Thursday Movie Picks #437: TMP Television Edition - Non-English

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share your picks each Thursday. The rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five titles 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 TMP Television Edition - Non-English

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This is a recurring annual theme. I'm picking new series that was released the past year.

 

Parallels (2022 - )

Four teens sneak out at night to celebrate one of their birthdays at an unused bunker in the woods. In the midst of their celebrations a blackout occurs and when the lights come back on, two of them have disappeared and of the two remaining, one has become a 30 year old man. In an alternate version of reality, the two that disappeared are the two that remain. In each version, the remaining teens try to cope with the loss of their best friends while trying to figure out what exactly happened to them. When I was a kid I did watch some of Disney's tween/teen TV series. We only get the English ones then so most were the American shows, and they were not really good at all. I find most of the characters on those shows rather annoying, they tend to dress in candy colored loud clothes and act very cutesy and the acting is often over the top. Parallels is French Disney series, and I was so surprised by the how good it is (which makes me wonder if the American shows have improved as well or still very childish stuff). It's a nice sci-fi drama that was decently acted. I wonder if this will get a second season since I do think the first season seems like a complete story.

 

The Empress (2022 - )

About Sisi the Habsburg Empress. While I know of Sisi, I know nothing about her, so for that reason I found the series interesting. However, I did not like that they made it too modern...such as the costumes. The particular corsets being used were obviously not from the period as well as some other things like the chunky statement jewellery. It's like they have some modern costumes and just decided to make do with them and try to match them with some things that they do have that look a bit more period appropriate...it all made it all rather mishmash. I suppose they didn't have the budget? Or they just wanted a modern look to entice young or new audience to Sisi's story...and I guess it kinda worked because this German series has already been renewed for a second season.

 

1899 (2022 - )

In 1899 a ship from Europe bound for New York receives a message consisting of coordinates halfway through its journey. Believing the message is a distress call from a ship that disappeared four months ago on the same route, the captain decides to change their course to go to the received coordinates to find the missing ship, to the displeasure of its 1500+ passengers and crew who wants to get to New York on schedule. If you like the German TV series Dark, 1899 is made by the same people so I definitely recommend it. I love the first season of Dark, the subsequent seasons not as as much with the third and final season being extremely convoluted and never fully explain some things. Anyway so far the first season of 1899 has been entertaining. This is similarly a sci-fi mystery drama like Dark, although in the beginning it almost plays out like a ghost story. Another thing that got 1899 a bit of attention is that it has a multi-national cast and is a multi language TV series. While Netflix has done this before with the 2020 series Into the Night, 1899 does it on a bigger scale with a larger cast and I think it makes so much sense because of course a ship will have people from different countries and speaking different languages and I think the show portrayed it well. And if you enjoyed this series, I'd also recommend watching the making of feature. 1899 was filmed using Volume technology, something that I think The Mandalorian was the first to use, and it was just amazing to watch how they filmed the series. I have yet to hear if this has been renewed, I hope it does as it was certainly set up to have a second season.

 

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Thursday Movie Picks #436: Book Adaptations

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 Book Adaptations

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This is coming a little late. Anyway, I'm picking some of my recent watches, which were all adapted from YA books I haven't read.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021)

This is a charming gentle teen drama about two teens stuck in a time loop repeating the same day. Each day they go out looking for a new adventure to stave off the boredom of being stuck and find perfect things like seeing a skateboarder complete a perfect trick, witnessing a bird of prey swooping into the water catching a fish and watching a treehouse lit up with fairy lights; all moments they would've have missed if they had not lived the same day again, while also trying to figure out why they are stuck and and how to escape it.

Rosaline (2022)

Adapted from a book that is a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of Rosaline, you know the girl Romeo had been infatuated with and conveniently forgot about when he met Juliet, in a high school setting. The movie, however, changed the setting back to Renaissance Italy, which I'm glad as it made it a lot more fun to watch with the costumes and beautiful sets and locations. The movie is also funny and Rosaline played by Kaitlin Dever is pretty good as the title character.

Catherine Called Birdy (2022)

I love this, it was so much fun and just very funny...my favourite of today's theme. The movie follows Birdy a 14 year old girl in medieval England as she navigates becoming a young woman and trying to avoid getting married off by her family to some rich suitor in order to prevent them from getting bankrupt. The cast is great in this especially Bella Ramsey who plays the title character and just has that look...like she belongs in medieval England, which I suppose was why she was in Game of Thrones too.

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Thursday Movie Picks #435: Female Revenge Movies

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 Female Revenge Movies

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Back in 2019 we did a revenge theme where I picked The Prestige, Leon and Turning Pages.

This time, we're doing Female Revenge Movies. I'm picking the first 3 that came to mind.

Do Revenge (2022)

Two girls decide to get revenge on the ones that have wronged them by doing each other's revenge, kinda like Strangers on a Train. There are things that I like and don't with this movie. I do not like the costuming in this. It is just too loud. The story is okay, with a little twist in the middle something I did not expect, which was quite diabolical. It also kinda reminds me a little of Promising Young Woman with the whole guys selling the "good guy" image hard are the worst.

Promising Young Woman (2020)

A woman traumatized by what happened to her best friend seeks revenge. This is soo good, one of my favourites from 2020. Like I'm probably never gonna watch it again because it was a hard movie to watch...but it is such a good movie. It has some humorous moments but is also ultimately really really dark. And I love the soundtrack, the songs were perfect for the scenes. You know there was this sort of "happy relationship with the new boyfriend montage" halfway through and I couldn't help but be happy for the main character because her life had been so bleak, but then I was like no...no...this can't be right. Why must it be a guy that makes her happy...it just feels wrong for the movie and the main character. Why can't it be a new friend, a new job or a new hobby...or whatever. Anyway...of course the "happy relationship" was a setup for another development in the story and it made perfect sense because it's just a well thought out and well written movie and a good performance by Carey Mulligan the "Promising Young Woman" in the title. And what a great title right...it's actually a reference to the Stanford case.

Gone Girl (2014)

A man becomes a suspect when his wife disappears. Amy orchestrated the whole complicated revenge because she's mad that after playing the "cool girl" their whole relationship, her husband cheats on her.

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Thursday Movie Picks #434: Movies in which the Actors Didn’t Like Each Other

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 Movies in which the Actors Didn’t Like Each Other 

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Today's theme is a suggestion from Birgit. I’m picking movies that I knew the co-stars had issues on the set before I saw the movie.

Twister (1996)
I only saw this recently and had read that Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton who plays a divorcing couple, both meteorologists who goes storm chasing together could not stand one another during filming. The stars themselves have never confirmed the reports of the feud. Anyway, apparently a sequel to the movie is being planned.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy reportedly did not get along on set. They have publicly confirmed it somewhere and said it was due to the pressure of filming a sequel to a well known movie which heightened tensions or something along that line.

Fifty Shades Trilogy (2015 - 2018)

Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan were rumoured to have not gotten along. Both have apparently said the rumours are untrue. But who knows? Too little time have passed, both actors are still young and not A list enough, so they wouldn’t want to be known as difficult to work with, so it kinda make sense even if there was a feud, they would deny it.

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