Thursday, March 26, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #37: All in the Family Edition: Mother-Daughter Relationships (Biologically Related)




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 All in the Family Edition: Mother-Daughter 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 third theme for the edition. Last month's the theme was Father-Son Relationships and in January it was Married Couples. This week we're looking at Mother-Daughter Relationships and my picks are in chronological order.
 
White Oleander (2002)
In White Oleander; Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer), a poet, is idolised by her young impressionable daughter, Astrid (Alison Lohman). When Ingrid is sent to jail for life for the murder of her boyfriend, Astrid is shuffled from one foster home to another. Self centered and cold, Ingrid maintains her influence over Astrid through her letters and Astrid's prison visits, attempting to mold her daughter into her ideals to the point of sabotaging Astrid's happiness to maintain her dominance.
 
Volver (2006)
This is such a movie about mothers and daughters, how can I not pick this? When her daughter, Paula, is attacked, Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) fiercely protects her in a way that her mother never did for her. As Raimnuda tries to get her family's life back to normal while running a restaurant, her own mother comes back from the dead to fix their broken relationship.

Byzantium (2012) 
Somewhat similar to Volver, this feature another mother (Gemma Arterton) fiercely trying to protect and save her daughter (Saoirse Ronan). Spending too much time together for long periods of time can cause or reveal cracks in any relationship; in Byzantium, mother and daughter are vampires on the run who have been stuck with each other for a very long time. Their relationship is further strained by the fact the daughter has never been comfortable with what she's become and rejects her mother's means of survival.

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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
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Thursday, March 19, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #36: Movies adapted from a Young Adult Novel


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 Movies adapted from a Young Adult Novel

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Young Adult adaptations seem to have been unfairly written off because some of the recent popular adaptations haven't really been good movies. However, in each category/genre wouldn't there be more bad apples and than goods ones? I'm sure if you really look, there are couple of good ones in the barrel. Here are my picks for what YA adaptations has to offer.

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The Hunger Games (2012)
This movie surprised me for so many reasons. First that it managed to get made. Second that it was a well made movie with capable actors that capture the core of the story. Lastly for successfully adding  elements to it that we never got in the book such as the behind the scenes of the Hunger Games with the Gamemakers.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)
The movie spans one night as Nick and Norah go around New York meeting friends along the way and trying to find an elusive band. Found this to be a cool and fun movie about some kids having fun, being stupid, awkwardly navigating love and friendship, and just being young. 

Speak (2004) 
Speak is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the novel of the same name about a girl, Melinda, who becomes unable to speak after a traumatic experience at an end of summer party. The movie delicately follows Melinda in finding her voice again and still keeps her inner sardonic humour, and in doing so manages to make a movie that has a difficult theme both touching and funny.

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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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Thursday, March 12, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #35: Live Action Fairy Tale Adaptations


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 Live Action Fairy Tale Adaptations

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The live action Cinderella directed by Kenneth Branagh opens this week and fairy tales are back in vogue now. Just last year there was Maleficent and of course by now you might have heard about last week's Beauty and the Beast casting news. It's not just Hollywood too, the book world is also filled with fairytale re-tellings. Which is why today's theme is Live Action Fairy Tale Adaptations. My picks today are two favourites and one bad movie pick


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Red Riding Hood (2011)
Let's start with the bad. Red Riding Hood. At the center of this movie is a young woman choosing between two suitors one a supposed bad boy and the other the family's match. A love triangle, really it's a pretty sad attempt to throw romance and make the movie sexy which it still fails. This all of course takes place in the midst of a witch hunt for wolves or witches or both that's been tormenting their village which I thought was the more interesting aspect of the movie. Still, the movie was just so bad it even had the whole "what big eyes you have" line.

Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)
If you love the Cinderella story you have to see this movie. It is a lovely spin on Cinderella with Drew Barrymore as Danielle who was orphaned when her father dies and is made servant by her stepmother. Smart and plucky, Danielle catches the prince's eye when in disguise as a noblewoman(to rescue another servant her stepmother has sold) she gives her opinion about everything. Danielle is definitely not a damsel in distress in Ever After.

Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1998)
Snow White has been getting quite a number of adaptation recently with Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman and its sequel which is in the works. However, the only Snow White movie that worked for me was the 1998 Snow White: A Tale of Terror with its interesting take on the well known tale. In it Snow White is a little bratty giving the stepmother, who didn't start out all evil, a very hard time. Then something terrible happens which threw the stepmother over the edge and out for Snow White's blood. The dwarves here aren't dwarves either but outcasts, while the prince charming is just another outcast who crosses path with Snow White after her stepmother went crazy. The movie does get quite dark and creepy in the second half, what with all the witchcraft going on, so this is definitely not a fairytale for kids.

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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

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Thursday, March 5, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #34: Black and White Movies made since 1970




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 Black and White Movies made since 1970

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Modern Black and White Movies Paper Moon, Pleasantville and Sin City

We're back to regular programming; this week's theme is a suggestion is from Wendell@DellonMovies and it's a tough one considering I have not watch a lot of black and white movies, much less those modern movies that were intentionally made so. Still I tried and admittedly some of them are not fully black and white having some scenes in colour.

Paper Moon (1973)
I remember this to be a cute and charming movie starring real life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O'Neal playing a con man and a spunky little girl who go on the road together.

