Thursday Movie Picks #3: Movies set in a Mental Institution

A little background on this meme: I was inspired by the many weekly memes that are very popular among the book blogging community. Being a movie fan myself I was looking to participate in something similar for movies. Not able to find any, I decided to create and host a weekly movie meme myself.

The rules of this meme is simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information on the meme and future topics please visit the meme's page here.

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Hey its Thursday again. Time flies doesn't it!

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies set in a Mental Institution.

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This week I'm doing it a little different. I'm picking one for each...favourites, hidden gem and worst.

 
Favourite

The Princess and the Warrior (2000) - " Young nurse Sissi lives a secluded life, seemingly entirely devoted to her patients at Birkenhof asylum. Her first encounter with ex-soldier and drifter Bodo has a lasting impact."
Run Lola Run may be the more famous Tom Tykwer movie, but the Princess and the Warrior is my favorite. No heart pumping action here. It's a quieter film with an unconventional love story about two people who meet as a result of a car accident; one a socially awkward nurse at an asylum and the other completely unwilling to enter any sort of relationship as he struggles to cope with the aftermath of a traumatic event in his past. I really like the characters here; complex and carrying a lot of baggage.


Hidden Gem

It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)  - "A clinically depressed teenager gets a new start after he checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward."
I watched this a long while ago. I was quite surprised that everyone else didn't seem to like it (Tomatometer is 58%) because I actually enjoyed it. I thought it was quite a funny and moving story about a kid trying to deal with depression and just simply growing up. The concept of someone voluntarily checking himself into a psych ward just fascinated me. The movie is actually based on a book of the same name written by Ned Vizzini who wrote it based on some of his experience in psychiatric ward in his youth. The author committed suicide last year.


Worst

Sucker Punch (2011) - " A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility"
I really enjoyed Zack Snyder's previous movies, Dawn of the Dead and 300 and so I was looking to be entertained by Sucker Punch. Plus this was an original screenplay unlike the others and I love stories about characters retreating to fantastical world in order to escape the cruel realities of their own world. Unfortunately  Sucker Punch was just terrible. The alternative reality is basically like a gamer boy's steampunkish/video game fantasy. It fails to bring anything other than being an excuse to put the girls in skimpy video gamey costumes and I think it really lost its audiences on caring what was happening to the characters in their real life.

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So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Weekly Recap #3

This post is linked to Stacking the Shelves (hosted by Tynga Reviews)  and The Sunday Post (hosted by Kimba @Caffeinated Book Reviewer).

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Read

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I was looking forward to reading this not only because of the positive buzz but also because I love E. Lockhart's previous book, The Disputable History of Frankie Landau Banks. Most of the reviews for We Were Liars, well I only glanced at most of them (since I was worried about spoilers), mentioned how the book was great and that it's best if you know as little as possible coming into the book and that the ending is supposedly amazing. So there. I wanted it to be great

Then I read it.

Did I read the same book as everyone else. It was underwhelming.Cady the main character was just flat. She just lost part of her memory, as the reader we're suppose to feel something for her lost, despair but that just didn't come across for me.  So is the big reveal/ending awesome? Not for me since I guessed it halfway. I think if you've read/watched similar type of stories, you'd guessed what happens to the liars. As such, it kinda felt like the story was just dragged out for me.


Currently Reading

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead

Finally started on this. Only like a fifth through. Guess what? Not bad. It certainly starts off a lot better than the movie.


Watched

The Lego Movie

The movie looked cute and funny in the promos. So even though I'm not into animation (wait is this animation or stop motion?) I gave the Lego Movie a try. However beyond the initial novelty of seeing all the lego and all the popular characters on the screen, I couldn't care for the story. Seriously I was bored and the only reason I watched till the end is that I almost always try to complete whatever movie I watch. One thing I did enjoy was the brainwashy Everything is Awesome song.

