Thursday Movie Picks #229: TMP Television Edition Adapted from a Non-English Series

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 titles 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 - Adapted from a Non-English Series

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I've always love these TV edition weeks, but sometimes they can be harder to pick because I don't keep track of the series I've seen. So often I feel I am forgetting a series. Anyway my picks today are ones that I have seen the English remake but not the original series.

The Killing (2011-2014) remake of Forbrydelsen (2007-2012)

A remake of a Danish series, The Killing follows the investigation of the murder of a teenage girl found in in the trunk of a submerged car. I had been looking forward to this since I heard that the original was very good. Unfortunately the remake was a disappointment. The pacing was just glacial; I just could not watch it and only managed about two episodes of the first season.

The Returned (2015) remake of Les Revenants (2012-2015)
A remake of the French series, it's about deceased locals in a small town returning from the dead. I thought this remake was decent. I was quite hooked on it and thus very disappointed when the series was not renewed and we never got the answer as to why the deceased have returned. 

Containment (2016) remake of Cordon (2014)

A remake of a Belgian series, the remake is about a city quarantined after a virus outbreak. Containment was just astonishingly awful; it's like a very juvenile take of an outbreak. The dialogue was very bad, then there was also the whole supposed vaccine research done by a lone doctor in a hospital and the handling of the cordoned area by authorities which were all just so so silly.

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Thursday Movie Picks #228: Non-Linear Timelines

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 Non-Linear Timelines [Suggested by Mettel Ray]

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This week's theme is a suggestion by Mettel Ray. This theme is both fun and challenging. A lot of films have flashbacks, so I didn't want to pick something that only employ character flashbacks in their non-linear narrative. I suppose I was also looking for those where there are different characters/stories and timelines and they all eventually overlap and converge. Anyway I think I just about manage it and all of them I actually really like.

Dunkirk (2017)
The movie follows and alternates between three different groups of people from three different start off period. The ones that we follow from land that start from one week ago, the ones making their journey by sea that start a day ago and lastly the pilots that start from an hour ago. Their stories slowly start to overlap and eventually fully converge by the end.  

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

This one does employ flashback scenes, in which we discover how two strangers that meet on a train actually do know each other. But it also has a separate but related story arc of a set of characters and how they have affected and would affect the two strangers we meet in the beginning and the story come full circle.

11:14 (2003)
I don't remember much of this other than I liked it when I first saw it and was surprised at how the movie had not received much attention. Basically 11:14 follows different groups of people whose lives overlap and converge at 11:14pm.
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #227: Museum

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 Museum

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Another tough theme this week.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010) 
Set in the early 20th century it follows a young authoress as she explores Egyptian tombs and later mayhem at a museum in Paris. I didn't really enjoy this. I found it a little silly, but I am probably not the right audience for it. My guess is if you like Night at the Museum and the Indiana Jones movies, you might like this.

Russian Ark (2002)
This was the movie that came immediately to mind when I came up with this theme. In Russian Ark the audience sees the world through an unseen protagonist as he is guided by a 19th century man in black as they journey through 300 years of Russian history in the Russian State Hermitage Museum. The movie is best known for its single continuous shot which is a tremendous feat considering the number of actors, dancing scenes and live orchestras.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
A great heist movie that is also perfect for today about a rich playboy who steals priceless art for the challenge and the insurance investigator tasked to get the stolen painting back.
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #226: Political Comedy

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 Political Comedy

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This week's theme is by Wendell. It is a tough one for me, I haven't watched that many political comedies so there were hardly any to pick from.

The Campaign (2012)
I saw this, but I don't remember a thing about it. So I'd say it is generally forgettable.

In the Loop (2009) 
One of my favourites. Filled to the brim with profanities but also hilarious.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Very funny. Like In the Loop, this is a must watch and it has aged very well.
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #225: Gangsters

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 Gangsters

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I don't watch a lot of gangster movies so I almost thought that I had few to pick from until I remembered two that I recently rewatched.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Four friends heavily in debt after a card game go wrong scheme to rob a gang of robbers and ultimately have to go against a myriad of other criminals when their paths intersect. I rewatched this and my pick below pretty much back to back. If had to choose, I prefer this better. Four friends totally out of their depth made for a funnier story.

