Thursday Movie Picks #305: Great Final Films of Actors/Actresses

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 TMP Television Edition - Great Final Films of Actors/Actresses

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Today's theme is one by thevoid99. Well this is a tricky theme. It was such a challenge to find any movies, but I did manage to find three. While I do think these are good movies, I don't think it was these actors performance that elevated them; they were good movies because of other actors' performances or it was just a really good screenplay.

Adrienne Shelly - Waitress (2007)
If we're talking about acting performance, it would be Keri Russell's, I thought she was great in this. Shelley did however act in this movie too, her final film which she had also written and directed; and it is a great movie. It manages to be the right balance of quirky, funny, sad and heartwarming.

James Gandolfini - The Drop (2014)
Gandolfini's last feature film. As far as I remember he was good in it. I actually want to rewatch this. I remember thinking it was a really good gritty crime drama. And the dog...it was so cute.

Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
The Hunger Games movies are by far the best YA series adaptations. While I did like this movie I don't feel as invested in it as I was in the book, and this adaptation wasn't the best in the movie franchise either. I much prefer Catching Fire and the first movie, they were I think better movies. Still as I've said this was still good and it was Hoffman's last. I have to say he wasn't really given much to do in this franchise. Still he was decent...he certainly has better performances in his filmography.

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Thursday Movie Picks #305: Girls' Trip

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 TMP Television Edition - Girls' Trip

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This theme was inspired by my first pick. Maybe it's just me, but it seems that after it was released there seem to be more movies about women going on trips/vacations together.

Bridesmaids (2011)
This the best out of my picks today. This is a little bit of a cheat because they only sort of went on a trip but like I said this movie inspired this theme. Anyway the women all got on a plane for a Las Vegas bachelorette party, but things went wrong along the way in a funny way and they got kicked off the plane. It's a short bit in the movie but a memorable one.

Wine Country (2019)
I enjoyed this one about a group of middle age friends trying reconnect by going on Napa Valley vacation.

Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
I watched this very recently and yes they went on a trip. The girls most of whom have graduated, miss singing and decided to reunite and join an overseas USO tour. While I enjoyed the singing bits, I do think the movies have deteriorated with each sequel. There's just not much of a story there. And don't you just find the Emily character (played by Hailee Steinfeld) in the sequels redundant? I sort of do...she is even more so in this one.

Rough Night (2017)
A group of friends go to Miami for a bachelorette weekend. This one is a little like a mash up of Bridesmaids with the whole wedding and bachelorette thing going on and Wine Country with the whole old friends trying to reconnect. I would also say it's a little like a female version of The Hangover as well in that it has all that gross humor thing. Overall I would say it was just an ok watch.

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Thursday Movie Picks #304: Seven Deadly Sins Edition - Envy

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 Seven Deadly Sins Edition - Envy

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Welcome back to the Seven Deadly Sins edition. I hope this edition has been fun for all and today we're on the fourth sin which is envy. I'm just going for whatever came immediately to mind.

Cinderella (2015) 
Cinderella's stepmother's cruelty is the result mostly of her jealousy; jealous that Cinderella possess beauty and intelligence that her own daughters lack and that she is so beloved and will always come first for her new husband. I really didn't like the costume choices for this movie, it looked cartoony and gaudy. What I did like was character development especially of Cinderella, the prince and her stepmother.

Dorian Gray (2009)

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favourite books. I've seen this and the 1945 version and I can't say I like either that much. However, if had to choose, I'll pick this 2009 version because I really dislike the Dorian in the 1945 one. So jealousy...Dorian, a handsome young man who becomes jealous of a painting of himself because it, unlike him, will stay young forever and so he makes an extraordinary wish.

The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
A man is betrayed by his best friend who is jealous of his good fortunes. It was an ok movie.

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Thursday Movie Picks #303: TMP Television Edition - Game Shows

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 TMP Television Edition - Game Shows

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I grew up watching game shows like Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right since they get a lot of airtime on the local channels and they are simple enough for a kid to play along. But the ones I really love now are the quiz show ones, the ones that are challenging and preferably with little pointless chatting...I'm looking at you Who Wants to be a Millionaire...I mean just answer the question already, you either know the answer or don't...don't ponder over it for 5 minutes. Unfortunately the local channels don't really show a lot of these quiz shows because I'm guessing most of them are American and British quiz shows where the questions are very much geared towards their American and British contestants and audiences, so local audiences here don't really have that much fun playing along. Hence most of the great quiz shows can only be seen on cable TV and now Netflix. Here are my favourites:

The Chase (2009 - )

The original British The Chase of course. We used to get UK's ITV channel here but the cable operator have since stop airing the channel which is a pity so I have yet to see the newer seasons. The game is basically contestants competing against a professional quizzer "the chaser" who tries to prevent them from getting the cash prize. Contestants are given answer options so in that regard it is little like Who Wants to be a Millionaire and it is quite chatty too but overall I would say less annoying. The only minus I would say is that sometimes I think the Chaser is not trying hard enough since they have less stakes.