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Around the Blog

Tuesday I did Broke and Bookish Top Ten Tuesday meme where I picked 5 book characters I wanted with me on a deserted island. My picks of Katniss and Finnick were extremely popular among other book bloggers as well.
Thursday was the second Thursday Movie Picks post and the topic was Movies with an Ensemble Cast. My picks were, Gosford Park, Love Actually and The Royal Tenenbaums. Next week's topic is Movies set in a Mental Institution.
Sunday, which is today, I've just added more topics for future Thursday Movie Picks Meme. Please go to the meme page for all the future topics.

I've also found a tumblr blog which I made along with this blog last year. But somehow I had totally forgotten about the tumblr blog until now. Have you checked out tumblr before. It's a great place to immerse yourself in book,movie,tv fandom. Here's the link to mine where I have reblogged a few posts.

Thursday Movie Picks #2: Movies with an Ensemble Cast

A little background on this meme: I was inspired by the many weekly memes that are very popular among the book blogging community. Being a movie fan myself I was looking to participate in something similar for movies. Not able to find any, I decided to create and host a weekly movie meme myself.

The rules of this meme is simple: Each week there is a topic for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information on the meme and future topics please visit the meme's page here.

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Hey its Thursday again. The first outing went well and so its time for round two.

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies with an Ensemble Cast.

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Once again I'm picking three favourites in alphabetical order:

1) Gosford Park (2001) - " Multiple storylined drama set in 1932, showing the lives of upstairs guest and downstairs servants at a party in a country house in England."
Starring:  Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Charles Dance, Tom Hollander, Jeremy Northam , Ryan Phillippe, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Stephen Fry, Emily Watson, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, Richard E. Grant, Bob Balaban
Ok did I miss anyone? The cast here is huge! It is amazing they got all these people for this movie. I first saw it when it was first released on DVD and I did not get it at all. A few years later I decided to give this movie a second try and I loved it. You just have to pay attention to every snarky, gossipy, well meaning, heart wrenching conversation and there are lots of them and there's soo many characters to follow but all their little storylines fit together so well. If you love Downton Abbey Season 1, you will love this because it's just a better put together story with all the soap operaish drama taken out and a little murder mystery in its place. By the way, Julian Fellows writer/creator of Downton Abbey wrote the screenplay for Gosford Park based on the ideas of Robert Altman and Bob Balaban.

2) Love Actually (2003) - "Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England." 
Starring: Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, Martin Freeman, Andrew Lincoln, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman...
The best thing about this movie is that it doesn't just explore romantic relationships, it actually features relationships between friends, siblings and parents and their children which is good on them for attempting to give a more realistic picture of the different type of love out there. Despite Love Actually being an overall warm fuzzy feel good flick, not every character have their happily-ever-after which is another thumbs up from me. Not that these characters are miserable miserable, but I guess they just have to choose which bubble of happiness they want to protect more.

3) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) - "An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when their father announces he is terminally ill."
Starring: Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Alec Baldwin
This is my favourite Wes Anderson movie. I just love this quirky tale of a dysfunctional family of geniuses. Its both wonderfully funny and sad and I really like the story book manner the story is told. And have you seen the Criterion DVD of this? It's packaged like a storybook and also there's even the covers of the fictional books/magazines that the Tenenbaums had wrote or were on the cover off. Now I want that Criterion set especially since it's been a long time since I've seen the movie.

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So that's it...my three favourites. What three movies made your list today?

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Top Ten Tuesday #2: Top Ten Characters I Would Want With Me On A Deserted Island

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish where bloggers share a list based on a weekly theme.

This week's topic is Top Ten Characters I Would Want With Me On A Deserted Island. I can't quite come up with ten so five will have to do for this week.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games Trilogy
Plain and simple, she's a good huntress. She'll make sure there something to eat.

Finnick Odair from The Hunger Games Trilogy
While Katniss hunts and forage the land for food, Finnick will fish.

Now that food and safety is quite settled, the other three would be for company.

Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre
I'm sure a few days living in a deserted island would get depressive after awhile. Rochester is certainly a character who would draw out a quiet person and talk.

Myfanwy Thomas (the second one) from The Rook
She is quite a rambler and very funny. Someone who would lighten the mood ...certainly she rambled more the more tense the situation.

Gansey from the Raven Cycle
Gansey has it all doesn't he. Wealth, brains and friends. Trustworthy and loyal, he is a great friend and would make good company. Being a smart determined person he'll probably find a way out of the deserted island too.

