Thursday, December 25, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #24: Movies Driven Entirely by People Talking





Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

This week is the last Thursday Movie Picks of 2014! How the weeks flew by. It's been a wonderful run. To those that have participated this year I hope you had fun, as I did, sharing your picks each week and hopefully have even been checking out your fellow participants picks as well. And if you are new to all this and are thinking about participating in 2015, the 2015 theme schedule is already up. You can check it out at the series main page here.

Before we start as usual, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is 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.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies Driven Entirely by People Talking

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Since we had a movies adapted from a play them recently (most based on play movies are very dialogue heavy) I decided to avoid them entirely...so there goes Closer which would have been a perfect choice this week as well. I like dialogue heavy movies so naturally I watch quite a lot of them so even without movies based on a play I am pretty spoilt for choice. And so these are three that I've settled on.

My favourite of the Before trilogy. I love the long conversation they have (we did wait 9 years for it!) and just how seamlessly it flows from one topic to the next. If you haven't seen this trilogy what are you waiting for?

In the Loop (2009)
In In the Loop, a British minister makes a remark about war sending reporters in a frenzy and sets off maneuverings by war and anti war factions in the governments of both the UK and US. This movie is just completely foul mouthed but insanely hilarious. And if you love Dr Who...the current Dr reprises his TV (The Thick of It) role and spews out profanity filled lines in this one.

Network (1976)

Just watch this a few weeks ago. I think it's commentary on news, TV and the media in general is possibly more relevant today than the period it was set...which is just amazing. Having watch Michael Clayton before this, the rantings of Peter Finch's character in Network reminds me so much of Tom Wilkinson's character's breakdown rant.

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

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Check out my past 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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Friday, December 19, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #23: Coming of Age Movies




Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Coming of Age Movies


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There's an abundance of male coming of age movies so I decided to challenge myself and go for female coming of age picks.

This isn't Carey Mulligan's first movie (you may remember her as Kitty in the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice) but this is her breakout role and she is pretty fantastic in it. In An Education, Jenny foolishly decides to forgo her education so that she can live the life of a fabulous married woman.

It's been such a long time since I've seen this but I remember liking it a lot. It also stars a young Reese Witherspoon as Dani who discovers love, jealousy and lost the summer before her older sister leaves for college.

Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
I had trouble coming up with a third pick as always. In the end I went with this even though it has a much younger protagonist than the typical coming of age tale. Plus I thought it really is good. It's a painful tale of a socially awkward preteen, played wonderfully by a very young Heather Matarazzo, who is ill treated by her peers and ignored by her self absorbed parents

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


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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Sunday, December 14, 2014

2015 Thursday Movie Picks Schedule



Hello there! If this is the first time you've come to my blog, welcome. If you've been here before you may already know I created and host a weekly series called Thursday Movie Picks. The series had quite a successful run in 2014 and I had such a blast putting it together every week. I'd also like to take this chance to thank everyone who has participated; especially to frequent participants like Wendell, Hitchcock, Brittani, Big Screen Small Worlds and Mike. You've all made my Thursday Movie Picks experience better and introduced/recommended me a great number of movies I hope I'd get a chance to watch.

Now I am very happy to announce that Thursday Movie Picks is continuing in 2015 and excited to reveal the themes.

For the last few days I had such fun working the themes around (I like making the themes as much as I like picking three movies for those themes). It took me quite a while to sieve through themes I have at hand to decide which should be used for 2015 and those to be saved for 2016. Once that was settled it was then a matter of which theme should be fixed for each week. For 2015 I attempted to feature more variety and when appropriate fixed related themes for certain dates or themes relevant to a movie being released at that particular period. 2015 will also feature two special editions. This includes the Halloween Edition of Thursday Movie picks in October and additionally for the last Thursday for the first nine months of 2015 I'm running the All in the Family Edition which features the different relationships within a family.

