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 World War 2
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I just generally don't go for war movies, but this week was a little better than the previous World War 1 theme in that I have a slightly larger pool of watched films to pick from. I'm just going with 3 of my most recent watch.
Fury (2014)
The movie follows a tank crew during the last few days (or was it weeks?) of the war in Europe. I can't think of any other film that ever gave the perspective of a tank crew or the role of tanks during a war, so that was interesting. Although the way the interior of the tank was shot made it seem a lot roomier than I think it actually was.
Based on a very popular YA novel, I was looking forward to it. It was underwhelming. I haven't read the book so I'm not really judging it as an adaptation. It's just the story is narrated by Death, and as we are to believe it to be so, I don't think the film (maybe the book did a better job?) quite show us why this girl's story stands out from all the rest in the whole human existence. I can see how her story would appeal to book lovers in that she is totally badass stealing books that were banned but I'd imagined Death would have seen more people that had to make extraordinary choices and led extraordinary lives.
The Imitation Game (2014)
Underwhelmed by this too. It just feels Oscar baity.
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I haven't seen The Book Thief, but I loved Fury and the Imitation Game. You're right about the latter feeling Oscar baity, but if it's a good film, than I'll excuse it. I felt that was about that and The Theory of Everything that year.
ReplyDeleteStill haven't seen Theory of Everything...I agree it looks Oscar bait you as well.
DeleteI also was underwhelmed by The Book Thief but I think perhaps my expectations were too high. People have been telling me for years how awesome the book is (I haven't read it) and so I had expected more from the film. It was alright but once was enough. I did however really like Imitation Game, it did have somewhat of a feel that it was designed to win awards but the story was interesting and the acting good so I didn't mind. I hated Fury, it was just too nihilistic for me.
ReplyDeleteI knew the reputation of the book too but I wouldn't say my epectations of the The Book Thief was overwhelming high. Still after seeing the film it was like "that's it? That's the story you want to tell me Death?"
DeleteI actually liked The Imitation Game a lot. Yes, it had that Hollywood vibe, but it worked for me. :-) I haven't seen the other two.
ReplyDeleteHmm...I wouldn't say that the Imitation Game was Hollywoody...but more like what Joel said...designed to win awards and just crowd pleasing in general.
DeleteI quite liked The Imitation Game but I found it so sad and depressing. Haven't seen the other two. Book thief never appealed and Fury just never felt compelled to see it. But my friend is obsessed with it.
ReplyDeleteOf the two that you haven't watch, I would recommend Fury. Like I said we rarely get stories of the people who operated the tanks so it's interesting.
DeleteI have seen all 3 and love them all. Fury was excellent I thought and deserved more than it got. So many dislike The Book Thief and I don't get why. It is so well done and love who the narrator is. The Imitation Game is very well acted and shows the behind the scenes look at WW2 and this genius who was vilified by his own country
ReplyDeleteI think there are probably 2 camps of people who dislike the movie. The book readers who love the book probably think it's a poor adaptation. The other who are not as familiar with the story probably come in expecting more grit with a WW2 set story. I'm more of the later. I'd say Death as the Narrator is the most interesting part of the story but the story itself not so much. I expected a story told by Death to have more emotional grit and like I said in my post maybe it's the movie's failings rather than the book.
DeleteFury is easily the best of these three. Almost picked it myself; so well done on every level. I tried with the book The Book Thief and didn't get very far. It disappointed me, especially after hearing so many wonderful things about it.
ReplyDeleteThe Imitation Game, though, is a piece of shit. I exaggerate a little (the cast is good, and Keira Knightley is GREAT), but I thought the script was just terrible, really glossing over a lot of important things about Turing and mostly presenting him as just another autism-scale man. I can't believe it won the Oscar for the Screenplay.
Yep of the 3 I like Fury the most too.
DeleteStill haven't read the book. It is a YA book - sometimes they can be hard to get into because they are meant for a younger set of audience.
I'm with you with the Imitation Game. Though I have to say that none of acting impress me much either. And Cumberbatch was just playing sort of another variation of the guys he always plays genius - socially awkward - outcast.
Going to have to watch Fury one of these days. I was completely underwhelmed by The Imitation Game, too.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Fury yet, but I hated The Book Thief. It was such a disappointment mainly because I read and loved the book. And I actually liked The Imitation Game. It was a little depressing, but I liked it.
ReplyDeleteYeah...I heard that a lot of the Book Thief readers didn't like the adaptation.
DeleteI love that you picked Fury. I liked it a lot more than most people. And I picked it as well. I thought about The Imitation Game, which blew me away, but I chose to stick to battlefield movies with these picks.
ReplyDelete