed to be much of a smuggler – he’s a skilled and passionate enough artist that he’s been able to reconcile his individual voice with the desires of the audience.

But even on the verge of his seventies, Scorsese is still demonstrating that he has a trick or two up his sleeve.

Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Hugo is probably the first film in his dynamic, sometimes violent and confronting body of work that could be called family-friendly.

And while it’s not necessarily a conventional kids’ movie, it’s still pretty impressive (and impressively sly) that Scorsese has been able to weave in a very persuasive argument for one of his passions, the preservation and restoration of classic films.

Even better, he does it in such a way, making it a central part of a truly involving and touching story, that he may convert many viewers to the cause while enthralling and entertaining them.

Transporting the audience to 1930s Paris with one long, gorgeous shot, Hugo introduces its title character, a young orphan played by Asa Butterfield, whose expressive blue eyes say as much as any line of dialogue ever could.

That said, he does look disturbingly like a little Chris Lilley, doesn't he?

Living behind the train station clocks, Hugo spends his days avoiding the local cop (an ingeniously funny Sacha Baron Cohen) and scavenging parts for an incomplete ‘mechanical man’, the only memento he has of his late father.

His search for bits and pieces leads him to an ill-tempered old man (Ben Kingsley, giving a rich and complex performance) and his precocious young niece (Chloe Grace Moretz, effortlessly charming), both of whom hold keys to unraveling the mystery of the mechanical man.

She should get an Oscar for her delivery of the line "Don't you LIKE books?" Adorable!

It’s a mystery that involves the old man’s glorious but sad past, and Hugo presents it as a time of magical invention, a time when dreams could literally come true.

What’s more, Scorsese’s joy in sharing the wonders of this era with the audience is infectious.

Hugo is a movie with so much to give. Visually it’s dazzling (it’s Scorsese’s first venture into 3D, and he revels in it), thematically it’s engaging, emotionally it’s close to overflowing. It’s a marvel.

If you’re at all interested in The Skin I Live In, the latest offering from acclaimed Spanish filmmaker and agent provocateur Pedro Almodovar, you might want to skip this story. Or at the very least put it aside until you’ve caught the movie. Because while enjoyment of The Skin I Live In isn’t dependant on ignorance of a primary plot development involving a central character, it may help if you know as little as possible prior to taking your seat in the cinema. Still here? Okay then, I’ll tread as carefully as possible.

At the core of The Skin I Live In is the unusual relationship between plastic surgeon Dr Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas, working with his Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down director for the first time in 20 years) and Vera Cruz (Elena Anaya), the beautiful woman kept captive in the doctor’s home. Vera is seemingly the very image of Dr Ledgard’s dead wife but there’s a lot more to Vera’s identity and appearance than just the surgeon’s experiments with artificial skin. A lot more.

Vera is a tough role, multi-layered and multi-faceted, and Almodovar had Anaya in mind for years while he was adapting French author Thierry Jonquet’s novel Mygale (a.k.a. Tarantula) into The Skin I Live In. While Anaya has become well-known in her native Spain, throughout Europe and internationally for her performances in films like Sex and Lucia and Room in Rome (or her appearance in the video for Justin Timberlake’s ‘SexyBack’!), she’d only worked with Almodovar once before, having had a small supporting role in his 2002 film Talk to Her.

Yes, she was also in Van Helsing. Everyone makes one or two mistakes

“I had a panic attack of excitement and fear…but nice fear,” says Anaya when she first heard that she’d become the filmmaker’s latest muse. (Very nicely, she gently corrected my pronunciation of Almodovar – the emphasis is on the ‘doh’.) “Then I met with him and he explained the story to me, and I was so impressed. Later on, I read the script and that impression just grew and grew. This film stays with you while you digest it. He offered me such a beautiful and complex role, and it was an incredible opportunity to enjoy and to give the most of myself.”

While Vera initially appears to be the victim, Anaya views her imprisoned character as “a strong person that really chose to live”, adding that the nature of Vera’s identity means she was playing one role inside of another. “Identity is something that we sometimes need to take care of and feed, to not die,” she says. “I played this role as someone who was held captive inside another person’s skin. She’s in an artificial skin that doesn’t belong to her, with a face that doesn’t belong to her. She says barely anything but feels a lot, and she has to be very careful about the emotions she shows.”