Weekly Recap #2

This post is linked to Stacking the Shelves (hosted by Tynga Reviews)  and The Sunday Post (hosted by Kimba @Caffeinated Book Reviewer).

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Read

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

This was good.

I'm not really a fan of those first person narration where it's basically their stream consciousness because it can sometimes be hard to read. For example, they tend to lack punctuations, none quotations for dialogue, excessive capitalization and sentences that run a paragraph long. This is guilty of all those, but somehow it works. Maybe because it really seem like the inner thoughts of a teenager instead of an impersonation of one. Plus I like Daisy. Ok yes, she is a little self absorbed in the beginning but there's an honesty to the way she tells her story. Daisy didn't even care much about the war when it broke out because the war had seemed so far away from her, something that they only heard on the news and it didn't really touch them for weeks. Until of course the war finally arrived at their doorstep and Daisy does really buck up and does what needed to be done to survive. Despite the second half being a survival story, How I Live now is really just a coming of age tale which just happened to have a war as a back drop and I really like that. The ending was a little disappointing not that it was terrible just not what I expected and a little drawn out I thought.

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Watched

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

I was never really interested in the Planet of the Apes story, but thought I should get around to seeing this since the sequel is out. Plus I keep reading/hearing that this prequel is surprisingly good.

I think it really sucks to be an intelligent animal. Not even to be super smart like Caesar, just enough to realise that you live in captivity, must be depressing...even if that means you are well fed and free from being prey. A gilded cage is still a cage. Even worse for a highly intelligent one like Caesar. One of the saddest moments in the movie was when Caesar realizes he really lives in a cage and had to be on a leash when taken outside. Is he a pet...he asks Will...which breaks my heart. Then of course things start to get a little worse for Caesar.

With a title like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I had expected some sort of an action movie. Apes warring against their cruel masters. Which wasn't really the case. There was action but only at the very end. The movie actually took it's time to tell Caesar's story from birth and really show us his character and even gave some time to showing some of the personalities of the other apes ( who I'm guessing will have bigger roles in the second movie) at the shelter Caesar eventually come to live. Caesar's dissatisfaction with his situation was built up slowly which I appreciated. It wasn't simply in a fit of rage or a thirst for revenge that led Caesar to lead the uprising (which would have been so out of character for Caesar). As for the action scenes of the uprising, when it finally came, was great. Definitely something worth waiting for.

So glad I finally saw this. Can't wait to see what happens in Dawn.


Vampire Academy

I keep referring to this movie as Vampire Diaries. It's not by the way. Do not confuse the two because Vampire Academy is so soo bad and Vampire Diaries is so soo good. Because I'm lazy and I shouldn't take any more of my time on something really bad so I'm mostly going to paste the comment I made on Wendell's blog.

In Vampire Academy, Dhamphir Rose is trying to protect Lissa her best friend the Moroi princess from some unknown enemies who wants her dead. Every vampire movie tries to introduce its own brand of Vampires and this one is the same with three different kinds, the Strigoi, Moroi and Dhamphir. The movie tells us all the different kinds of vampire there is and yet doesn't really show us the way they are different such as with the Moroi being mortal thing. Plus what's with the Dhamphir having to protect the Moroi...are the Moroi seemingly so physically weak they need protection? With immortality out of the picture is there no perks to being a vampire? Wait I get it...they're not really vampires right?...They're just anemic. Why too does the Strigoi want to attack the Moroi? I understand they are supposedly the more evil vampire and they like blood, but aren't the humans easier food?

Like most teen movies, romance has to be thrown in there. Dull and wooden. That's what all the love interests are yet trying way too hard to be swoon worthy. Anyway they're just unworthy distractions to the mystery of who wants Lissa dead which isn't really a hard mystery to crack when you know the saying "keep your friends close keep your enemies closer". One annoying thing about the movie that I have to mention is that it makes fun of Twilight, I'm pretty sure more than once. Which I'm fine with if it was actually the better movie...but it is not. Seriously I can't believe Vampire Academy got a theatrical release...it looks like a TV movie. There's the usual bad acting, bad dialogue but most of all it does not look cinematic at all. It also bugged me that Rose was Juno-ish. churning out all those pop culture reference. Aren't the St Vladamir kids living in a secluded protected world. They are not exactly like the rest of us immersed in technology and pop culture...so where does Rose get all the pop culture reference from? Don't tell me the short stint outside of St Vladamir she and Lissa had before they were hauled back?

