Wandering through the Shelves

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #51: Adaptations of Classic Literature (No Poems or Plays)

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 Adaptations of Classic Literature (No Poems or Plays)

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As usual this week's topic has a few caveats. No plays meaning no Shakespeare adaptations and most of Wilde's work too. I can't really think of anything that was adapted from a poem other than Homer's work....so yeah nothing Homer related. Now I don't know what you'll consider as classic literature, I'm sure its something that's debated a lot, for my picks I'm limiting to nothing written beyond 19th century. Anything 20th century and after just seems too recent. It's too bad too that this is a movie blog series because the UK TV networks produces some wonderful adaptations which I love so I'm gonna go ahead and cheat, and recommend the TV mini-series when possible.

Jane Eyre (2011)

I think I've mentioned my love for Jane Eyre here before; last count I've watched 6 adaptations and this 2011 movie is somewhat tied with the 2006 BBC mini-series. If you still haven't seen this, there are two good reasons to do so among many: Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. It's also told in a slightly different way which makes it refreshing especially if you've seen a few of its other adaptations. So my TV recommendation is of course the 2006 adaptation; Ruth Wilson was just as great as Jane.

Mansfield Park (1999)

Not the most faithful adaptation but I just love this movie. From what I understand it's not just based on the book but also Jane Austen's personal letters. Having read Mansfield Park I'd say it made the movie better; more alive and colourful especially with what they did to the Fanny Price's character. In the book Fanny is this mousy dull person and in the movie with a little Jane Austen infused into her Fanny has more wit and agency, and is just a whole lot more interesting character to watch. Now if you want something a little more faithful try the 2007 TV adaptation; it kept the brother and Fanny mousiness but unfortunately it was just so boring and I did not enjoy it at all.

Tess (1979)

Can anyone make a bad adaptation out of Tess of the d'Urbervilles? I don't know about them being faithful since I haven't read the book but it seems all of the ones I've seen are just so beautifully made including this one. I really like Tess but I have to say my favourite and also the TV recommendation is the 2008 BBC mini-series Tess of the D'Urbervilles. It just feels more authentic especially since it was shot in England which Tess wasn't. I also absolutely love Gemma Arterton as Tess especially her accent in this; I have no idea if its a true rural Wessex accent, but it sounds rural-ish and also has a very girlish, adorable and naive sound to it which just fits Tess. The series looks gorgeous too but despite the beauty it is still a wrenching tale of a young woman used and abandoned by the people in her life.

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

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Check out some of my random Thursday Movie Picks

Thursday Movie Picks #28: Movies with Colour in the Title
Thursday Movie Picks #11: Nautical Movies
Thursday Movie Picks #25: Bank Robberies
Thursday Movie Picks #14: Found Footage Movies
Thursday Movie Picks #21: Movies Adapted from a Play (non-Shakespeare and non-musical)

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #50: All in the Family Edition: Sibling Relationships (Biologically Related)

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is All in the Family Edition: Sibling Relationships (Biologically Related)

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Every last Thursday for the first nine months of 2015 I'm running the All in the Family Edition and this is the sixth theme for the edition. My three of my picks this weeks all come from different genres: Period drama, contemporary drama and horror.

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

I think my favourite adaptation is the 1995 mini-series but this is very good as well. Most would know it because of the Elizabeth and Darcy romance, but at the center of it is the Bennet family where Elizabeth is one of five sisters, all with different personalities. Perhaps if you've never seen this you may think it is one of those slower period dramas; it's not. It is also very funny.

The Savages (2007)

The premise of this movie is something very familiar: you either have been in this position, will soon be or have seen others in it. In the Savages, brother and sister played equally brilliantly by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney have to determine how best to care for their aged father whom they don't even have a good relationship to begin with as I remember, but regardless feel a sense of duty towards.

You're Next (2009)

Other than what happen to the neigbours, the movie begins quite brightly. A couple of adult siblings come together for a weekend with their parents at their country home and I thought aww this looks like a sweet family that gets along. Then the snide remarks start to appear; at dinner they have an all out argument and we get the picture of how their relationship really stands. It is the family/sibling relationship that is the foundation of this very very clever thriller. If you still haven't seen You're Next quick get to it!