Anaya is clearly an admirer of Almodovar, admitting that she happily shaped her performance to fit his vision of Vera. “There’s a certain atmosphere that always happens on any set,” she says. “If a director is very into it, then the crew follows even if they don’t know it. And this is very true with Pedro. People respect him so much. When he arrives on set, people whisper ‘Oh, Pedro has arrived…’ And Pedro explained to me that by taking on this role, there will be a kind of no return. My character lives that journey of not being able to return and in a way I do too. This character has changed my life. I have a beautiful family, but it’s so wonderful to also be a part of his family.”

If an hour or so after the end of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, you’re sitting having a coffee or driving home and you suddenly realise you can recall next to nothing about the movie you’ve just watched, don’t be alarmed.

Because something like this sequel to the 2009 blockbuster that refashioned Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary literary detective as a sharp-witted sleuth equally at home cracking skulls as he was cracking cases isn’t built to last.

No, it’s meant to be enjoyed in the darkness of the cinema and then forgotten. Oh, it might be remembered fondly when it pops up on the telly in a few years but it’s doubtful this’ll linger too long in the memory once the credits have rolled.

Not that there’s anyone necessarily wrong with that. Not everything is designed to have enduring appeal. Some movies are here for a good time, not a long time, and A Game of Shadows provides precisely that.

Reuniting stars Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law (as Holmes and his grouchy but loyal offsider Dr Watson) and director Guy Ritchie, A Game of Shadows sees the Victorian-era duo applying their detection skills to a fiendish plot that will pit the most powerful nations against one another in an unprecedented “world war”.

Aided by gypsy fortune teller Simza (Noomi Rapace, the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Holmes and Watson investigate a series of terror attacks throughout Europe and find that all the evidence points to one mastermind, Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris), “the Napoleon of crime”.

Unburdened by mercy or morality, Moriarty is every bit Holmes’ equal in terms of intellect. What’s more, he’s ruthless in seeing his plans for global conflict come to fruition.

Of course, that’s really just the set-up for all manner of scrapes, vividly and energetically staged by Ritchie with his usual flair, enthusiasm and technical trickery.

Frankly, though, the chemistry between Downey, Jr and Law, the former’s jaunty irreverence nicely complementing the latter’s sensible exasperation, really gives these movies their kick.

And the casting of the underrated Harris as Holmes’ nemesis is a masterstroke. Subtly conveying a seething contempt and arrogance, he’s a blackly brilliant adversary for our smarty-pants hero.

What exactly, though?

Was the bar set so low that the fifth instalment in a seemingly played-out franchise won acclaim simply by being a competent crowd-pleaser with some ludicrously fun elements?

Or was the reverse the case? Had the overall standard of cinema been lifted to such a degree that even a Fast & Furious movie had a legitimate shot at glory?

(By the way, this is the section where you pause to laugh hysterically at the idea of a spot on my top 10 list being considered in any way glorious.)

Of course, it could be neither of those things. It could be just a random accident that a Vin Diesel movie provided more excitement and enjoyment than many other big-ticket big-screen items this past year.

Or it could just be an indication of my ever-dubious taste. You make the call. (Hey, at least I’m not making a case for the quality of Transformers: Dark of the Moon!)

Either way, here are 10 movies – listed in alphabetical order – that I appreciated and admired over the last 12 months. Read on as I try valiantly to explain myself.

127 HOURS

Even trapped under a boulder, Franco found time for yet another multimedia project

Danny Boyle’s best movies put you smack-bang in the midst of the story’s environment or, even better, in the heart, mind and skin of the central character. His telling of the true-life ordeal of daredevil outdoorsman Aron Ralston, forced to make a do-or-die decision when trapped beneath a boulder in the desert, does both with astonishing vividness and clarity, and the filmmaker is aided immeasurably by James Franco, whose antic energy and underlying soulfulness has never been more effective.

BLACK SWAN

Making a heightened psychosexual melodrama about artistic expression and personal identity and coming this close to absolute hysteria without quite toppling over the edge…well, that’s not as easy as it looks, you know. Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman, both appropriately going all-out in their pursuit of excellence, pulled it off with this edgy, elevated dance with the dark side.

