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Thursday, December 3, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #73: Con Artists




Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple 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 further details visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Con Artists

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Hello. It's the first week of the last month of the year. How the year has passed so quickly! This week's theme is Con Artists and here are my picks:

Focus (2015)
This is an uninspired pick. It's here because it'ss the most recent one I've seen and it gives me a chance to talk a little about it. The trailers for this made it look so flashy, sexy, fun and cool. But it's really just a meh movie. It's not really fun. The con is elaborate but I don't think it's clever enough with enough close calls to make it memorable con movie.

The Hoax (2006)
The movie is based on something that actually happened: A writer sells a fake Howard Hughes autobiography to McGraw-Hill in the 1970's. Basically the writer claims that he has been authorised by Hughes, who by then had become a recluse, to write the book. He goes to huge lengths to fabricate documents and recordings to support his lie and the publisher believed him. The premise itself is incredible isn't it? The movie was pretty good as well; it was entertaining to watch Richard Gere, as the writer, running around trying to make up more stuff to cover up and support the lie while also becoming increasingly obsessed with Howard Hughes himself.

Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Another based on a true story, this time about a teenage con artist. I think Catch Me If You Can has one of the most memorable opening credits. A good start to a good movie. Watching this again recently, it was nice spotting a few actresses in their earlier roles just before their stars rose.

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

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10 comments:

  1. Katie HoganDecember 3, 2015 at 5:57 AM

    The Hoax sounds like a brilliant true story - I wonder if there's doc about it, not a big Gere fan you see. Catch Me If You Can is such a great film - it also appears in my picks.

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    1. WandererDecember 10, 2015 at 4:04 AM

      Probably there is, I mean it is just a fascinating thing that happen.

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  2. Big Screen Small WordsDecember 3, 2015 at 9:44 AM

    The Hoax sounds interesting, will have to watch that. Catch Me If You Can is awesome!

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  3. DellDecember 3, 2015 at 1:51 PM

    Totally agree about Focus...so meh. I know I saw The Hoax, but for the life of me I can't remember anything about it. Not a good sign, but it sounds like a revisit is in order. I've only seen Catch Me if You Can in bits and pieces, never in its entirety. Need to fix that. Great post.

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    1. WandererDecember 10, 2015 at 4:07 AM

      Oh I can probably see why The Hoax is not as memorable. It certainly isn't a flashy/glamorous movie and doesn't show much or any perks of conning. He pretty much struggles to keep up the lie.

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  4. joel65913December 3, 2015 at 9:15 PM

    Catch Me If You Can is a wonderfully jaunty film with a great cat and mouse game at its center played expertly by Hanks and DiCaprio. Walken is also great as Leo's dad and I love the opening credits graphics.

    I enjoyed The Hoax, it had an extra layer for me since I vividly remember when the actual events were happening and all the craziness that surrounded it. It was a nice change of pace for Gere whose usual line nowadays is more upright characters.

    I've heard of Focus but I've become rather indifferent to Will Smith through the years so thanks for the warning about its ordinariness.

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    1. WandererDecember 10, 2015 at 4:13 AM

      Really, I thought Gere was moving away from that, other than this, the most recent I've seen him in was Arbitrage where he plays a crooked fund manager.

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  5. Brittani BurnhamDecember 3, 2015 at 9:37 PM

    I haven't seen Focus or Hoax, but the latter sounds interesting. Catch Me If You Can is great.

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  6. BirgitDecember 4, 2015 at 1:09 AM

    The first film seems meh to me just seeing the trailers. I seem to recall this actual event in Hughes life back when I was a kid. So much was going on about Hughes at that time because people wanted to get a glimpse of him. Catch Me if you can is a fun film and the real kid is actually amazing that he pulled it off

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  7. Kevin PowersDecember 5, 2015 at 12:51 PM

    The Hoax is a great pick. Didn't even cross my mind. I almost went with Catch Me If You Can. Good stuff!

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