Mud - A Tale from the Riverbank

Merry Christmas, everybody.

An excellent film through my LoveFilm subscription, a modern day Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Ellis and his friend Neckbone (Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland) find someone living in an abandoned boat they had hoped to take for themselves.

A story of love, fate and growing up, Matthew McConaughey shines as the troubled and desperate Mud. The plot moves at a brisk pace, the dialogue sounds great, and the supporting characters are well played, especially Reese Witherspoon as Mud's girlfriend and Sam Shepard as his father figure. However, this is really the tale of Ellis as he struggles to figure out a complex and dangerous adult world. Very recommended and I wouldn't be surprised if it's in the running for best film or screenplay at the Oscars.

Now You see Me

Through LoveFilm, this is a nice little caper film. Four illusionists (Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson and Isla Fisher) are brought together to stage the ultimate act of their careers, but a much grander show is being played out.

It's a pretty good film, with a good cast (Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman supporting) and a reasonable plot, if a little preposterous, plus the magic tricks are imaginitive. A good, if undemanding, pizza movie.

Killing Them Softly

Via my LoveFilm subscription, this is an adaption of another novel by the author who wrote The Friends of Eddie Coyle. After two small-time crooks rob a poker game, hitman Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is tasked to sort out the problem.

If Samuel Beckett decided to write the screeplay for a crime film and got Andrei Tarkovsky or Ingmar Bergman to direct it, you'd end up with something like this. I suppose it's meant to be a black comedy, and it is funny in places, but the bulk of it is deadly dull, weary even. In fact, I'd say that it's better to watch the trailer: those are the best bits. Not recommended.

Gangster Squad

As part of my LoveFilm subscription, I watched this merry little cops-and-gangsters tale centred around Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). John O'Mara (Josh Brolin) is tasked by L.A. Police chief Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) to take down Cohen and his gang.

What might otherwise have been a run-of-the-mill, and more violent, Untouchables clone is enhanced by a half-decent plot and good supporting cast. It's Penn and Brolin's movie, though, and you can feel every punch in the final showdown as they take each other apart. A decent, if undemanding, pizza movie.

Mob City, a series just started in the U.S., covers much the same story, but seems to have a more ambiguous tone:

A few years ago, I read (or tried to read: it's fairly heavy going) City of Quartz, a social, political and cultural history of Los Angeles by Mike Davis.

Despite it's style, it's a fascinating book on a fascinating subject.

P99:L8:W11	P241:L35:W1	P225:L18:W6
P163:L11:W13	P60:L26:W9	P130:L2:W2

Oxfam Sunday - Wombats and Dodgy £20's

I went up onto the top deck today to take over from Lautaro (it's a Spanish name, but he's a Scotsman), and he'd left on the CD player a reasonably decent compilation, in which was this catchy number from those lovable scousers, The Wombats:

It was a fairly uneventful shift: people seem to be concentrating on getting presents for Christmas and leaving us except for cards and wrapping paper.
I'd run out of £10's at one point and asked Mark to bring any up. He examined one of the £20's in the till and started holding it up to the light. He explained that he had a conversation with one of the tellers at the bank and he got a few tips on how to spot a fake. I compared the one he was looking at with another and they were almost identical, but there is a watermarked £20 which was slightly off in the "fake" note:

If it is a fake, it's a good one! It passed the marking test with our security pen.

I also got a Penguin Special from John, The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard:

It's about advertising, S185, published in 1960.

Dragonmeet 2013

For a change of pace, I went to the games festival Dragonmeet at Kensington Town Hall. There were the usual stalls, including Chessex, the dice makers:

Yummy!

I indulged a little and bought a card game I've played before, Love Letter by Aldaric Entertainment:

It's a lovely little game, very easy to play.

I only managed to play one game while there, Camelot by Wotan Games. They were introducing the game and it was delightful to play. It's a tile laying game, interior designing for King Arthur.

The designer, Julian, is the chap in the middle.

All-in-all a nice day out.

Parker

No, nothing to do with Thunderbirds.

After being double crossed and left for dead following a daring robbery, thief and robber Parker (Jason Statham) plots his revenge.

What could have been an ingenious crime and revenge thriller is let down by the meandering plot, mediocre direction and Statham's lack of enthusiasm, as well as being outclassed by supporting actors like Nick Nolte, Michael Chiklis and Wendel Pierce, who are woefully underused. I'd like to say it's better than nothing, but it isn't. Watch something else.