BRIDESMAIDS

Ladies, please, there's enough of me to go around

Blow for blow, this comedy about a woman trying to make her best friend’s wedding perfect but constantly stymied by her own insecurities and the passive-aggressive efforts of the bride’s new BFF was the funniest of the year. But Bridesmaids’ big heart, evident in the tentative romance between heartbroken Kristen Wiig and nice-guy cop Chris O’Dowd, gave this rude, raucous romp sweetness and soul that was unexpected but wholly welcome.

DRIVE

Wow, Bruce Willis is looking great these days

Confidence is a key trait in a filmmaker, confidence that their approach and their artistic decisions, however unusual, will result in something special, something unique. Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn has it in spades, along with a distinctive voice that helps transform his projects into works of pop-art par excellence. With a boldly blank and enigmatic Ryan Gosling behind the wheel of this moody, brutal getaway-driver thriller, Drive was his most accessible and most exhilarating to date.

HOW DO YOU KNOW

Even funnier and sweeter in Hungarian!

A romantic comedy-drama that’s both wisecracking and wise…well, that’s an increasingly rare sighting in mainstream cinema these days, especially when most rom-coms seem to offer little more than shallow platitudes or a self-impressed sense of humour. James L. Brooks’ film about two people who meet on the worst day of their respective lives and gradually, hesitantly fall for one another was uneven, sure, but when it got it right, it was clever, eloquent and touching.

INSIDE JOB

This well-to-do young gent has no time for you or your pinko documentary

Even someone as lazy resistant to activism as myself can’t help but be frustrated by the way the modern economic system seems hell-bent on widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots. For a primer into what has helped create and expand this chasm, may I recommend Charles Ferguson’s documentary, which provides an articulate and clear-eyed look at how the deck was stacked in favour of those already holding a winning hand. (By the way, you might also want to check out Ferguson’s No End in Sight, an Iraq War documentary that acts as an interesting companion piece.)

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

“I’m having an insight,” declared Gil (Owen Wilson, great), the Woody Allen stand-in in Allen’s latest film, quickly adding “it’s a minor one”. Minor or not, it doesn’t matter – Allen’s scintillating soufflé about a modern-day novelist rubbing shoulders with the legends of art and literature in ‘20s Paris was his finest comedy in years, and it had some surprisingly wise things to say about nostalgia as sweet relief, addictive narcotic and great inspiration.

RANGO

Now that's acting

I’m hard-pressed to think what tickled me more – this trippy, eccentric animated western with beautiful visuals, a genuinely oddball sense of humour and a plot lifted from Chinatown (of all things!) or that star Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski used their Pirates of the Caribbean clout to smuggle it through the Hollywood system. Maybe the latter, although I really dug the movie.

THE TREE OF LIFE

This poster endorsed by Quentin Tarantino

For mine, the films of Terrence Malick – few and far between as they are – feel more like memories than motion pictures. When I see them, it’s as if the images flickering on the screen were drawn directly from my mind, even though what they depict couldn’t be further from my own experiences. Malick has a way of expressing the collective consciousness unlike any other filmmaker I know, and the ideas and imagery of the sprawling but sharply defined Tree of Life take up residence in the heart and the mind.

TRUE GRIT

The Talented Ms Steinfeld

With the brothers Coen behind the camera and the likes of Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon in front of it, it was unlikely that this second adaptation of Charles Portis’ novel (the first is best remembered for John Wayne’s iconic performance) was ever going to miss the target. What was so happily surprising was how deftly it combined a rousing tale of childhood adventure and a tough, sophisticated morality play in a funny, exciting crowd-pleaser of a western. And how, in the central role, marvellous newcomer Hailee Steinfeld outshone her co-stars.

WARRIOR

No, you tell him his shoulders look weird. Go ahead

What if they made a magnificent mainstream male weepie and no one showed up? That seemed to be the case with Warrior, a story of two generations of men ripped apart by their family’s legacy of violence…and how, ironically enough, that violence just might be the thing that reunites them. There was emotion and emotional complexity to spare here, expertly handled by director Gavin O’Connor and brought to life by a sturdy Joel Edgerton, a simmering Tom Hardy and a brilliant Nick Nolte, bringing such a palpable air of pain and regret to his performance it was at times hard to watch. Of course, if that sounds awfully namby-pamby, it did have dudes beating the hell out of one another. A lot.

He was a character, my dad. But you knew that.

You knew it if you were fortunate to see him on the football field in his heyday in the ‘40s and ‘50s, the blistering pace that earned him the nickname ‘The Geelong Flyer’ distancing him from the opposition.