Well...without further delay, as promised, here is the 2015 Schedule:


2015

January 1 - Bank Robberies
January 8 - Movies that feature an Irreparable Mistake
January 15 - Musicals
January 22 - Movies with Colour in the Title
January 29 - All in the Family Edition: Married Couples Movies (Suggested by Wendell)
February 5 - Romantic Comedies
February 12 - Unrequited Love
February 19 - Oscar Winning Movies (from pool of Winners of Best Picture/Best Animated Film/Best Foreign Film)
February 26 - All in the Family Edition: Father-Son Relationships (Biologically Related)
March 5 - Black and White Movies made since 1970 (Suggested by Wendell)
March 12 - Live Action Fairy Tale Adaptations
March 19 - Movies adapted from a Young Adult Novel
March 26 - All in the Family Edition: Mother-Daughter Relationships (Biologically Related)
April 2 - Teen Comedies
April 9 - Dance Movies (Excluding anything Musical or based on a Musical)
April 16 - Police Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)
April 23 - Superhero Movies
April 30 - All in the Family Edition: Father-Daughter Relationships (Biologically Related)
May 7 - Work Place Movies
May 14 - Foreign Language Movies - German
May 21 - Movies based on a Graphic Novel/Comic (Non-Superhero)
May 28 - All in the Family Edition: Mother-Son Relationships (Biologically Related)
June 4 - Kids Movies Adults Would Enjoy (Non-Animated)
June 11 - Movies Set in a High School, Secondary School or the Equivalent.
June 18 - Animated Movies
June 25 - All in the Family Edition: Sibling Relationships (Biologically Related)
July 2 - Adaptations of Classic Literature (No Poems or Plays)
July 9 - Road Trip Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)
July 16 - Science Fiction Movies (No Space/Aliens)
July 23 - Sequels
July 30 - All in the Family Edition: Twins
August 6 - Alien Invasion of Earth
August 13 - Movies with Devastating Crushing Endings that Makes You Want to Weep
August 20 - Foreign Language Movies - Asian Language Movies Set in East Asia (Non-Horror)
August 27 - All in the Family Edition: Stepfamilies
September 3 - Teachers
September 10 - Train Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)
September 17 - Journalists/Reporters for Print/TV
September 24 - All in the Family Edition: Adopted/Foster Families
October 1 - Halloween Edition: Alfred Hitchcock Movies
October 8 - Halloween Edition: Villainous Children (Suggested by Wendell)
October 15 - Halloween Edition: Asian Horror
October 22 - Halloween Edition: Werewolves
October 29 - Halloween Edition: Ghost Movies (Suggested by John Hitchcock)
November 5 - Secret Agents and Spies
November 12 - Movies about Music/Making Music/Musicians (No Biopics or focus on Real Life Musicians) (suggested by Wendell)
November 19 - Foreign Language Movies - Asian Language Movies Set in South East Asia (Non-Horror)
November 26 - Movies about Royalty
December 3 - Con Artists
December 10 - Movies Set in a Hotel
December 17 - Family Get-Together/Reunions
December 24 - Holiday/Vacation Movies
December 31 - Snowy Winter Movies

* Click the following linked keywords for a rough guide to Young Adult Novels, Classic LiteratureEast Asian Countries and South East Asian Countries which may be helpful for your picks for a few of the themes.


So there they all are, the themes for the whole of 2015. I hope you like them and join me in sharing three picks each Thursday. For new future participants, the rules of Thursday Movie Picks are outlined on the series page here. I will also post this schedule up at the series page for easy reference. If you have any questions or require clarifications regarding any of the 2015 Thursday Movie Picks themes (a few of them have caveats), do comment below.


Thursday, December 11, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #22: Movies that Feature a Family Secret




Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies that Feature a Family Secret


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Family secrets can be so terrible that they devastate a few generations. When I came up for this topic, I felt sure I had watch a lot of such movies enough to warrant making it a topic for one of the weeks. However when it actually came to picking my three picks, two came easily to me but the third proved to be much harder. Still, I managed and what I came up finally is two hidden gems and one favourite.

Adore (2013)
Adore wasn't at all critically well received but I thought it wasn't that bad. Coincidentally I watched Adore around the same time as I watched The Oranges. They have a similar premise where a middle age person starts sleeping with their best friend's child. In The Oranges a man hooks up with his best friend's college grad daughter while Adore does a gender reversal where two women who are best friends sleeps with each other's teenage sons. While The Oranges went for a safer route being a dramaedy, Adore certainly explored more of the messiness of the secret affairs that destroys the couples' other relationships. 

August: Osage County (2013)
So this is the movie that spark the theme this week. And the family secret thoroughly surprised me....not as to what the secret was but that there was one because for most of the movie it was all about the tension between a mother and her three adult daughters who have returned home when a tragedy occurs. 

