Thursday, September 10, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #61: Train 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 Train Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)

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Hey everyone! This week's theme was suggested by John Hitchcock @ HitchcocksWorld. There has been quite a number of train set movies in recent years but trouble is I don't think I've really love love most of them so I'm going with some older picks.

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
I don't know where The Darjeeling Limited would rank in Wes Anderson's filmography, but I certainly like it. Possibly more than his most recent. Best of all it fits today's theme perfectly.

The Lady Vanishes (1938)
A young woman realises an elderly lady she recently became acquainted with has disappeared on the train they are traveling on. She tries to enlist fellow passengers to help find the missing lady but some of the passengers have oddly claim to never have seen such a person. For some reason I thought this movie was made much later, I didn't know it is that old. One of those rare times I like a very old movie. I was reading the IMDB message boards today and it seem people didn't like the first 30 minutes. No...why? I thought it was a good introduction to the characters with some funny bits.
Strangers on a Train (1951)
Yep another Hitchcock film. Can't help it. It's one of my favourites. If you have yet to check this one out, do it now; it's one of those movies that's referenced a lot. While this has much less scenes on a train unlike my other picks today, the train does play a major role in the plot which is very simple really. As per the title: two strangers meet on a train, each has someone in their life they want to be rid off. One of them pitches a scheme to swap murders because without connection and motive prosecution has a weaker case. The other thinks it is all just empty silly talk until one of them does the deed.
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 So that's it...my three picks. What three movies made your list today?

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Thursday, September 3, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #60: Teachers



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 Teachers

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For some reason, this week's theme seem familiar to me. I think it could be because we've had a couple of school related themes in the past so we could very well see a lot of overlaps in the movies mention this week. Which is why I'm trying to pick the not so popular titles and avoiding those that I've picked before even though I love them...so no Dead Poets Society :(.

Notes on a Scandal (2006)
I don't know about you, but most of the movies I've seen Judi Dench in she is either plays a sweet little old lady or some upper class lady in some period flick. So it was nice to see her in Notes on a Scandal where plays a bitter manipulative teacher blackmailing a fellow teacher played by Cate Blanchett who is having an affair with one of her students. The performances by both actresses in this is soo good.

In the House (2012)
In In the House, a French teacher, Germain becomes engrossed with his student Claude's essay about his relationship with his friend's family. Germain soon starts tutoring Claude to encourage the writing and becomes privy to the friend's family lives through the essays. I like movies that feature unreliable narrators and Claude is clearly a clever boy making the lines of what is real and what is fictionalised to keep Germain hooked blurred.

Monsieur Lazhar (2011)  
At a Montreal grade school, Algerian immigrant, Bachir Lazhar, is quickly hired to fill the vacancy left by a teacher who committed suicide in a classroom. The kids are silently traumatised over the tragedy and Lazhar tries to help them with their grief while also keeping his actual residency status a secret. A good, inspirational type of teacher movie with good performances all around. If one of the girls look familiar, it's because she's the one in The Book Thief.

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

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Thursday, August 27, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #59: All in the Family Edition - Stepfamilies


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: Stepfamilies

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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 eight theme for the edition. This week turned out to be quite challenging; I don't think I usually notice the family structure depicted, which is in most just in the background of the plot. 

Stepmom (1998)
I'm guessing this would be a popular pick for this week for obvious reasons. I remember it to be quite a tearjerker too and young Jena Malone had a big teen angst moment. Another recent movie with a similar plot, but in my opinion not as good is The Other Woman (2011).

Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
This movie is super cute. The plot is about two families blending together when a widow brings 8 kids and the widower brings 10 kids, making a new large family. There was a remake in the 2000s but I much prefer the original.

Juno (2007)
I've always thought that Juno's parents were incredibly supportive over her pregnancy. Remember there was a scene with the stepmom and the ultrasound technician.

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

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Thursday, August 20, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #58: Non-English Language Movies - Asian Language Movies Set in East Asia (Non-Horror)



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 Non-English Language Movies - Asian Language Movies Set in East Asia (Non-Horror)

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If you think the title of today's theme looks a bit different, it's because I change it from Foreign Language to Non-English Language. Now that that is out of the way, today it's movies set in East Asia. As usual a little caveat: it must not be horror. Why? Because horror is possibly the region's biggest export so we're here to share other interesting titles from other genres. Plus I already have Asian Horror as a theme for the TMP Halloween edition. If you are not too sure what countries are part of East Asia, please Google it :).