Or you knew it if caught him on television in the ‘70s and ‘80s, striving to keep order as the straight man to the cheeky Lou Richards and the deadpan Jack Dyer on Seven’s late-night footy show League Teams.

Or you knew it if you bumped into him at a match or at training or simply on the street and shared a quick chat about the form of the current Cats line-up or his memories of his playing and coaching days.

On the field and off, Bob Davis was a character. And he was also a man with character – he had time for everyone and never a bad word to say about anyone.

It’s what I’ll remember about him most of all: his unfailing good nature and good cheer.

I was born after Dad’s football career was over, so my knowledge of his prowess as a player and a coach came to me second-hand.

But as I grew up, it became increasingly apparent to me that his football accomplishments were manifold.

He captained the Geelong Football Club. He was a member of the team which, until recently, had the longest unbroken winning streak in the club’s history. He played in two Premiership sides.

As a player, he represented Victoria and Australia. And when he switched to coaching, he guided Geelong to another Grand Final win.

And I’ll admit it, it was sometimes a little hard to reconcile that amazing list of achievements with the fella with an appreciation for James Bond movies, B.B. King songs and the odd dodgy ‘dad joke’.

If he ever did allude to his glorious career, it was usually with his tongue in his cheek – he was proud of what he’d done but he didn’t see any reason to big-note himself.

There was no need, really, because anyone I ever met who knew of Dad as a footballer, a coach or a media personality made their admiration of the man abundantly clear.

I can only hope that he knew the level of the love his family felt for him as a husband, father and grandfather. In fact, I know he did – it was immense, and it remains so even now.

And that love goes beyond his immediate family to his unofficial but just as devoted family – fans of the Geelong Football Club, followers of Australian Rules football in general.

While we are united in our sadness, I also believe we are united just as much in our love and respect of a man who so wholly earned and deserved them.

Rest in peace, Dad. I love you.

No, I'm not calling it FAST & FURIOUS 5

With Fast & Furious 5 (or to use its original, cooler title, Fast Five), the Fast and the Furious franchise makes the leap from guilty pleasure to straight-up, unabashed pleasure.

Of course, this hotted-up tale of buff dudes, shapely babes, standoffs, showdowns, gunfights, fistfights and – let’s not forget – car chases isn’t going to be for everyone.

But in the last few fast, furious flicks, those involved seem to have struck a crowd-pleasing balance of fast-paced, hard-hitting action and good-natured ridiculousness.

And that reaches an apex in Fast Five, which takes the series in a fun new direction, transforming it from a street-racing saga to a high-octane Ocean’s Eleven.

This meeting of the He-Man Women's Haters Club is hereby called to order

The action picks up where the previous instalment left off, with the prison-bound Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) busted loose by ex-cop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) and Dominic’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster).

High-tailing it to Rio de Janeiro, the crims pull a risky heist that involves stealing sports cars from a moving train. Gosh, how could that possibly go wrong?

When Dom, Brian and Mia are double-crossed by their partners, resulting in the deaths of a few DEA agents, they end up pursued by Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), a hard-core lawman with an “Old Testament” moral code and the physique of a minotaur.

This movie just took a turn for the URST (look it up)

Realising the only way out is to get enough cash to make themselves scarce for good, the crew decides to rob Reyes (Joaquin de Almeida), the crime boss behind the double-cross, of his ill-gotten $100 million fortune.

But even the likes of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker can’t do something like this alone, so they assemble a team made up of cast members from the previous Fast and the Furious films – Matt Schulze from the first, Tyrese Gibson from the second, Sung Kang from the third and Gal Gadot from the fourth.

While Fast Five seems intent on refashioning the franchise as the adventures of a groovy gang of thieves, the movie hasn’t forgotten why the punters show up for these movies.

And director Justin Lin (who helmed the previous two Fast and the Furious movies) keeps things…well, fast and furious, whether the chases are on foot through Rio’s shantytowns or in high-end cars on the city’s highways.

Of course, the drama, dialogue and characterisation is all big, broad and larger than life but it’s done with a winning combination of just enough sincerity and just enough understanding of its own outlandishness.

I mean, this is a movie where musclebound bruisers Diesel and Johnson get into a no-holds-barred brawl that sees them literally smashing through walls. You definitely can’t accuse Fast Five of not giving the fans what they want.