The Weakest Link (2000 - 2017)
The original British The Weakest Link of course. This was shown on one of the BBC channels and unfortunately the show has ended after the host retired. The game has nine contestants taking turns answering questions within a time limit and at the end of each round the contestants vote the weakest contestamt out of the game. I love this quiz show. The questions come at a rapid fire speed with contestants having to answer quickly and correctly because how much the eventual winner gets depend on how many correct answers they all answer without breaking the chain of correct answers in each round. So basically this game show has very little pointless chatting. And it's quite funny too with the sharp snarky remarks the host usually makes at the contestants trying to unnerve them after each round.

Jeopardy!  (1984 - )
The original American Jeopardy. While I've known about this game show for a long time since it is often reference in pop culture, I never knew it is a quiz show because I don't think this was ever shown on the local channels at least ever since I started watching game shows and I started young. Perhaps they used to show it in the 80s and maybe it didn't quite catch possibly because local audiences didn't really have that much fun trying to play along and answer questions that are so clearly geared towards American and Canadian contestants/audiences. So anyway I finally got to see it when Netflix started streaming it about two years ago and it was mostly the special tournaments, how I wish they would show whole seasons. This has now become my absolute favourite game show. Like the Weakest Link this too goes through the clues very quickly. I love the wordplay often used in the clues. It is so much fun and challenging. Seriously where else can I use my completely useless general knowledge, only for quiz shows such as this of course...Jeopardy makes me feels smart which is not often. And I'm always astonished when I get the answers correctly and none of the contestants do. They don't have picture clues often but there was once a WWII picture clue where they had to identify a historical figure, it was obviously Patton, I think there was even a tank in it and if I remember correctly none of the contestants buzzed in, no one even tried...I was so surprised. Anyway my favourite categories are literature, world history, TV, movies and general pop culture. Bad categories for me are American geography, American politics and worst is American sports, I know absolutely nothing about American football or baseball.

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Thursday Movie Picks #302: Verbal Altercations

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 Verbal Altercations [Suggested by Getter]

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This week's theme is a suggestion by Getter. I love dialogue heavy movies so I greatly enjoy verbal fights. I think you really see the strengths of the script and acting in those scenes. Anyway here are three that I love and I know I'm forgetting other great ones.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)
The praise is mostly to Austen of course because her dialogue is so sharp and the movie does a decent enough job of putting all of that on the screen. The scene takes place after Mr Darcy tries to propose to Elizabeth which he does so horrendously. As he is awkward, too honest and totally unable to flatter, he insults Elizabeth's family and her social standing as he is proposing. Of course she is offended!

Closer (2004)
It was that scene where Clive Owen's character confronts his wife played by Julia Roberts about her infidelity. I found him pretty scary as he relentlessly presses his wife to divulge the details of her affair.

American Beauty (1999)

It's the dinner scene. It is soo good and darkly funny as well.

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Thursday Movie Picks #301: Numbers in Title

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 Numbers in Title (Not part of a franchise)

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There are tons of movies with numbers...most of them franchises...which is why I put that little rule for no franchises...still there are plenty left to choose from. Here are some of my recent watches:

Starter for 10 (2006)
A first year university student navigates school, love and participates in a televised university quiz show. I had been wanting to watch this for quite some time because it stars quite a number of actors before they became recognizable names:  James McAvoy, Rebecca Hall, Dominic Cooper, James Corden  and Benedict Cumberbatch. Overall just an ok watch.

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
An awkward high-schooler's life becomes unbearable when her best friend dates her popular older brother. I love this. I thought it was funny and portrayed awkwardness just really well. Just the main character trying to navigate a party looks painful, not because she does silly stuff, but just because it is clear she doesn't feel comfortable there.

Eighth Grade (2018)

An introverted awkward girl tries to navigate the last days of 8th grade. I like this one too which is another movie about an awkward teen. The main character here is quiet and socially awkward in her real life but she aspires to be the opposite so she pretends to be outgoing and have it together on her Youtube channel...and it's so very clear she's very naive, awkward and faking it so she doesn't get that many views...which just makes the awkwardness more painful to watch because of how real and current it feels since a lot of young people now seem to want to be social media stars even when the don't really have the "IT" factor.

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Thursday Movie Picks #300: Movies about Animals

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 about Animals

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Today's TMP is the 300th one! Can you believe it! We would never reached 300 without all of you that participate every week. And the theme of the day is a suggestion by  Birgit. I was quite apprehensive about this theme at first. I tend to dislike animal movies because a lot of them are super sad. So I've picked ones that are lighter in tone that I love.

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993)
I grew up watching this and loved it. It's a cute, funny and heartwarming adventure and it's one of the few live action movies that feature a cat as one of the main characters.

Puss in Boots (2011)
I like animals in general but I'm definitely more of a cat person. And when I saw Puss in Boots I thought, the writers and animators must be cat people or they must have spent hours observing cats before making the movie because they captured them perfectly and made all the little things they do funny.

The Jungle Book (2016)

I think I may have seen the 1967 Jungle Book as a child but I don't remember much of it. I had thought the idea of a live action The Jungle Book was going to be terrible so I was not interested in seeing the movie at all. Then it was added to Netflix and I thought fine I'll watch it and ended up loving it. The Jungle Book world looked magical and the animal characters were really really well done. The music...the music just gave the movie that extra magic...I absolutely love the musical numbers. Definitely stay for the end credits which has this lovely pop-up book thing with the characters moving around and singing to one of the songs.

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