In My Father's Den (2004)
One of my favourite movies ever. So many pretty scenes! But the story and how it unfolds is just beautiful. In the movie Matthew Macfadyen stars as Paul a world weary war photographer who has returned home to New Zealand, after years away, for his father's funeral. Back home he reconnects with the people he left behind and even befriends his ex-girlfriend's 16 year daughter to the disapproval of everyone else. When the girl disappears, Paul becomes the prime suspect. Injected between the present time we see glimpses of Paul past which slowly paints the reason why he ran away from home so long ago, and ultimately revealing its ties to the current crisis. The secret and especially its devastating consequence is pretty mind-blowingly heart wrenching.

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


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, December 4, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #21: Movies Adapted from a Play (non-Shakespeare and non-musical)



Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is
Movies Adapted from a Play (non-Shakespeare and non-musical)

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I've never actually watch a play before. Okay scratch that, I have watch a school play or two. Maybe they were bad productions but I don't think stage plays are for me. The setting is just too artificial and unnatural and to compensate this actors have a tendency to overact and so I just can just believe anything I'm seeing. But I have greatly enjoyed a couple of movies based on a play. I like dialogue heavy movies and often movies based on a play are that. So here are three of my favourites 

The Tudor reign of England is full of drama that makes for interesting TV and Movies and this is one the best movies set in that period. In A Man for All Seasons, King Henry VIII is determined to break off from the Roman Catholic Church and divorce his then wife Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Thomas More a lawyer and one of Henry's key counselors refuses to support the divorce and the break with Catholic Church and is charged with treason. As a lawyer More certainly has a way with words and fights the charges made against him all while balancing sticking by his principles and walking the line to ensure he does not offend the king. If you like courtroom dramas I definitely recommend this.

Closer features some of the most messiest relationships on screen...I mean these people are just awful towards one another. Now it kinda sounds bad to say that this makes for such a great watch, but it is especially because the performances here are just so wonderful and raw. And I love how the story is just contained. All we get is just the four actors and the relationships between them and that is how each is defined by. 

Proof (2005)
Wow, it has been almost a decade since I saw this. Just a few years before, A Beautiful Mind which was the more popular movie that features a brilliant and mentally ill mathematician was released. Unfortunately I did not like A Beautiful Mind. I love Proof. Proof to me felt more modest and grounded. In Proof Catherine's father, Robert, a brilliant but mentally ill mathematician has just died. She struggles to cope with her grief, the arrival of her sister for the funeral and one Robert's former students who has come to rummage through his stuff in the hopes that Robert had made some mathematical breakthrough during periods of clarity, and the fact that she may also very well have inherited her father's insanity.

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

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Check out my past 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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Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #20: Foreign Language Movies - French


 


Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is
Foreign Language Movies - French


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Most of the time when I watch a foreign language movie, I come into it knowing very little. I simply pick them up because they have become available and also because I want to watch more variety. Often I am pleasantly surprised by how good they are and enjoyed watching them. This week I've set the foreign language to French and I'm planning to have other Foreign Laguage themes next year. My picks this week features two favourites and one hidden gem.

First up is my hidden gem pick. Audrey Tautou is one of France's popular exports and movies starring her are relatively easier to find in Singapore. This one is I suppose one of her comparatively less popular movies and I thought it has a pretty unique narrative splitting the movie into two to show the perspective of both parties in the relationship. Just when you think you know what the story is, it flips it around.

Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard (now real life couple) stars as childhood friends who continue to play their game of dare in adulthood to often disastrous consequences. Jeux d'enfants has a similar look to Amelie and if you like movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind about messy unconventional romances presented in a quirky style I definitely recommend this.

Les Choristes aka The Chorus (2004)

For last week's theme, one of my picks was Dead Poets Society. This week is another unmissable movies featuring an inspirational teacher. In Les Choristes a teacher at a school for troubled boys form a choir despite facing disapproval from the principal. The movie also feature some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard.

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

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Check out my past 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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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #19: Movies Set in a Boarding School



Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies Set in a Boarding School

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Another late posting this week. Oh well, better late than never. 


I don't know about you but when I was a kid, I wanted to go to a boarding school. I blame it on some of the children's books I read that kind of romanticised boarding schools with stories of friendship and adventure, which is why this week's theme is Movies Set in a Boarding School. Now the first movie that came to mind were of course the Harry Potters movies, there were after all 8 of them and were hugely popular, but nope I'm going to pick a different three for my favourites

Cracks (2009)

In Cracks, a couple of girls in a swim team look up to their swim teacher, the glamorous Miss G who charms them with romantic tales of adventure. I've never really like Eva Green in anything I've seen her in because she always seem a little too theatrical, but I think she works in this movie as a teacher who loves being adored by her students and is quite a diva. Oh and I love the costuming for Miss G, she really does look glamorous.