I actually wanted to read the book before watching the movie...oh well...I do hope it's better.

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Around the Blog

Sunday I did Dell's Against the Crowd Blogathon. My pick was Avatar for the one everyone love but I hate and Something Borrowed was my pick for the reverse.
Tuesday I did Broke and Bookish Top Ten Tuesday meme except that this week it was a non bookish theme so I listed the Top Ten TV Series I am currently following. Are we in the golden age of TV because there are some seriously great TV shows airing now.
Thursday was my first Thursday Movie Picks post and I picked my three favourite Stephen King adaptations. This was the first post for the meme I started. If you like movies, do take part in next week's topic which is Movies with an Ensemble Cast.
Saturday I highlighted a song I can't stop listening to.

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Next Week

I'll be adding more topics to the Thursday Movie Picks...so check out the meme page to see some of the future topics.

I've also picked up the Diary of a Crush series of books which I remember reading like ten years ago. I'm hoping to revisit them soon

This Year's Love ... had better last ...

I'm not sure how everyone else discover music, I do mostly through Movies and TV. This is in part because I hardly listen to the radio and also that I watch a lot of Movies and TV.

I came to know of This Year's Love through the movie Intersections (2013). I don't think the scene in the movie where the song was played was particularly memorable. It was just that, if I remember it correctly, the scene was a quiet reflective moment and so the song was just used perfectly and stood out. It's such a gorgeous song and almost immediately I recognised it must be by David Gray. He has such a distinctive voice. Funny thing is that this song is on Gray's Greatest Hits album which I have but it must have been overshadowed by the other songs on it. Now that I've heard it on Intersections, I can't get it out of my head...or ears I should say. I've been playing it on a loop. It's definitely become one of my favourites. A tad disappointed by the music video, though. It's not really reflective of the song.

 

Thursday Movie Picks #1: Movies based on a Stephen King Book/Short Story

Welcome to the first Thursday Movie Picks outing.

A little background on this meme: I was inspired by the many weekly memes that are very popular among the book blogging community. Being a movie fan myself I was looking to participate in something similar for movies. Not able to find any, I decided to create and host a weekly movie meme myself.

The rules of this meme is simple: Each week there is a theme for you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of each. For more information on the meme and future theme please visit the meme's page here.

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I came up with a lot of ideas for the weekly themes and then of course I had to decide which would be the first theme to start the ball rolling. This being the first week, I chose something a little simpler, where there is a ready and relatively known pool of movies that you can choose your picks from. Nonetheless it would be interesting to see what everyones pick would be.

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies based on a Stephen King Book/Short Story.

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Just a little thing to note, I am writing this list from memory. The most recently watched in my list was seen at least six years ago and I have actually seen each only once through.

So without further delay, my three favourites in alphabetical order:

1) The Apt Pupil (1998) - "A boy blackmails his neighbour after suspecting him to be a Nazi war criminal."
I wished I had manage to rewatch this, as with the other movies on this list, prior to writing. This possibly more so being the earliest one I saw out of the rest and have faded from my memory so much. But the disturbing premise of the movie certainly sticks as did the wonderful performances by the actors, Ian Mckellen as the Nazi war criminal and Brad Renfro as the manipulative teenage neighbour. Both characters equally scary that you can't decide who's the bigger villain as the war stories told to the curious teenager seem to increasingly feed his dark side.

2) The Green Mile (1999) - "The lives of guards on Death Row are affected by one of their charges: a black man accused of child murder and rape, yet who has a mysterious gift."
This is the other Stephen King movie set in a prison and the one I like more. Maybe it was the supernatural elements that won me over or perhaps it was the emotional tale of a gentle giant on death row for a crime he did or did not commit having a  profound impact on the guards and fellow inmates?