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

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Check out some of my random Thursday Movie Picks

Thursday Movie Picks #28: Movies with Colour in the Title
Thursday Movie Picks #17: Movies Featuring Amnesiacs
Thursday Movie Picks #25: Bank Robberies
Thursday Movie Picks #13: Zombie Movies
Thursday Movie Picks #22: Movies that Feature a Family Secret

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #49: Animated Movies

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Animated Movies

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This week theme somehow seems oddly familiar, but after checking past themes, we've really not done this theme before. Now I think I've mentioned on this blog that I don't watch a lot animated films anymore; so I'm not quite caught up on the best animated films of today. My picks will have to come from the pool of films that I watched as a kid and the kid me pretty much loved all the animated feature films I had seen then. I thought it'll be fun to also do a theme within a theme thus I'm picking animated films centering on non human characters.

The Land Before Time (1988)
I watch this movie quite a number of times as a kid especially since it played on TV a lot back in the 90s so it was unavoidable. Anyone remembers the theme song If We Hold On Together sung by Diana Ross?

The Lion King (1994)
Love, love The Lion King. The movie just gorgeous with a great soundtrack. What is it with kids movies scarring children with scenes of a parents death?

Toy Story (1995, 1999, 2010)
I think I really did grow up with these movies. It had been the first CGI movie I had seen way back when it was first released and from what I understand it was actually the first full length CGI feature ever. I find each subsequent Toy Story is more emotional than the one before despite being essentially about the lives of toys...Pixar is so good at making full fleshy characters from its non human characters.

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

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Check out some of my random Thursday Movie Picks

Thursday Movie Picks #3: Movies set in a Mental Institution
Thursday Movie Picks #9: Sports Movies
Thursday Movie Picks #16: Haunted Buildings
Thursday Movie Picks #7: Dramatic Scenes
Thursday Movie Picks #23: Coming of Age Movies

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #48: Movies Set in a High School, Secondary School or the Equivalent

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies Set in a High School, Secondary School or the Equivalent

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As usual I set up my own parameters for today's theme. Firstly, a majority of the setting has to be the school. Second, I excluded all teen comedies since we already had a teen comedy week and lastly no boarding school movies as we've already had that too. So here are my picks:

The Breakfast Club (1985)
I can't help but pick this movie for this theme; it's set 100% in a school. What happens when a student from each clique are forced to spend several hours together? Some very emotional scenes as they confront each other prejudices.

The Chocolate War (1988)
Based on a YA novel, the story centers on Jerry who as part of a secret society initiation ritual is tasked to refuse selling chocolate boxes for the school's annual fund raiser. I know that might not sound like the most appealing premise but some bad stuff goes down when Jerry continues to refuse selling beyond the number of days he was ordered, as his own little act of rebellion against the school's corruption. Little did he know that his actions escalates the power struggle between Archie, a student who is the mastermind of the school's secret society, and the corrupt school headmaster resulting in Jerry becoming an outcast picked upon by the other students. I love the book so I was thrilled when I found out it had already been adapted way back in the 80s. The book has such great villains; I wished the movie had the gritty performances to flesh out those characters. The movie also certainly tones down the sinisterness of Archie's schemes and the overall bleakness of the novel; still, the movie was an interesting watch.

Speak (2004)
I know I've mentioned this movie quite a number of times but it's so good and yet so under seen. It's also perfect for this theme; a majority of the scenes are set in the school and shows the its social structure. It even has that scene like in Mean Girls where they introduce the cliques but with less of a humorous tone and more to highlight how the protagonist doesn't fit in none of them.

