In the last month or so, I’ve had a chance to watch a few things that I have found worth the time.
The sequel to the first Thor movie, Thor: The Dark World was a lot of fun. The plot was simple but it gave a lot of chance for interpersonal interactions. Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the man was born to play the part. I’ve read Marvel comics from the mid 70s until the mid 90s and was first introduced to them by a comic, Spider-man and Nightcrawler vs. Jigsaw, that my aunts got my brother (who never read it) and then the Marvel compilations in my school library. I picked up the “Art of” book for the movie since I do love the Asgardian costuming in it.
A man with his own code, a woman dangerous and in danger, plus those willing to prey and profit on every weakness of mankind. Yep, it’s noir and TNT’s new limited series “Mob City” (website launches video of first episode, and sound automatically, annoying but it does play an awesome torch song) delivers the goods. Set in 1947 Los Angeles, this is a lovely period piece full of details. There are gorgeous suits, hats, dresses and cars. We get to see two clubs, the Clover Club for the upper crust and Bunny’s Jungle Club for everyone else, including our protagonist, Joe Teague. Teague is a cop, a good cop, but one who’s halo has more than a few dents, not to mention the tarnish. Bugsy Siegel is the high-level gangster du jour and Mickey Cohen is the gangster that runs LA. Simon Pegg (yes, the fellow from Shaun of the Dead and Paul) plays an amazingly well done American comedian.
Please do watch it if you like dieselpunk and a good story of a black and white man in a gray world.
Another movie with noir in its DNA is Dark City, a very stylish and odd movie. It did “this world isn’t real” before the Matrix did in 1999, beating it by a year. It has Rufus Sewell as the hero, and he also made a great villain in one of my very favorite movies, A Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger.
Last movie to be reviewed is Rango, an animated movie with Johnny Depp as a chameleon who becomes a western hero. I have no idea what the audience for this movie is other than….my husband and I. You have to know a lot about westerns, some about Hunter S. Thompson, and enjoy wonderful animation to really get this movie. It’s really great and really strange.
That’s all. Back soon!
Club Schadenfreude 