Snatch (2000)
Different story and characters but still very much like the above, involving a bunch of different criminals with their individual schemes overlap and intersect resulting in chaos that is very funny.

Layer Cake (2004)

You know what...I've forgotten the plot to this. The only thing I remember is that I was surprised at how good it was and how much I liked it when I saw it so long ago. This is will be my next rewatch.
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #224: Halloween/Television Edition: The Weird

 

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 Halloween Edition - The Weird

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 4 - Halloween Edition: Home Invasion
October 11 - Halloween Edition: The Dark/Night
October 18 - Halloween Edition: Technology
October 25 - Halloween/Television Edition: The Weird

So we've come to the final Halloween edition and as it is the last Thursday it is also the TV edition. This week I'm picking TV series that mixes all sorts of genre making them all weird messy messes that also have a lot of weird stuff happening too.
 
Hemlock Grove (2013 - 2015)

I like vampire/werewolf shows and this one had a very striking poster so I gave it a try. I did end up watching all three seasons, only because the Netflix library was very limited then. I would say only the first season which had a stronger mystery element to it was decent. The other seasons added more science fiction to the show which just didn't make it as good.

Legion (2017 - )
Legion is about David Haller the son of Professor X of the X-Men, who has multiple personalities and each of his personality has its own superpower. That does sound awesome doesn't it? To an extent it is. Weird and crazy stuff happens and the series has this really interesting look that is both retro trippy but also a little futuristic which I do like. However the series is just so inconsistent. To get one brilliant episode, you'd have to sit through like two to three episodes that were just misses. I watched the entire season one, but after seeing the first episode of season two, I gave up. The season seemed it was going to be plagued by the same unevenness.

Fortitude (2015 - )
The setting, a town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, attracted me to the series. It sort of reminds me of White Out, 30 Days of Night and other horror/thrillers set in a similar sort of setting that has a small local police force who have to battle the harsh weather and solve a crime. Fortitude is a mix of crime thriller, science fiction and the supernatural and like my other picks today it has so much weird crazy stuff: man-eating polar bears, weird insects, mastodon remains, witch doctors and that is just what I remember. I would say I enjoyed season one better. I thought season two overstretched itself with all the different stuff that was going on. 

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Thursday Movie Picks #223: Halloween Edition - Technology

 

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 Halloween Edition - Technology

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 4 - Halloween Edition: Home Invasion
October 11 - Halloween Edition: The Dark/Night
October 18 - Halloween Edition: Technology
October 25 - Halloween/Television Edition: The Weird

This one was quite tough as I've tried to not pick ones that I've picked too many times before.
 
The Ring (2002)

A journalist investigates a mysterious videotape that causes the person viewing it to die. Technology - video tape, old technology, even by 2002, but I suppose that is why it works here; an almost obsolete technology showing a grainy mysterious footage makes it more scary. Anyway that scene when the girl reaches out was just the freakiest. I know there was a sequel recently, was it still a videotape?

Shutter (2004) 
A young photographer and his girlfriend discover mysterious shadows in their photographs after a tragic accident. Technology - photography. It was remade in 2008 but skip that and just watch this. Shutter is one of my favourite ghost stories and I can't believe I've only picked this only once before. It has some really good scary scenes and like most good ghost stories it has at its center a tragedy and is so incredibly sad.

Chatroom (2010)
5 teens meet in a chatroom and one of them has a dark side. Technology - internet. The only one of my picks today that I dislike. This movie is just like 10 years too late. By 2010 social media had taken over chatrooms, even popular chatrooms like MSN chat had already been shut down a couple of years before.

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Thursday Movie Picks #222: Halloween Edition - The Dark/Night

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 Halloween Edition - The Dark/Night

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 4 - Halloween Edition: Home Invasion
October 11 - Halloween Edition: The Dark/Night
October 18 - Halloween Edition: Technology
October 25 - Halloween/Television Edition: The Weird

I'm picking movies that I recently watched that had key dark/nighttime scenes.
 