3) The Mist (2007) - "A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives."
I wasn't really keen in watching this movie but the great reviews I kept seeing encouraged me to check this out. The basic premise here is a somewhat similar to Dawn of the Dead as a group of small town inhabitants seek shelter in a supermarket. While a supermarket seem to be best place to hole up in during a disaster with the huge supply of survival necessities, it does not remain so for long. I have to say I love the claustrophobicness of The Mist. As some of the people band together in an effort to survive, fear spreads, paranoia sets in, personalities clash and chaos is inevitable and that is often more scary than the monsters outside. And I hope this doesn't spoil it for anyone who have not seen it, I thought The Mist had one of the most devastating, unforgettable endings which possibly made The Mist one of my favourite movies.

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So that's it...my three favourites. What three movies made your list today?

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

Top Ten Tuesday #1: Top 10 TV Series I am Currently Following

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish where bloggers share a list based on a weekly theme.

This week the theme is not bookish as it's "Let's talk about other types of stories. Either Top Ten Favorite Movies or TV Shows". Because I'm starting my own movie meme Thursday Movie Picks this Thursday (which you can find about more here), for this week's Top Ten Tuesday I will list out the Top 10 TV Series I am currently following.

I am not really current in terms of the hottest shows that are out there or in terms of the seasons of the shows that I follow since we have yet to get some shows (eg Orange is the New Black) or even if we do get some of the US/UK series, we get them a season or two late. Thus I will also mention where I am now with the series below as I'm fearful of spoilers from episodes/seasons I have not watched appearing in the comments.

In alphabetical order:

Bates Motel - Completed Season 1
Interesting that they decided to set in present day, which I think ups the complexity in terms of hiding Norman's unstableness and it works because it is a messy business. I thought everyone's perfect in their roles. Vera Farmiga as Norman's rather smothering mother (you'd wonder if she contributed to Norman's condition) and Freddie Highmore as Norman who is clearly off.

Boardwalk Empire - Completed Season 2
I gave this series a watch without knowing what it was really about as I like watching period drama. And I like. Good gritty drama about the corrupt politicians and the mobsters they do business with in 1920s Atlantic City.

Game of Thrones - Season 3 Episode 8
One of the best shows around. Great cast, great drama, beautiful location/sets...you believe this world where seven noble families battle for control over exists. So much conflict, backstabbing occurs, you never know which alliance overrides which alliance and who will survive.

Mr Selfridge - Completed Season 1
I'm a fan of period dramas. There's not many period TV series and this is one of the quality ones. There was a similar series revolving around a department store called The Paradise released around the same time, but I thought Mr Selfridge was far superior. It had better sets, costumes and story and I really enjoyed seeing the inner workings of a department store in that period of time especially since the concept of a department store was so new then. I also though the couples in Mr Selfridge were certainly better casted and had very good chemistry.

The Newsroom - Completed Season 1
Some of the episodes are a little self important. They were trying too hard to drive how important news is and how this fictional news station was trying to be The ethical news station. Other than that...it is an Aaron Sorkin show, so I enjoy the banter and verbal fights his characters often get into.

Once Upon a Time - Currently at Season 3 Episode 6
I didn't even like the first few episodes of this series and the green screen used to really take me out of the story in the beginning. But I stuck through it and I think binge watching season 1 on DVD pays off. There's tons of good episodes and since ABC is Disney, it's fun seeing all the Disney characters appearing in them. A few of the the Frozen characters are already set to appear in season 4.

Orphan Black - Currently at Season 2 Episode 2
This show is a surprise. I had read/heard this show being mention on blogs/podcasts but never really knowing what it's about. Anyway it's awesome. So is the main actress, who plays several different characters and you'll have no problem believing her as all those different character.

Revenge -Completed Season 2
Such a soap operaish show where everyone is rich, looks perfect with plenty of scandal and backstabbing. Still I find it highly entertaining and when/how will it all unravel?