An old favourite. So many great moving scenes...such as the end when the students all stood on their desks. Another favourite is when Mr Keating explains why poetry and pretty much goes for literature and art in general is important.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Another Peter Weir movie. It is Valentine's Day and the movie opens with girls from a boarding school in Australia at the beginning of the 20th century getting ready to go for a picnic at hanging rock. There's a a sense of dreamy-ness to this movie that I really like as we see the girls excited for this fun outing and
and also a hauntingness, which reminds me a little of the Virgin Suicides, as we know from the on set that some of the girls would disappear never to be seen again. The movie also has some beautiful shots of the landscape and I just love the costumes in this movie as well.


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

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Thursday, November 13, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #18: Movies about Making Movies


Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, the rules of this weekly series is 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is
Movies about Making Movies
 

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Nope I did not forget about this week's Thursday Movie Picks, just a little late (ok, very late) that's all. This week I don't have the usual favourite picks that I usually do because even though I have seen a bunch of movies fitting this theme I can't say that I have really loved any of them. So my picks are simply the three movies that I liked more than the rest:

Hitchcock (2012)

Psycho is one of my favourite Hitchcock movies so it was fascinating seeing how it got made.

Mary Poppins was one of my favourite movies growing up and I certainly wore out our VHS when I was a kid. So once again seeing the behind the scenes of the making of this loved movie was great, the storyboards, the song writing and etc. But I have to say the parts about Travers childhood was a little dry, even though I know it's there to explain Travers protectiveness over Mary Poppins, I much prefer seeing those scenes of them in the meeting room making decisions about the movie.

Super 8 (2011)
I probably am not the only one who thinks this, but Super 8 feels like it's trying to be a Steven Spielberg (he is one of the producers) movie or even one of those 80's movies with its tale of friendship, adventure and the supernatural. Now I don't mean it in a bad way because to an extent it does achieve that and what I like most about Super 8 is the sense of nostalgia it has. Plus the movie has a bunch of kids trying to make a movie; how cute is that right? Come to think of it, I find there's a lack of movies with themes of friendship and adventure in recent years. The 80's had E.T., The Goonies and Stand By Me and I'm struggling to find good ones from the 90's and 2000's.

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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, November 6, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #17: Movies Featuring Amnesiacs



Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! The last few weeks we've had the Halloween Edition and now we're back to regular programming. Before we start, for new people who may have just wandered here, here's the rules of this weekly series: 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.

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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Movies Featuring Amnesiacs


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So I came up with this theme because I had at that time read a few amnesiac theme books including Before I Go to Sleep which, depending on where you are in the world, the movie adaptation opens around this time. I haven't watch the movie yet but am definitely looking forward to it

Anyhow back to today's picks, which will be my favourites:

The Bourne Trilogy (2002-2007)
Memory loss would suck for just about anyone but probably worse for an assassin which is the predicament Bourne finds himself in; waking up with no knowledge of who he is and now being the one hunted. I thought I had picked this for the Assassin themed Thursday Movie Picks several weeks ago but turned out I didn't so it definitely gets a place this week. Love the action sequences in this trilogy.

Most stories about memory loss deals with the involuntary kind as a result of trauma or a degenerative disease but this one is unique with its premise of people voluntary going through a procedure to erase parts of their memory. It's an unconventional love story of sorts...are people fated to meet, fall in love and make the same mistakes if they have no memory of it happening before?

In the Lookout, after a bad car accident, Chris suffers from brain damage which affects his short term memory. While working as a janitor at a small local bank he gets himself mixed up in some bad company who are planning to use him in a heist. Joseph Gordon Levitt is great as Chris, a guy who is struggling to remember to do everyday tasks, and Matthew Goode...what a turn he did playing the villain, an American bad boy, in the Lookout (this was of course way back before he did Stoker) so unlike the the other charming and well dressed English dudes he had been playing.

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


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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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #16: Haunted Buildings

Thursday Movie Picks


Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Halloween is tomorrow and this the last week of the  Halloween Edition of Thursday Movie Picks! I hope you've enjoyed reading mine and other participants picks this October and even check out some of those movies yourself.


