five things, 11.4.10.

Five non-Halloween related things I’ve been enjoying recently.

1. Dark City

This is a film I’d intended to see for some time. When detractors kept saying Inception was basically a remake of Dark City that pretended not to be, it moved higher up my queue. I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

This movie is pretty fantastic. A sci-fi noir story where a man wakes up in a strange city where it is always night and people are having memory issues. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that when he wakes up he’s in a hotel bathtub, there is a dead hooker in the other room, and he has no memory whatsoever.

The idea that Inception ripped this movie off is stupid. The similarities here aren’t any more pronounced than they would be if you compared any other films in the same genre or subgenre, to be honest there is probably even less. Yet, have a movie where reality isn’t exactly what it seems and memories are being stolen and you must be a straight copycat right? The Matrix is actually influenced by this film far, far more than Inception was. Also, David Goyer was one of the writers for Dark City and he is a friend and collaborator with Chris Nolan, so if he ripped it off completely I’m surprised Goyer never said anything. Although, their friendship is most probably responsible for the fact that they both write about similar themes.

The film does find a creative way to tell a noir story with totally different rules, much the way Inception did the same thing to create a completely different sort of heist film.

But anyway, Dark City really was quite good. As I said, lots of common themes and ideas with The Matrix, but much, much smarter. Also, the noir aspect of the whole thing was delightful. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out. If you have, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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2. Fable III

The first game from my ‘ten things’ video game post to be released, and I even got to pre-order it. Yay!

Nothing deep or profound, just a fun story played out through silly, enjoyable gameplay. Fun times.

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3. RED

I like good action movies, I just have a really small pool of action films that I actually consider ‘good.’ I’ll never even bother seeing films like The Expendables, or The Transporter: Parts 1-1,000, or anything that feels remotely like those films.

It’s sad that there are so few films from this genre that I like, because I have such a great time watching the ones that, to use a decidedly non-action phrase, tickle my fancy. What is a fancy anyway? Do I actually have a one?

Anyway, RED is definitely in the category of action films, or action comedies, that I really enjoyed. Great cast, fun uses of the genre standards, certainly nothing awe-inspiring, but for the genre, it’s smart, funny, and sharp. Plus, it has the wonderfully sexy Mary-Louise Parker.

If you’re looking for a fun way to spend two hours, you could do a whole lot worse.

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4. The Social Network

The Social Network is a brilliant film. The acting is impeccable, the direction is really tight all the way through, and screen-writing doesn’t get better than this. In the words of Josué Blanco, “God, I love Aaron Sorkin.”

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5. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I should probably dedicate an entire ‘Graphic Content’ post to this once I’ve read the whole series, because this shit is for real.

The movie adaptation was a special kind of horrid in literally every way imaginable, and this is made all the worse now that I’ve read the first volume of the graphic novels. Alan Moore is a fucking genius. An homage/satire/commentary on Victorian literature and culture, Moore takes public domain literary figures and imagines a steam punk sort of alternate version of Victorian London in which Alan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Mina Harker, The Invisible Man, and Dr. Jekyll are assembled to thwart a plan which threatens all of England. The literary references abound, I spent probably four times as much time on the internet looking up what all the more vague references meant than I spent simply reading the book. I mention that because it was really fun, not because I’m complaining.

I can’t wait to get my greedy little hands on volume two!