The Vampire Diaries - Completed Season 4
I love this show! It started out as this teen vampire series, with the typical high school drama and the whole keep the Vampire thing a secret, but it got better and better as it went along. And it has such great villains...like Klaus...unfortunately he has moved to The Originals a show I'm not enjoying as much. Then there's Damon, the antihero as ever, my favourite Salvatore brother.

The Walking Dead - Completed Season 3
Amazing how there's a zombie tv series. I love the look of the show and how high the stakes always are. I'd like to check out the graphic novel someday too.

Thursday Movie Picks Meme

I was inspired to create a weekly movie meme by 1) the many weekly book memes out there and 2) my inability to find any weekly movie meme to participate in.

As the name suggests, it will be held every Thursday. Based on the theme of the week pick three movies. These three movies can either be favourite/best movies, worst movies or hidden gems. Or you can even do one of each if you are up to it.

The first Thursday Movie Picks will start on July 17th 2014.

You can find out more about this meme and future scheduled themes at the Thursday Movie Picks Meme page dedicated to it.

So if you're a fan of movies, come and participate. It'll be fun and you'll get to discover more movies and add them to your to-watch list. Perhaps it'll give you some ideas as to what to watch over the weekend.  If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget at the end of each of my Thursday Movie Picks post. Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Pick post :). Below are the themes for the next 8 weeks (more will be posted on the meme page).


July 17 - Movies based on a Stephen King Book/Short Story
July 24 - Movies with an Ensemble Cast
July 31 - Movies set in a Mental Institution
August 7 - Movies about Assassins
August 14 - Movies that feature Food Predominantly
August 28 - Teen Vampire Movies
September 4 - Movies set Locally (you can choose country or state)
September 11 - Sport Movies

Blogathon: Against The Crowd - Avatar and Something Borrowed

I found a fun movie blogathon hosted by Dell on Movies where bloggers get to rant against the popular opinion. The rules are simple:

1. Pick one movie that "everyone" loves (the more iconic, the better). That movie must have a score of at least 80% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you hate it.

2. Pick one movie that "everyone" hates (the more notorious, the better). That movie must have a score of less than 30% on rottentomatoes.com. Tell us why you love it.

3. Include the tomato meter scores of both movies.

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So here are my picks:

Avatar (2009) - 83% Tomatometer

This movie was huge back in 2009 but I didn't care much from what I read of the synopsis to pay the expensive ticket prices to watch in 3D. Instead I watched it a few months later on DVD. In a way because I saw it on DVD, I wasn't distracted by the visuals and the effect and without all the distractions the story is clearly unoriginal, boring and not to mentioned the irritating characters....I can't stand Neytiri. I mean seriously this is a Pocahontas story relocated to an alien planet in the future. I would rather watch Disney's Pocahontas which I think is a much much better movie. Hate is strong word, but I disliked Avatar a lot.

Something Borrowed (2011) - 15% Tomatometer

I knew this movie had an average rating on IMDB, but I was shocked that it only had 15% on Tomatometer. I mean really? I'm sure there are worse romantic comedies made...this is seriously not bad! I can't really say I love it and that it is a favourite, because it is not a favourite of mine, but I wouldn't mind watching it if was playing on TV. Oh but I do have a favourite scene, it's the one where Rachel was telling Dex that surely he knew that she had a crush on him when they were in law school...and Dex is shocked to find it out only when he is about to marry Rachel's best friend.

Weekly Recap #1

This post is linked to Stacking The Shelves, a weekly meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves.

 

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff - The movie came out in theaters a few months ago. I didn't get a chance to see it then and I expect the dvd to be out soon, so I'll be reading the book before seeing it. Its also suppose to be really good so I'm looking forward to it. And its like 200 pages, I'm sure I'll be able to finish it quick.

 

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead -I haven't read a book from a teen vampire series since Breaking Dawn. I don't really find the synopsis of this book particularly interesting, but I know that this is a very popular book series which recently was turned into a movie as well so I am a little curious as to how I would like it.

 

Parasite by Mira Grant - I really like Mira Grant's Feed, it took some surprising heart wrenching turns, which is probably why I have yet to pick up the second book yet. In the mean time there's Parasite. Don't know when I'll get to reading it as its is one of those 500+ pages books and I suck at reading lengthy books.