Thursday Movie Picks #191: Just One Day

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.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Just One Day

---

I'm going for anything that takes place within a 24 hour period or less and I'm also trying to pick movies that I've not picked before in other TMPs. Here goes:

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
A mad general launches a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. I tried watching this like 10 years ago, for only a few minutes and gave up. Tried again in 2017 and I finally get it. It's funny! It's about something so serious but it manages to be so sharply funny. There are a couple of scenes that have been used in a certain podcast and when I finally saw it in the movie, the whole complete scene, I could not stop laughing. I totally get it now why people say this is one of the funniest movies ever. If you've not seen this before, now is probably the time to see it.

Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
I can't believe I've not ever pick this before. This used to be on TV so much when I was a kid, I was sick of it. 

A Single Man (2009)

An English professor is unable to cope with life without his partner who died a year earlier. The movie is sad but looks so beautiful. Everyone is so finely dressed.

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this series, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

--- 

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Monthly Book Picks: The Month of January and February 2018

Hey, if you have read my blog the last month or so you may have heard me talking about starting a Monthly Book Picks where you select your favourite reads of the last month; so here it is. Since I missed January, I'll be doing both January and February picks this month. If you want to join in do leave a link using the inlinkz gadget below. Monthly Book Picks will go up every first Monday of the month.

January 2018

“There are no good men in this game.”

Vicious (The Villains #1) by V.E. Schwab (2013)
The Gist: College roommates become vicious enemies after developing superpowers through their science experiments. Ten years later, one of them has come back to execute his revenge.
Imagine The Prestige movie but instead of magicians it's people with wicked superpowers. I had high expectations going into this because it has a high rating on Goodreads which was definitely met and Vicious has become my one of favourites. It has great writing, plot, pacing and fascinating characters. If you're tired of the usual superhero fare, as the quote above implies, there are no heroes here.  I can't wait for the sequel and the film adaptation which I'm surprised has not come sooner.


February 2018

“There was a small part of me that was still childish, stubborn in her hope, thinking I could somehow have everything. ...That I could be all the versions of me, stacked inside one another, and find someone who would want them all. But that's childhood. Before you realize that every step is a choice. That something must be given up for something to be gained. Everything on a scale, a weighing of desires, an ordering of which you want more--and what you'd be willing to give for it.” 

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda (2016) 
The Gist: Nicollete has returned to her hometown for the summer to help her brother fix their old house so that they can sell it to use the sale money for the father's nursing home expanses. Then her father, who has dementia, starts saying that he has seen the disappeared girl on their porch, only he has not been to their house a year since his nursing home stay and which girl was he referring too? Nicollete's best friend who disappeared ten years ago or the latest girl that has gone missing, their neighbour. Told in reverse, the link between the girls is slowly revealed as the past resurface.
This is actually my second reading, I loved it on the first read but it being a mystery told in reverse and with a first person narration,you know how unreliable they all are, I knew I was missing a lot of the breadcrumbs the first time around. And yes this is definitely one of those stories/books that you'll continually discover new things you missed before. I also love the writing and the narrator's voice that has a certain reflective wariness to it. Overall just a satisfying suspenseful mystery, one of the best I'd say that I read the last year or so.

“Power. What men like best for themselves and least in their women.”

The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief #2) by Megan Whalen Turner (2000) 
This is the second book in the YA fantasy series The Queen's Thief. The first book The Thief is about a thief who claims he is able to steal anything so he is recruited and goes on a journey with the king's scholar, a soldier and two apprentices to recover a treasure. The first two thirds of the first book, for me, was boring. But the last third was excellent. In the second book, The Queen of Attolia, the thief this time is enlisted more for stealing information and that really is all I can say lest I spoil the first book. Also that, unlike the first book, it is great from the start. It has action, drama, political intrigue with plenty of twist and turns and even has a little romance. I love The Queen of Attolia more, but you definitely can't jump to reading this without reading the first book and all the essential world building.

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this series, and also link back to my blog on your own Monthly Books Picks post :)

 

Thursday Movie Picks #190: Oscar Nominated Movies that should have Won

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.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Oscar Nominated Movies that should have Won

---

Today's theme is by Birgit. I haven't watch a lot of the Best Picture nominated/winner movies, so it is kind of hard for me to say which should have won, so I'm sort of doing a reverse of it. I'm picking movies that I think should NOT have won because I have watched them and think surely the other nominees (some I have seen, others not) were better.

2010 Winner - The King's Speech (2010)
While The King's Speech was not at all bad, I do think some of the other nominees were better and more memorable. I prefer Black Swan, Toy Story 3 and The Social Network.

2005 Winner - Crash (2004)
I think everyone hates it right, so surely something else should have won. I can't remember much of Crash any more other than it was terribly heavy handed in its messaging. The only other nominated movie I saw was Good Night, and Good Luck and I think I had found it better than Crash.

