Thursday Movie Picks #176: Origin 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 Origin Movies

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When I came up this theme, I was thinking of something that was more than just a prequel and something along the lines of character origins, so that's what my picks are based on. Unfortunately I don't think any of these movies are that great.

Dracula Untold (2014)

The movie uses the real life 15th century Romanian prince famously known as Vlad the Impaler as the origin story for Dracula of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Not the most creative as an origin story since people have always wondered if Stoker had modeled Dracula on Vlad because of the name and origin country. The movie was just ok.

Maleficent (2014)

An origin story for Maleficent the one that cursed Aurora in Sleeping Beauty. I just did not like the origin story for Maleficent and the movie had too much CGI. Is it just me or did anyone else when they saw Sleeping Beauty as a kid, just thought Maleficent was just like a witch and not some fantastical creature? Like I was so surprised that she had like wings and horns. I mean in the animated movie I thought she was just wearing an exaggerated version of a kind of double conical headwear that European women wore in the middle ages.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Not good and just very forgettable. From the title, my guess is that they probably had wanted to do a bunch of X-Men origin movies...well that didn't happen.

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Thursday Movie Picks #175: Movies with Strong Female Character(s)

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 with Strong Female Character(s) [Suggested by Birgit]

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Today's theme is by Birgit

Volver (2006)

A great movie with an almost all female cast about family and secrets. When something happens to her daughter, Raimunda holds it together and fixes the situation as she is also confronted with the truth of her mother's death.

The Hunger Games (2012-2015)

Katniss - the girl did take the place of her sister and survived two Hunger Games.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Rita Vrataski - the warrior that lead the victory in one of the battles against an alien race. Live, die, repeat. You've got to be brave to do that and without the guidance that Cage got.

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Thursday Movie Picks #174: An Adaptation (of a book, comic, game etc that hasn't been adapted) You Want to See

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 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 An Adaptation (of a book, comic, game etc that hasn't been adapted) You Want to See 

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Ok I love today's theme because I have often thought...hey I would like to see a movie of that. My Picks are going to be all books, all standalone titles (meaning not part of a series).

YA Books

Looking for Alaska by John Green

This is the only book by John Green (you may have heard of his other books: The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns which have been made into movies) that I've read and I love it.  Apparently I read somewhere that the movie at some point was in the works but somewhere along the line it fell through or something...I'm not sure if it's back on, which is why it's on this list. The gist: believing he has led a boring existence, a teenage boy decides to go to a boarding school where things are perhaps less boring. There he falls for one of the girls in his group of friends, called Alaska.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

This one is so much fun. Frankie is witty and smart, but has been treated as being less smart or excluded for being a girl. Realising that in the real world the ruling elite are mostly from the old boys club; she secretly infiltrates her school's all boys secret society and outwits them...basically there a lot of amazing pranks involved.

Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher
16 year old Gemma is drugged and kidnapped from Bangkok Airport and taken to the Australian Outback. The story is told in letter form from Gemma to Ty, her captor, as she reflects on what has happened to her from the moment she saw him. But here's the thing, as you read, you don't really know if Gemma has escaped, is still a captive or worse...until the very end of her letter of course.  Anyway there had been news that there was going to be a movie, but it has been a year or perhaps more since the news; it has been very quiet. Here's hoping it is still happening.

Adult Books

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
If you've seen Fight Club, or read Palahniuk's books than you sort of know what to expect. His characters tend to be a bit or a lot nutty. In Survivor, the main character is Tender Branson, the last surviving member of a cult. The book opens with him speaking into a flight recorder of an empty plane. He plans to tell his life story, before the plane crashes. The story is all sort of crazy with a lot of dark humor, I'm very curious what a movie of it would look like.

Local Girl Missing by Claire Douglas
I've been reading quite a lot of thrillers lately and this is one of the better ones. The gist: 21 year old Sophie goes missing 18 years ago and her best friend, Frankie, is haunted over what happened to her. When Frankie gets a call from Sophie's brother, now a local newspaper editor, that her remains may have been found, Frankie goes back to her hometown to find out if it's really Sophie. The story is also a little spooky which I like. I don't even remember where it is set, but I imagine the movie would have a lot rain and very misty/foggy.

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Thursday Movie Picks #173: A Stranger

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 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 A Stranger

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This is I think one of those more unique sort of theme unlike say remakes or vampire movies...so I'm curious as to what movies end up on everyone's list today. Anyway here's mine, the bottom two picks are the ones that I like.

Sommersby (1993)

I've seen this at least twice, but this is one of those movies where I retain very little of what happens other than the basic plot and a bit of the ending. A man returns home after the American Civil War, but his wife suspects he is an imposter.

Stoker (2013)
After India's father dies, an uncle she never knew existed comes to live with her and her mother. I've picked this movie so many times before but here it is again because it fits so well and also a favourite of mine. A beautifully shot psychological thriller.

The Guest (2014)
A man visits the family of a fallen soldier and claims to have served with him. He's so nice and charming that the family lets him stay with them. The only roles I had seen Dan Stevens play prior to seeing this were all middle/upper class British guys and this was such a departure; he got really physically fit and plays an American with a southern accent. Also you'd never think the guy who was cousin Matthew could do sinister, but yeah Dan Stevens was so so good in this. Of course this year there was Legion, where he got to play crazy as well...which were the best bits of the very inconsistent TV Show.

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