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

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Check out some of my random Thursday Movie Picks

Thursday Movie Picks #7: Dramatic Scenes
Thursday Movie Picks #16: Haunted Buildings
Thursday Movie Picks #24: Movies Driven Entirely by People Talking
Thursday Movie Picks #14: Found Footage Movies
Thursday Movie Picks #22: Movies that Feature a Family Secret

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #47: Kids Movies Adults Would Enjoy (Non-Animated)

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Kids Movies Adults Would Enjoy (Non-Animated)

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I don't have kids, but as a fan of movies, I do sometimes watch some kids movies. Now I can't help but think that parents/guardians have probably had to sit through countless awful kids movies that are just too sugary sweet, too heavy handed, too moralistic, too simplistic or full of bad acting among others. So here's to saving parents/guardians from bad kids movies.

The reason why I have the caveat as non-animated is because I have a feeling that without it, we'll see a lot of Pixar movies being picked. We all know Pixar is very good at making movies that cuts across all age groups so I thought it would be a much interesting and less easy theme without Pixar movies.

Flipped
You know how you'll sometimes hear of elderly couples who've been married forever because they're childhood sweethearts? I feel like Flipped is a movie of how they got together. It's a very sweet tale of two kids who live across each other in the early 1960's. For the earlier part of their childhood it was mostly an unrequited love, not even a friendship, until the other slowly starts to notice what's in front of them. The movie is based on a young adult novel which I haven't read but I understand they actually pushed the time setting a few decades backwards; I think it works and I really enjoyed the 60s setting. Don't the kids just dressed smartly for school in those days? Actually in general, I think people just dress better in that period.

Peter Pan
Peter Pan needs no introduction, everyone know this story and this adaptation is brilliant. I just love this movie. It's got action, adventure, magic, comedy, drama and has a lot heart. It makes me feel like a kid again.

The Secret Garden
Fell in love with this movie as a child and I still love it. There is no actual magic in this, but there's an almost magical quality to it with how the children's spirit were all restored through the restoration of the garden. If you have a little girl or still young at heart, don't miss seeing this particular adaptation of The Secret Garden.

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

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #46: All in the Family Edition: Mother-Son Relationships (Biologically Related)

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is All in the Family Edition: Mother-Son Relationships (Biologically Related)

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Every last Thursday for the first nine months of 2015 I'm running the All in the Family Edition and this is the fifth theme for the edition. Here are three of my picks:

Animal Kingdom (2010)
The film follows a criminal family and features the relationships between the family members: between brothers, uncles and nephews, and mother and sons. Jacki Weaver plays Janine the matriarch of the family who may seem like just a loving and fussy mother at first, but she has a very strong hold on all her sons. Animal Kingdom has almost a silent but intense air of menace that permeates throughout the film that have you anticipating something bad to happen at every turn. I highly recommend this movie.

Mother (2009)
In Mother, Yoon Do-joon suffers from some unnamed mental/learning disability making him slower than most of his peers. When a girl is murdered, he becomes the prime suspect; it doesn't help that he's too slow to defend himself. Despite Yoon Do-joon being seen as guilty by the police and public, his mother believes he is innocent and will do whatever it takes to prove it; how far will she go to protect her child?

Nowhere Boy (2009)
The movie follows the teen years of John Lennon and features his relationship with his aunt that raised him and his absentee biological mother who comes back into his life after years away. The two women are opposites. One is mature and likes order, The other free-spirited; encouraging Lennon's interest in art and music. Nowhere Boy is kind of the perfect pick today since you'd basically get two mothers here.

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

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #45: Movies based on a Graphic Novel/Comic (Non-Superhero)

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies based on a Graphic Novel/Comic (Non-Superhero)

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Since we already had a superhero theme a couple of weeks ago, I think it's perfectly fitting to have that little caveat there excluding superheroes. I don't think it should limit your choices especially since there have been more and more graphic novel adaptations lately.

This week I'm going with favourites; picking the first two was simple enough, the last was somewhat tied with several others but I'm just going to go with it.

Road to Perdition
One of my favourites and it's definitely not a movie that immediately comes to mind when you think of a graphic novel adaptation. If you like noir, I think you'd enjoy this. The movie revolves around complex father-and-son-relationships, loyalty and the search for justice; which is somewhat absurd since they are all immoral characters, something Paul Newman's character is quick to point out. Jude Law also plays a memorable villain here.