The Others (2001)

Near the end of World War 2, a woman and her two children who are sensitive to light start to believe their isolated mansion is haunted. I re-watch this again recently, still love it and it is perfect for this theme. Memorable scene is the one with the old lady in the veil in a darkened room

The Blackcoat's Daughter a.k.a February (2015)
When their parents fail to pick them up for winter break, two school girls remain alone at their boarding school with the only staff around being two nuns living in a small house a little off the main buildings. This one was real creepy and it starts on the first night when the senior girl hears strange noises coming from downstairs.

The Visit (2015)
Two children visit their grandparents whom they have not met before as their mother is estranged from her parents. The grandparents are just weird weird weird, but it gets weirder at night and the children are basically told to stay in their rooms past a certain time.

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Thursday Movie Picks #221: Halloween Edition - Home Invasion

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 Halloween Edition - Home Invasion

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Hey it's October again and it's time for the Halloween Edition. Take a look at what's in store for the rest of the month.

October 4 - Halloween Edition: Home Invasion
October 11 - Halloween Edition: The Dark/Night
October 18 - Halloween Edition: Technology
October 25 - Halloween/Television Edition: The Weird

 
You're Next (2011)

I've picked this movie at least once before. It is really good, cleverly flips the home invasion plot. Also that's a great poster right?

Hush (2016)
I first heard about Hush from one of you fellow TMPickers, I think it may have been Wendell. It is very good and having a main character that is deaf does allow the movie to have a fresh take on the old home invasion plot. Plus the main character was both smart and resourceful and the actress playing her was great and with such expressive eyes.

The Purge (2013)
This is the only one of The Purge movies that I've seen and I like it. I thought it had an interesting idea.
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #220: TMP Television Edition - Anthology

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 titles 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 - Anthology

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Is it me or are anthology series quite trendy right now; I can probably name about ten or so currently on the air. In the past horror anthologies seem more of the norm, now there are more from other genres. My picks today are 4 of the more recent anthologies I've seen.

Black Mirror (2011 - )

Black Mirror the technology horror anthology, it has a new story each episode, is probably one of the buzziest anthology series in recent years. Like most, I only manage to watch it when it was available on Netflix and I did not like the first two episodes. They were sooo dark and bleak that I took a very long break before coming back to it again. The good news is I did like the next couple episodes much much better. I still have yet to watch everything, I think I can only consume a couple of episodes every few months, but my favourite so far is The Entire History of You. 

Inside No. 9 (2014 - )

A British anthology series that mixes dark humor with crime and horror with a new story each episode all taking place at various "No. 9" addresses. I've only seen the first season and it is quite good. They all seem to start funny at least up until the first half and would turn subsequently very very dark.

Ordinary Lies (2015 - )

Another British anthology series. This is more of a drama with each season set in a new work place as we follow its employees through the course of their "ordinary" lie in their personal/work life. I really enjoyed this series and am hoping there is a third season.

American Vandal  (2017 - )
A true-crime satire, this series follows two teenage filmmakers as they explore a new mystery each season. The first season is the only one I've seen and it is so so good and funny too; it has the two teens following the aftermath of a prank at their high school that left twenty-seven faculty cars spray painted with drawings of penises. The second season was released earlier this month and I'm hoping it is just as great.

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Thursday Movie Picks #219: Farm

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 Farm

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I'm picking the ones I like.

The Man in the Moon (1991)
Remember that thing that happen to Reese Witherspoon's character sister's boyfriend.

Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)
I prefer this adaptation to the 1967 one. This Bathsheba is less silly, more mature and of course the movie looks gorgeous. 

Tess (1979)

Another Thomas Hardy adaptation, though this is not my favourite adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles (the 2008 tv adaptation is), still this is pretty good. Poor Tess, she had such a miserable tragic life.
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #218: Good Remakes

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 Good Remakes

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This week's theme is a suggestion by Mettel Ray. Wow this is hard. Usually, the expectations with remakes is low and most don't exceed them. Harder yet to find one where I have watch the original and love the remake. So most that I've picked are ones that I like, that just happen to be remakes...and are generally considered to be good remakes so.