October 2 - Unstable Characters (characters that seemed off...eg. Donnie Darko)
October 9 - Zombie Movies
October 16 - Found Footage Movies 
October 23 - Vampire Movies
October 30 - Haunted Buildings

 
Before we start let's go through some of the simple rules for the newbies; 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.



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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Haunted Buildings

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I love ghost stories. But I much prefer stories about haunted buildings rather than haunted people (which tend to go to the possession route) thus haunted buildings became this week's theme and my picks will be all favourites.


Dark Water came out at the height of the popularity of Asian horror and I was actually quite reluctant to see this because after awhile the movies all seem a tad similiar but ended up really liking Dark Water and the remake which came a few years later. In Dark Water, a newly divorced mother and her young daughter moves into a rundown apartment. The mother is struggling to cope with the big change in their lives and ensuring that she provides a good home so she can continue having custody of her daughter. But unfortunately creepy water stains start to appear on the ceiling of the apartment which is only the beginning of other weird things that would happen.

"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." This movie had me with its opening lines. I think a good ghost story is both scary and tragic. Well at least the ones I like are and I just love this movie. It's just heartwrenching. In the Devil's Backbone at the end of the Spanish civil war, after the death of his father, Carlos is left at an orphanage which is haunted. The boys at the orphanage believes the ghost is Santi a former occupant who has disappeared and soon the ghost has latched on to Carlos trying to communicate with him. Without going into it too much, let's just say there are more sinister things in store for people at the orphanage other than the ghost child.

The Others (2001)
Isolated mansion. A family with a peculiar affliction. Weird servants. Limited lighting. This movie really does have a great set up for a haunted house story and plays the suspense really well. There's this scene with the little old lady in the veil in a darkened room in the trailer...that was one scary jumpy scene.


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



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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Sunday, October 26, 2014

Weekly Recap #14: Deadline, Downton Abbey, The Walking Dead

Read




Recently finished the second book of the Newflesh trilogy about a bunch of bloggers uncovering some conspiracies set in a post zombie apocalypse world where blood tests and showers with bleach and sterilization of clothes are a part of every day life I really enjoyed the first book but this second one not as much. I suppose it's because we follow a new narrator, Shaun, who's not as likable. He is quite a jerk. Plus I think there was less zombie action here and more of just driving around and waiting things out.
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Watched

Movies 





This was boring. I tuned out from the second half. Some of the jokes are quite funny but the lead actor has a monotous kinda voice and his delivery is just not expressive enough for an outright comedy. It's seem like it would be more suited for a satire or dark comedy for which this movie is neither. 


TV


Yes! Miss Bunting finally leaves. Good riddance. In her final goodbye to Tom, she tells him that she loves him and Tom actually has this painful winced expression like he wished she didn't confess it. She is just awful! She presumes too much that Tom likes her just as she presumes she can say whatever she thinks at those dinners she attends but just ends up being a rude guest. And Edith! She is the stupidest of all the Crawley sisters and now she is about to ruin the farmer's family.

I like this episode the least. It is not bad but Seth and Richie hardly share a scene together, and it's the great dialogue between the two that I love. Richie once again goes in and out of madness which makes us wonder how much of the shit he does Seth can tolerate.

Penguin comes clean with his new boss and we finally see what Fish is planning with her protege. I think the show should show less of Bruce because the whole thing of making him a mini adult is just not working. 

DC is out in public! He set the whole thing up right? Because it was a way to be able to walk freely instead of confessing that he faked his death...right? And surely he sees through Victoria's lies? 

I thought we'd see Morgan this week but nope. Not a fan of Bob, he's probably one of the weakest characters in the show...but the end of this episode was just so horrific. Reminds me of Sin City. And did Daryl really see Beth in the car? The car went by fast and I didn't catch anything.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Thursday Movie Picks #15: Vampire Movies

Thursday Movie Picks


Hello and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks! Its October and it's currently the Halloween Edition! I hope you've enjoyed reading mine and other participants picks the last three weeks and even check out some of those movies yourself. It's a new week so continue to brace yourself for some scary flicks as for 5 Thursdays in the month of October, the themes will all be Halloween related. 

October 2 - Unstable Characters (characters that seemed off...eg. Donnie Darko)
October 9 - Zombie Movies
October 16 - Found Footage Movies
October 23 - Vampire Movies
October 30 - Haunted Buildings

As you can see there are some fun themes in the coming weeks. So if you haven't join us already, now is definitely the time to.