V for Vendetta
The Lives of Others was a very popular pick last week; if you like that you may like V for Vendetta. In this one, a futuristic Britain is ruled by a totalitarian government until a man called V starts to cause a little havoc, planting seeds of discontent and igniting a revolution. This is the only one of the three where I've read the graphic novel. The movie did make a couple of changes: the time period is changed and the movie serves more as a commentary on what has occurred as they say, across the pond among others, but one notable difference is probably V himself. In the movie V was more enigmatic and dangerously charming. In the novel, V is so much crazier and scarier.

300
I feel like I've talked about this movie before on this blog, or perhaps mentioned it in comments on another. Not a movie I thought I'd like but I was pretty sold on it once I saw the trailer. So it may not be the most historically accurate, what it is, is entertaining and a visual spectacle.

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

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #44: Foreign Language Movies - German

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Foreign Language Movies - German

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I do a a foreign language theme every few months or so; this is the second foreign language theme since the inception of the series. The first was French movies and there will be two more of such themes this year so look out for that if you like watching non English titles.

I have to admit I haven't watch a lot of German language movies; still, I have caught a few gems.

The Princess and the Warrior (2000)
I've picked this movie before (I think it was the Mental Institution theme) but I can't help it because it is a favourite. Written and directed by Tykwer, the movie centers on a nurse at an asylum whose life clashes with a thief when she is hit by a truck.

The Lives of Others (2006)
The movie follows an agent of the secret police in East Germany conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover and he soon becomes absorbed by their lives. It won the Oscar Foreign Language Film award, which definitely got more people to watch it, so I'm pretty sure this is going to be a popular pick this week. I'm still going to pick it because it is really good and if you have somehow missed watching it, you really should get to it.

Barbara (2012)
This is another movie set in 1980's East Germany. The movie is about Barbara, a doctor, banished to work in countryside clinic after applying to get an exit visa to join her boyfriend who lives in the West. Barbara is seen as a potential defector and as such the Stasi are watching her like a hawk and she can't trust any of her new colleagues, who can all be Stasi informants. The movie paints a scary world in a quiet manner; love it.

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

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Check out some of my random Thursday Movie Picks

Thursday Movie Picks #7: Dramatic Scenes
Thursday Movie Picks #16: Haunted Buildings
Thursday Movie Picks #24: Movies Driven Entirely by People Talking
Thursday Movie Picks #14: Found Footage Movies
Thursday Movie Picks #22: Movies that Feature a Family Secret

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #43: Work Place Movies

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Work Place Movies

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Before I start with my picks, here are my own criteria as to what are considered to be work place movies: A majority of the story must take place at the work place (office, store or whatever) and a majority of the interactions and relationships are with colleagues.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Does this movie need any introduction? I'm sure just about everyone has seen this right? You don't even have to care about all the fashion stuff. After all it is just about a young woman trying to find her footing in the working world, starting out in a publication she doesn't quite care for at first and becoming subordinate to one of those demanding scary bosses that constantly gives that look of annoyance and disappointment over everyone supposed incompetence.

Empire Records (1995)
Are there anymore record stores out there or have they all pretty much died out by now? Empire Records takes place mostly over a day at the store as its dedicated employees scramble to try and save the store. I sort of love this movie because of the 90s and the record store nostalgia. I used to think working at a record/video/book store would be fun because you'd be surrounded by other individuals who are interested in the same things, well at least that's what movies and TV tell you right? Wrong; most don't know anything about what they're trying to sell beyond how many copies they have in stock because everyone's just there to get by.

Morning Glory (2010)
I found this to quite a charming drama/comedy. Rachel McAdams plays a young television producer hired to produce a struggling morning show. Morale in her new team is very low due to ratings pressure and her job is made more challenging by hosts that just don't get along putting a dark cloud over the morning show. Don't worry all is well by the end, and it interesting to see all the wrangling done to have that chirpy perky show every morning.

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

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Participating Blogs/Bloggers