Let Me In (2010)
This is the only one that I've seen the original movie, Let the Right One In, and perhaps one can't even call this a remake since it's based on a book and therefore just another adaptation. Usually I can't even decide which, the 2008 or 2010, I like better. I'd probably say the 2008 one, but maybe that's only because I saw it first?

The Departed (2006)
Remake of Infernal Affairs (2002) which I have yet to see. Intense drama thriller about an undercover agent and mole in the mob and the police repectively and perhaps because I have not seen the original I've enjoyed how the twist and turns in The Departed play out. 

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Remake of the 1978 movie of the same name. I really like the remake and since I haven't seen the original, I 'm just going to make a guess that the remake is better acted and with better special effects.
 

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Thursday Movie Picks #217: The New Kid at School

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 The New Kid at School

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I've been the new kid at school before, but I was very young and it's easier for younger kids to make friends. However, it must be terrifying to be an older kid being new to a school where everyone else have known each other for most of their lives like in the movies I've picked today.

Mean Girls (2004)
Having never gone to school before, new girl Cady gets a lesson on the social structure of a school. 

Twilight (2008)
The first third or so was all about Bella having to move to live with her dad, being the new kid at school in a small town and becoming some sort of a novelty at school since everyone else knows everything there is to know about each other already.

Morris from America (2016)
Morris from America is the new kid having just arrived in Germany. It's summer, so this isn't quite school, but Morris is enrolled in some classes at the youth center probably to prepare him for his eventual school life and he is struggling to fit in what with him speaking little German and being the only foreign black kid.
 

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Monthly Book Picks: The Month of August 2018

Hey, if you've ventured past my usual movies post and found this book blog post, welcome. It's a new series that I've started: Monthly Book Picks where I select my favourite reads of the past month on the first Monday.

This is one of the rare times that I actually remember to do a post when I'm supposed. Here are my picks for August.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning (2011)
Formerly obese Neve who is still working towards a size 10 begins a practice relationship with her sister's colleague Max, so that she can be ready for a real relationship with her crush William, who is coming home after years of working abroad.
While I have read a few Sarra Manning's YA titles, this is the only adult title of hers that I've read and I am pleasantly surprised as I didn't like her YA titles that much, but I love this. I enjoyed her writing much more here and the story is just sweet, charming and funny. I definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy UK chick lit especially those by Sophie Kinsella and Mhairi McFarlane.

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (2018)
1950, Vermont. A girl from a boarding school for troubled girls goes missing. 2014, Vermont. Fiona, a journalist, is still haunted by the murder of the her sister 20 years ago whose body was found near the ruins of a girls' boarding school. When a shocking discovery is made during the restoration and renovation of the same school, a link is soon found between what is found now to the events of 1950 and 20 years ago. 
This book is like so hot this year, I keep seeing it on a lot of 2018 books-to-read lists and I can totally see why now because I really like it. It's part mystery thriller and part ghost story which made it such a good spooky atmospheric read. I especially love the ghost story part of this and how the ghost haunts is just so creepy and scary. I'd recommend it to anyone that like mystery thrillers with a side of paranormal.

Thursday Movie Picks #216: TMP Television Edition - College

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 titles 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 - College

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I've always wondered why there have been so few college series, I mean college is a great setting for a story right? Anyway here are the ones I like.

Felicity (1998-2002)

I don't think I managed to watch the last season, but I did enjoy the show a lot. And yes, I did not like Felicity's haircut in the second season.

Undeclared (2001-2002)
I don't remember much about this anymore, just that it was funny and short-lived.

Fresh Meat (2011 - 2016)

A UK series that I watched recently about six university students sharing a house and it was hilarious. I kinda wish the series didn't end and simply continued with a set of new students and the one original main character that did not graduate like the rest.

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