Pleasantville (1998)
Fun movie where a 50's black and white sitcom depicting the perfect lives of its characters transform into colour when two teenagers from the 90's are transported into their world and change them.

Sin City (2005)
I heard the sequel was bad which is a pity because I like Sin City and wanted to see a continuation to the different storylines. One of the things I like about Sin City is that it looked like it jumped out of the panels of the book, basically it's a moving graphic novel.

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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

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #33: All in the Family Edition: Father-Son Relationships (Biologically Related)




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 All in the Family Edition - Father-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 wow did time flew because today is the the second theme for the edition. This week is pretty easy one for me, my picks came easily. Here are three of my favourites:

About Time (2013)
The big misconception about this movie is that it is just a romance/romantic comedy and people probably gave it a miss because of that. Yes there are elements of romance and comedy in it, but it is as the title says it is. It is about time, about valuing it and family. One of the relationships that was focused on is the relationship between Tim and his father. They have a great relationship and it's just one of those that is just so rarely seen on screen. One of the saddest scene in the movie was when Tim and his wife decides to have a third child and we understand what it means for his father so I was pretty much sobbing when Tim and his father went to the beach near the end of the movie.

Billy's father may not approve of Billy's fondness for dancing, but when he realises how good and dedicated Billy is to dance he comes around to supporting him. The goodbye scene is one of the most heartwarming scenes of very masculine characters expressing their love for each other.
Road to Perdition (2002)
This movie is just perfect for today's theme since it has three father-son relation though one is not biologically related so I won't go into that one. The first is the relationship between the mob boss and his foolish reckless son. The other is between the mob's hitman who has been shielding his sons from his life of crime until one of them spies on a hit which leads to disastrous consequences and I'll just leave it at that.

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

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #32: Oscar Winning Movies (from pool of Winners of Best Picture/Best Animated Film/Best Foreign Film)




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 Oscar Winning Movies (from pool of Winners of Best Picture/Best Animated Film/Best Foreign Film)

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The Oscars are upon us! Are you a fan of the Oscars? Do you watch the ceremony? I use to really follow all these various award shows, but now I really don't follow who wins what or who got snubbed because there are just so many good stuff out there that just doesn't have the marketing machine behind it to help it get seen and nominated. That said I still watch the Oscars because it's still a pretty entertaining show: I enjoy the opening jokes by the host, the funny thank you speeches and the performances for best song. So because it is Oscar Week, picks this week have to be one of the movies that have won a best film award. For my picks I'm going with some of my favourites:

This movie was my introduction to the world of dark comedies back in 1999. Dysfunctional family movies are kind of the norm now, but then (at least to me) it was just so new going beneath the surface of the perfect-from-the-outside family. I still catch this movie sometimes when it's aired on TV and it still draws me in with its interesting messy characters and the sardonic narration of Kevin Spacey's Lester Burnham

Gladiator (2000)
I wasn't at all interested to see Gladiator because I though all it had to offer was people battling in the Colosseum. Eventually I did see it when it aired on TV and I pretty much love it. It was the sweeping music, the sweeping shots. the epic story and especially the acting that won me. Russell Crowe was of course superb as Maximus, who can ever forget his iconic lines, and Joaquin Phoenix was just hateful as Commodus.

Rebecca (1940)
I've talked about Rebecca here before. Joan Fontaine is just perfect as the Second Mrs. de Winter with the right blend of youth, innocence and naivety who is just trying so very hard to be as elegant as Rebecca. The movie itself is haunting, suspenseful, also surprisingly funny in the 1st third and I'd consider (except for the bit at the end) a very faithful adaptation of the book.  

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


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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Top Ten Tuesday #4: Ten Book Related Problems I Have


Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish weekly meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish where bloggers share a list based on a weekly theme.

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I haven't been doing any bookish posts lately so I thought I'd do this week Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Related Problems. I only manage to come up with only eight problems which is good I suppose.

Choosing What to Read
That is the primary problem isn't it? There are only so many hours in a day and so many that I want to read.

Books or Audiobooks
I'm really enjoy listening to audiobooks especially since I can do other things while listening. This brings about another problem: which book should I read and which should I listen because I still enjoy just reading a book the traditional way.

Book Amnesia
I guess it's natural to forget plots of books the more you read but it sucks when you're reading a series and can't remember what happens in the previous book which I recently encountered when I read The Infinite Sea (I couldn't remember who the secondary characters were).

Read It or Watch It First?
As a fan of both books and movies I am continually torn on this. Either way I lose the experience of going into one of them not knowing anything.

Mixing It All Up
I like watching adaptations and for some books I have watch a few different adaptations that it has. I have found that when I have watched the adaptations, eventually the stories have kind of get mixed up and overlap where I can no longer remember what was actually in the book and what was just stuff that the adaptations changed and added in.

Borrowing More Than I Can Read
When the books I want to read become available I can't help myself from borrowing it even though I already have like a stack of library books at home still unread.

Not Reading the Books I Own
The last time I read a book from my own bookshelf was probably more than a year ago. They are so neglected.

Rotting Books
Here in the tropics humidity is high, accelerating decomposition...basically my books are rotting...ok I'm exaggerating. But they are yellowing terribly fast and of course the mass market paperback fare the worst. The pages of the books that I bought some ten years ago now look ancient.


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