Before we start let's go through some of the simple rules for the newbies; 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 more information and future topics please visit the Thursday Movie Picks page here.
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This week's Thursday Movie Picks is Vampire Movies

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Like last week I am once again doing a hidden gems list.

Living in a part of the world where daylight hours are consistent throughout the year it fascinates me that there are parts of the world that do not get daylight for weeks at a time during certain periods. And this is exactly the premise of 30 Days of Night. In a small Alaskan town, night has enveloped them and a coven of vampires have descended for the darkness have provided the perfect conditions for hunting. Tired of movies with romantic vampires...don't worry, this one only features the vicious kind.

In Byzantium, Clara and Eleanor are mother and daughter who have been on the run from some mysterious men moving from town to town for the last 200 years. Arriving at a coastal town they masquerade as sisters and try to start a new life. I really enjoyed this movie. Visually Byzantium is  beautiful and I love the interesting take on the vampire story especially that at it's center is the mother and daughter relationship with Clara struggling to protect and provide a life for her daughter and Eleanor the eternal schoolgirl who yearns to be free from their secret and tell her story.

Daybreakers (2009)
I've mentioned Daybreakers on this blog once before for the Attack of the Sequels Blogathon. I think Daybreakers is a pretty imaginative movie, painting a world where vampires are the dominant species and everything in it is transformed to serve the needs of vampires (darkened cars, underground tunnels for daylight travelling). Trouble in this vampire world is the dwindling human population meaning the blood supply upon which the vampires are dependent on is almost exhausted. Despite it not being able to fully exploit the great premise and falling apart in the last third, Daybreakers is still a very entertaining action horror movie.


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



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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Participating Blogs/Bloggers

Monday, October 20, 2014

Weekly Recap #13: Godzilla, Downton Abbey, The Walking Dead


 Read


When I first saw this book on a book blogger's blog I thought why is she reading an IKEA catalogue. It's not. It's a book about a fictional haunted retail store which is a ripoff of IKEA. I love the whole concept and the book's packaging. The story starts off strong. It got a little weird in the middle when the ghosts start to appear but the end was pretty good. 

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Watched

Movies 


I watched this a long time ago and couldn't remember much of it and so a rewatch was in order. I actually thought it's about a werewolf which it is so not. I loved the way the main characters were introduced. They were wearing the trench coats that covered half their face as featured in the movie  poster. It created a great air of mystery to who these men were. The movie had some nice pretty scenery shots and costuming, but the story just wasn't for me.

Am I the only person who didn't know what's going on half the time. I mean I know the electricity was messed up and so no good lighting but it was just so dark I didn't know what I was looking at for most of the action scenes.



TV

Miss Bunting is so irritating. Can they drop her please? It's getting old. She does the same thing every episode. In other news, Cousin Violet gets a marriage proposal from a Lord. I think it's so cute! But I thought that doctor and her kinda like each other. Aren't they always having tea or something?

I am loving this show. Love the dialogue between Seth and Richie. Richie is showing more of his insane-ness. My theory is that Carlos hypnotized him to make sure he delivers the money across the border. We also meet some new characters in this episode as well; the family with the RV. From the promos, I suppose they will cross path with the Gecko brothers pretty soon.

I think this series may be losing me a little. I hope Gotham doesn't become too episodic, what with a new mad men/killer every week. I'm liking the Penguin development but everything else is just so meh. And can Gordon please stop confiding in Bruce about police/government corruption! He's like what 11?

DC found Emily. He should recognise her right? I mean the last time they met should be when Emily was a teenager. Plus how could he not know Amanda has been masquerading as Emily. I know he was holed up in a cave the last decade but surely he was curious what his enemies were doing all this time, and if ever checked out about any them in any media, he would have come across Emily right? Right?

I binged watch season 4 in time for the premiere of season 5 earlier this week. Season 4 was so-so. I really didn't like when the survivors were separated and whole episode s sometimes just focused on one small group. I don't think some of the characters story was strong enough to carry one whole episode. So I'm glad the gang has finally met up with each other in the premiere. As expected the sanctuary is messed up. How did the sanctuary people go from being the "cattle" to purposely baiting people to come to the sanctuary? At the end of the episode my mom was like saying  Rick's group is pretty large now and I said that can only mean one thing - one or two of them won't survive the season.


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