Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the series main page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Twisty Thrillers
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What makes a twisty thriller? I'm going with anything that just makes you think what is going on at every turn.
Fight Club (1999)
Well one of the usual suspects is Fight Club of course. Everything is just so odd and manic and it all makes sense at the end.
Shutter Island (2010)
I was reminded of this when I watched Tabula Rasa a few weeks ago. The gist: a federal marshal is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient at an asylum, but things just get weirder and weirder.
Triangle (2009)
Triangle (2009)
This is one of those mindfuck movies like Fight Club. The gist: after a yachting accident, a woman and her group of friends board a cruise ship but she gets the feeling that this has all happened before.
Before I Go to Sleep (2014)
I love the book and wished this was a better movie; it's not bad but it could have been so much better. The gist: Since a terrible accident two decades earlier, a woman wakes up everyday still thinking she is in her late 20s, remembering nothing of the accident and her life after that, her mind resetting and unable to form any new memory after a full night's sleep. Can she trust the husband she wakes up next to, whom she doesn't recognize, or the secret psychiatrist she's been seeing or the secret diary that she's been keeping chronicling all the troubling yesterdays she has no memory of?
Before I Go to Sleep (2014)
I love the book and wished this was a better movie; it's not bad but it could have been so much better. The gist: Since a terrible accident two decades earlier, a woman wakes up everyday still thinking she is in her late 20s, remembering nothing of the accident and her life after that, her mind resetting and unable to form any new memory after a full night's sleep. Can she trust the husband she wakes up next to, whom she doesn't recognize, or the secret psychiatrist she's been seeing or the secret diary that she's been keeping chronicling all the troubling yesterdays she has no memory of?
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Participating Blogs/Bloggers
I loved Fight Club and Shutter Island. I haven't seen the other two but Before I Go to Sleep is on my list.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. Before I Go To Sleep sounds like a scarier version of 50 First Dates (gad I hate that film) however this sounds brilliant! I'll see if I can get through the book first.
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike! I went for Shutter Island too - love that film.
I have not seen 50 First Dates, the poster just did not attract me to see it.
DeleteBefore I Go To Sleep - oh yes read the book first...it is soo good, one of the best thrillers in recent years.
We matched on Fight Club! Shutter Island is popular today and it makes me wish I would've picked it too. I second Katie's thoughts on Before I Go To Sleep, I haven't heard of that.
ReplyDeleteBefore I Go To Sleep - It has a very interesting premise even if the movie itself falls a little short.
DeleteLike everyone so far I've only seen the first two but your last does sound interesting. Shutter Island is one of the few Scorsese's I can honestly say I really like, I can't say the same for Fight Club. I'm glad I watched it so that when its discussed I know what people are talking about but I didn't care for the film.
ReplyDeleteThis is a genre that I like very much so coming up with three was rather easy.
North by Northwest (1959)-Poor Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is having a hell of a bad day. The mild mannered (but impeccably dressed) ad exec has been mistaken for a government agent and kidnapped by international spies from whom he manages to escape leading to a chase across the country amid many complications. One of Alfred Hitchcock’s best thrillers with turns and twists aplenty performed by a top flight cast including besides Grant-Eva Marie Saint, James Mason and Martin Landau.
The Tenant (1976)-Polish émigré (Roman Polanski who also directed) arrives in Paris and moves into an apartment in a rundown building whose previous resident attempted suicide by jumping out one of the windows. As his sanity begins to crack he is shunned by the other residents (including Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas and Shelley Winters) as he starts to assume personality traits of the previous tenant. Strange and unsettling.
Phone Booth (2002)-Cocky married publicist Stu Shepard (Colin Farrell) has a girl, Pam (Katie Holmes) on the side. Not wanting his wife to discover his duplicity he calls Pam on one of the few remaining public telephones in New York City. Just as he completes his latest call the phone rings, Stu answers and The Caller tells him he has a gun pointed at him and if he attempts to leave or alert anyone he will be killed. As he tries to figure out an escape the situation twists and turns as it escalates in danger.
I did not like North by Northwest, perhaps it was just that I had too high expectation due to its reputation.
DeletePhone Booth is one that I've been seeing a lot lately on previous themes too, so I might just catch it when it becomes available on Netflix.
Also picked Shutter Island, it's a brilliant thriller. I've read Before I Go To Sleep and loved it, too. It's one of my favourite books! But I still haven't seen the movie, precisely because I heard it wasn't nearly as good. :( I might give it a go now because I've forgotten how the book ends, though. 😅
ReplyDeleteBefore I Go To Sleep - Glad you've read it too, it is so so good. One of my favourites too.
DeleteHow did I miss responding?? Chalk it up to brain farts...I really loved Shutter Island which is not what i expected at all. Fight Club is good but a bit too gritty & ugly for my tastes. I have not seen the other 2 but the last one really sounds interesting and I love Colin Firth plus Mark Strong
ReplyDeleteI like Colin Firth and Mark Strong too but this is not their best. I'd say check out the Before I Go to Sleep because the premise is interesting.
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