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 Crime Gone Wrong (Suggested by Hitchcock)
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The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)
Two men kidnap a rich man's daughter for ransom. Highly recommend this. Very tense drama especially the first few scenes with the kidnapping and the just not knowing who these people are and how far they will go. I had heard the Alice character wasn't the usual damsel, she isn't but in what way I won't spoil it here. The movie doesn't really have like a twist, just a lot of things go wrong and a lot of doubt as who is aligned with who.
Picked this movie before, picking it again because it's a perfect fit. A fine arts auctioneer is mixed up with some gangsters who are robbing the auction house where he works and is tasked to assist them as necessary during the robbery except that he loses the painting they're trying to rob. When he loses his memory when his head is hit, the gangsters hire a hypnotherapist to recover the painting through hypnosis. I don't remember this being that well received but I enjoyed it; this one definitely has lots of twist and turns.
A Simple Plan (1998)
While I still struggle to remember most of what happens in this, I do remember it was a very good movie. Very dark and good performance by the leads. The gist is a couple of people find a huge amount of money and decide to keep it. That was their first crime: keeping the money. Consumed by greed they commit other crimes to protect the money and hide their secret. It's just sad really how quickly they fall from being regular seemingly law abiding people to doing terrible things.
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A Simple Plan is an excellent film with three fine performances which doesn't overreach thereby making it a stronger film. Coincidentally Thorton plays a big role in one of my picks too.
ReplyDeleteI liked but didn't love Trance but haven't seen Alice Creed, sounds intriguing.
This week's is another favorite theme for me so my choices were pretty easy. As I mentioned Billy Bob's imprint is all over my first choice.
One False Move (1992)-After a series of drug deals go bad and result in several murders a trio of gangsters take it on the lam ending up in the small Arkansas town of Star City. On their trail are two LAPD detectives who team with the small town sheriff (Bill Paxton) to capture the three. Bracing, violent thriller excellently directed by Carl Franklin. Co-written by Billy Bob Thornton who plays one of the criminals.
He Ran All the Way (1951)-Petty thief Nick Robey (John Garfield) teams up with his buddy Al to pull what they plan to be their big score, a payroll robbery. But they are foiled by a cop who shoots Al, panicked Nick shoots the cop. On the run he ducks into a public pool house and strikes up a conversation with a young girl named Peggy (Shelley Winters). Smitten Peggy walks home with him and he takes her family hostage until the tense finale. Low budget, taut noir was the blacklisted Garfield’s last film before his too early death at 39.
Criss Cross (1949)-Armored car driver Steve Thompson (Burt Lancaster) is still carrying a torch for his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne de Carlo) who is now married to a L. A. gangster, Slim Dundee (Dan Duryea). Anna impulsive and restless is drawn to him as well and when Slim catches them together he forces Steve to participate in a robbery on the cars he drives. It does not go well and a series of double crosses lead to tragedy for all. If you only know Yvonne de Carlo from The Munsters this is the best place to see she was not only an incredibly beautiful woman but an excellent actress as well.
i have not seen the first 2 but they sound quite good. I saw A Simple Plan when it first came out but don't remember much except how greed took over. Wish that didn't really happen..but it does.
ReplyDeleteTrance is a wonderful pick. I saw most of Alice Creed and didn't care for it. I haven't seen your 3rd pick.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen any of these. Been meaning to watch Trance for a while, now because I love Rosario Dawson. Need to get to it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of these, but I've been so iffy about watching Trance. But McAvoy is one of my favorite actors so I feel like I should really watch it.
ReplyDeleteAll great picks - I haven't seen Alice Creed but I remember reading about it. It was around the time Gemma Arterton was rising. I loved TRANCE such a messed up brilliant film, art heists have a certain edge in my eyes. I don't remember everything about ASP but I do remember thinking it was just unfortunate... not much else.
ReplyDeleteOnly seen Trance from the list...pretty good. Haven't seen the other though Alice Creed interests me.
ReplyDeleteThe Disappearance of Alice Creed was good overall but there were too many twists in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI really need to see A Simple Plan. Always wanted to see it.
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