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
The movie centers on a 10th century Chinese royal family (fictional?) that probably rivals that of the Romans with its mix of betrayal, murder, revenge and infidelity. Visually, Curse of the Golden Flowers is a feast for the eyes. It has gorgeous, extravagant, over the top sets and costumes that are just dripping in gold. The story goes a little opera-ish but overall it really is a fun watch, so just sit back and watch as this family implode.

Hana and Alice (2004)
Oh I'm having trouble picking a Japanese movie. I've probably watched more than I can now remember and the ones I do remember, I've already picked before, don't like or can't remember much of. So I'm going to go with quiet and odd but charming movie Hana and Alice about two girls who have a crush on a boy the see at a train station. When the boy suffers temporary memory loss after a little accident, one of them pretends she's his girlfriend.
 
Hwang Jin Yi (2007)
Yes another period drama. This time it's 16th century Korea and centers around the title character, Hwang Jin Yi, a noblewoman who chose to become a gisaeng (a female entertainer/courtesan). I don't quite understand the world it depicts but it is fascinating to watch and of course there's the gorgeous costumes.


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

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Thursday, August 13, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #57: Movies with Devastating Crushing Endings that Makes You Want to Weep



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 with Devastating Crushing Endings that Makes You Want to Weep

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Well the theme today is quite a mouth full. I'm sure you've watched such movies before; ones that leaves you crushed, weeping for the characters or humanity and just emotionally drained. So share and we can all cry together. I also can't help myself and pick five instead of three; it's ok just get more tissues. As always in random order:

In My Father's Den (2004)
I mentioned this movie in TMP#22 and I'm picking it again this week. The gist of the story is a war photographer comes home when his father dies to finally put the family secret, the one that caused him to run away from home as a teenager, behind him. However, he soon becomes prime suspect in a teenage girl's disappearance and the ending is just devastating for the characters, especially against the backdrop of the beautiful New Zealand landscape.

The Devil's Backbone (2001)
Picked this movie way back for the Halloween Edition TMP#16. The gist of the movie is it is near the end of the Spanish Civil War and an orphanage is haunted by a ghost that the children believe was a former occupant who disappeared. While the haunting was initially scary, this is more than just a ghost movie. It's about greed, good and evil, kindness, and bravery. I know that Pan's Labyrinth is probably everyone's favourite Guillermo del Toro movie, but I can't really choose. I love both. This movie opens and ends with this quote: "What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber." While the ending hints at some hope, in the larger context of things it is still heart wrenching.

Lilya-4-Ever (2002)
In short it's about a young teen girl who is a victim of an underground sex trade. So yeah it is very bleak and depressing. I Dreamed A Dream could be the theme song for this except without that romantic summer Fantine sings about; just more of the tigers.  
 
The Mist (2007)
I've also picked this movie before for the very first TMP ever. But what can I do, The Mist is perfect for today's theme. I'll try to be extremely vague and you won't understand unless you've seen the movie: at the end a main character does an act of self sacrifice until we see the larger picture. It is a huge blow. The character collapses and you can't help but feel extremely sick too. I'm not sure how anyone can recover after such a thing.

Lord of the Flies (1990)
I know the 1963 movie is the more famous adaptation but I did not like it. I grew up seeing this version and while I haven't seen this in a long time, I like it a lot better. Once again if you are not familiar with the story at all you will not likely be spoiled. Even in the book it has always the scene at the end when the kids run out of the jungle into the beach and meets a military man(pilot?) that stuck with me. It's a big moment for reasons I don't want to spoil. In the movie I remember the look the man gives, from puzzlement to some sort of realisation as Ralph weeps and I want to cry too.



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

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Thursday, August 6, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks #56: Alien Invasion of Earth



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 Alien Invasion of Earth

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So remember like two weeks ago we had a science fiction theme with a no space or aliens caveat? Well that's because of today's theme of Alien Invasion. Basically I'm trying to cover all the sub sub-genre for Thursday Movie Picks.

The Thing (1982)
I really enjoyed The Thing. The isolatedness and harshness of Antartica adds to the scariness of a shape shifter embedded in a team of scientists, planting the seeds of suspicion and have them fear and distrust each other. Perfect ending too.

Signs (2002)
I like Signs. It was atmospheric, mysterious and had really good performances by the kids. I like it up till the revelation at the end which just seems weak and lacking.


The Faculty (1998)
The Faculty is sooo much fun. If you haven't seen it, go do it now! The gist of the story is that alien organisms have taken over control of a small town high school faculty as a starting point for an invasion. The only people to stop them are an odd mix of teens consisting of the school jock, popular girl, bad boy, goth girl, geek and new girl who have noticed the faculty's odd behaviour. The movie has a really fun cast too especially for you know...the faculty. 

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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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