2001 Winner - A Beautiful Mind (2001)

I found A Beautiful Mind boring. This is one of those years that I've seen all of the other nominated movies. Gosford Park, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Moulin Rouge! are my some of favourite movies so I prefer any one of them to have won.

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

--- 

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday Movie Picks #189: TMP Television Edition - Legal Dramas

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie 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.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is TMP Television Edition - Legal Dramas

---

I used to watch a lot of legal dramas about 15 years ago...I suppose because there wasn't much else to watch and there were like 3 Law and Order shows on the air. Now not so much. Here are my favourites over the years.

A small unrelated TMP note: Going ahead with MBP (monthly book picks). Goes up first Monday of the month, if you're participating, with both Jan & Feb picks this March.

Ally McBeal (1997-2002)
So unlike any other legal series, this is just so quirky and funny. It's so memorable for so many things. Remember Ally's short skirts, the unisex bathroom, the dancing baby, the secretary's face bra, and just the overall madness of the office.

The Practice (1997-2004)
This was the other David E. Kelley legal series that was on air the same period...the more serious one. While I don't remember this as well as Ally Mcbeal, I remember liking it a lot.

Law & Order (1990-2010)
Its dual storytelling is one of the things that I like about Law and Order and the original Law and Order is the best at it and has a better cast as well I think. The first half of the show concentrates on the investigation of a crime by the police and the second is the legal side as we follow the district attorneys now presenting the criminal case in court. 

The Guardian (2001-2004)
Of my picks today, this is probably the one that is not as well known. I remember this being great and loving it a lot. Simon Baker plays corporate lawyer Nick Fallin who gets busted for drug use and is sentenced to community service as a child advocate for Legal Aid. Fallin has a sort of frosty emotionless manner which works for him when dealing with the corporate world but out of his depths with his new role.

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

--- 

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

 

Thursday Movie Picks #188: Break into Song Scenes (Non-Musicals)

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.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Break into Song Scenes (Non-Musicals)

---

I love these kind of scenes in a movie, they are often a lot of fun. I had previously wanted to pick that "You Make My Dreams" fountain scene in 500 Days of Summer, until I realised they only broke into dance but did no singing. So I am only left with picks that are all from movies either about weddings or have a wedding scene.

Some unrelated Thursday Movie Picks stuff - I don't know how many of you actually read the paragraph before my weekly picks but here goes...I was thinking of doing a Monthly Book Picks thing where say the first Monday of the month you pick your top reads (so it is not a theme based thing) for the previous month and anyone joining can add their link to the inlinkz form like how it's done with TMP. As I missed January picks, I plan to start in March listing both January and February Picks.

My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
It's the one at the restaurant where everyone sings I Say a Little Prayer. It's a very upbeat catchy song that makes you want to singalong.

Ella Enchanted (2004)
I'm trying to remember if this was a musical, I don't think it was...so it's here. The scene is at the end when everyone breaks into song and dance to Don't Go Breaking My Heart.

Bridesmaids (2011)

Right at the end when Wilson Philips came on to sing Hold On and everyone sang along.

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

--- 

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday Movie Picks #187: Romance

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.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Romance

---

I'm picking favourites.

Love Me If You Dare (2003)
Two childhood friends continue their game of dare into adulthood making them second guess their feelings for each other at every turn. It's quirky with a visual style like Amelie but has a much less sweet story. 

Before Sunset (2004)

Picked this countless of times before for other themes; it's my favourite of the Before series. It's two people just talking at its best.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) 
I suppose this could be a sort of anti-valentine movie since it is about two people who have broken up trying to erase each other from their memories.

Becoming Jane (2007)
The movie imagines Tom Lefroy as Jane Austen's once great love (he may not have been) and I enjoyed it. The leads had great chemistry and there were lots of wonderful banter and passionate dialogue much like an Austen novel.

Jane Eyre (2011)
I think I had picked this for a theme very recently, but whatever, Jane Eyre is what comes to mind immediately when I think of Romance movies. This one is such a beautifully done adaptation too.

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

--- 

Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Thursday Movie Picks #186: Story Within a Story

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.

---

This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Story Within a Story

---

A story within a story seems like something that could make an interesting movie. While I think I may have seen one that I like, but the title escapes me now, so my picks are those that I am not really a fan of.

Third Person (2013)
This has three interlocking stories. One of them has a writer at the center, so you can already see where the story within a story comes from. Ambitious but ultimately uninteresting.

The Words (2012)
Once again it's a movie that has writer characters. Less ambitious but the link between the stories are clearer so I think it makes for a more coherent storytelling.

The Princess Bride (1987)

A grandfather reads a story to his grandson. This is one of those movies that I want to re-watch as I just didn't see why everyone just love this movie. 

---

If you are participating be sure to add your blog post to the linky widget below (Enter your Blog Post URL, your Blog Name and your email {which will remain hidden}). Please also visit the other participating blogs, spread the word about this meme, and also link back to my blog on your own Thursday Movie Picks post :)

--- 

Participating Blogs/Bloggers