Thursday, May 28, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #46: All in the Family Edition: Mother-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: 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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Thursday, May 21, 2015

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



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 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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Thursday, May 14, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #44: Foreign Language Movies - German


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 Foreign Language Movies - German

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German Movies

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


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Thursday, May 7, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #43: Work Place Movies




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 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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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 :)
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Thursday, April 30, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #42: All in the Family Edition: Father-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 - Father-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 fouth theme for the edition. Here are three of my picks:

Emma (1996)
Not necessarily my favourite Emma adaptation; but it ticks the criteria of being a movie. I've also already picked Clueless a few weeks ago, so that is out and honestly I don't think I can ever not like a Jane Austen movie unless it is really terrible. I'm choosing Emma because she is thoroughly devoted to her father, Mr Woodhouse, who after losing his wife, Emma's mother, when Emma was a little girl, becomes a chronic worrier. Although a vivacious young lady, Emma has never left her hometown to always be by her father constantly reassuring him that all is right in the world. Their relationship is just so sweet.

Washington Square (1997)
Washington Square also features a motherless young woman, Catherine, whose mother dies giving birth to her. Left with only one parent, she is devoted to her father, Dr Sloper, who although does his duty as a father, struggles to show affection towards Catherine. The father and daughter relationship unravels when a man of no wealth courts Catherine.

Trouble with the Curve (2012)
I found myself liking this movie coming in with no expectations. Amy Adams is great in it as an estranged daughter of Gus, a baseball scout. She reluctantly goes on a recruiting trip with Gus, who is stubbornly putting off his eye treatment, to make sure he's ok and also to get closure on why he has pushed her away all these years.

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

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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 :)
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Thursday, April 23, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #41: Superhero Movies



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 Superhero Movies

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With Avengers: Age of Ultron coming out of next week, Superhero Movies is a fitting theme for this week. Don't you think that almost every movie that get made now is either an adaptation, a sequel or a superhero movie; with most superhero movies, they are often also an adaptation and a sequel. Still, with the onslaught of superhero movies being released, are a lot of them any good? Some are and here are three of my favourites. By the way I'm on Twitter now, click the widget on the sidebar.

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Spider-Man (2002) 
I was torn between this and its sequel but decided with this one since it paved the way for the second. I know a lot of people like The Amazing Spider-Man because it was more faithful with Peter Parker's characterisation; but for me, someone who has never read the comics, Tobey Maguire was Spider-Man. I like the narration which gave an insight to his character. Maguire's Spider-Man was also more awkward, less cocky, felt more and hurt more making him a much more endearing character.  

Sky High (2005)  
I completely underestimated this movie as Sky High is actually an incredibly fun and it stars some recognisable actors who were then in their teens. Somewhat like a mashup of X-Men and The Incredibles with a superhero family and a school for kids with superpowers, it follows Will Stronghold who just started freshmen year at Sky High. As he has yet to develop a super power, he is placed into the sidekick class and have contend with feeling inferior than the rest of his classmates who all have some super power no matter how uncool those powers may be.

X-Men: First Class (2011)
Once again I had to choose. It was between this and the first X-Men movie. This won because it had a more attractive story following Professor X and Magneto before they were Professor X and Magneto, and on the same team. Plus the actors playing Professor X and Magneto (James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender) have major acting chops and had the opportunity to show it in this movie; Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen didn't quite have the same intense scenes in the X-Men movies they were in since by then their characters have learned to accept their differences. My favourite scene in First Class is probably the final scenes after the bullet deflection.

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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, April 16, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #40: Police Movies



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 Police Movies

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This week's theme was suggested by John Hitchcock @ HitchcocksWorld. I think for most of you that participate weekly in this series, this week would perhaps be one of the easier themes; definitely better than last week's. I thought that would be the case for me, but when I look at what the movies I've seen, I realised haven't watch a whole lot of police movies, and I haven't love a great many of them. Still, here are the ones I like.

The Departed (2006)
The tension in this movie is so high. I was expecting Billy's cover to get blown at various points and can you believe it's been almost 10 years since this was released.

Hot Fuzz (2007)
In Hot Fuzz Simon Pegg plays a London cop who is so good he makes the rest of colleagues look bad. Thus he is transferred to a quiet town with no action and is idolised by his new dimwitted partner who tries to get out of him all the cool city cop stories. If you enjoy buddy cop movie, this one is hilarious!

Dredd (2012) 
Would never have thought that I would like this, but I did! I remember the movie being described as being videogame like and I totally agree. In it, Dredd and his rookie partner get trap in a 200 storey building controlled by the drug lord Ma-Ma and are hunted by her clan. The odds are against them but Dredd is an exceptional cop and with the rookie's psychic ability, they fight their way through the levels and finally meet the big boss in the end.

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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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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 :)
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