Friday, March 31, 2017

Thursday Movie Picks #142: TMP Television Edition - Period Drama



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple 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 TMP Television Edition - Period Drama

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If you've read my blog for some time, you may know that I love period dramas, so finally I get to talk TV period dramas. I'm going to do two theme within a theme just because there are so many good ones, and it's such an impossible task to narrow down to so few, so bear with me because today will be a long post.

Based on a Book

Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Based on the Jane Austen novel. While I do enjoy the 2005 movie, I think I love this TV adaptation more. Being longer it gets more of the book in and it just feels less glossy/prettied up. Now if you've never seen a period drama or unfamiliar with Jane Austen, start with this one. It's pretty light and is full of Austen's sharp humour.
 
North & South (2004)
Based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novel. If you love Pride and Prejudice, you have to check this one out (Thornton might be your new Darcy)! It's a great romantic drama that is sort of like Pride and Prejudice; the guy is proud, the girl is prejudiced. However it's set several decades later in England during the industrial revolution, featuring class struggles and the issues facing the working class, so the tone is darker. Despite the bleakness, it is such a beautiful miniseries; great score and those scenes with the cotton, like snow, floating in the mill were just ironically gorgeous.

Jane Eyre (2006)
Based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë. If you feel the different movie adaptations feel condensed, this is an excellent TV adaptation to check out. Both leads are great, especially Ruth Wilson who I think does well with silent scenes that's just the small expressions on her face. They tend to do a TV adaptation of Jane Eyre every decade, so I think we are probably due one soon.

Little Dorrit (2008)
Based on the novel by Charles Dickens. It has the usual interlinking stories that is common in Dickens books (at least the ones I'm familiar with), but overall I found this is just a very charming drama and Claire Foy was just really good in this one.

Emma (2009)
Based on the Jane Austen novel. Probably the best Emma adaptation, other than Clueless. Emma usually has the best intentions but goes about it the wrong way because she's young and a little ermm...clueless...anyway it's a light and funny watch that makes me happy.


Based on Real Events/Characters 

Peaky Blinders (2013 -)
So very very loosely based on a real gang, that is a youth gang in the late 19th century Birmingham. I don't think the series actually depicts any of the real members. Instead it follows, I assume, the fictional Shelby family as they run their legitimate and criminal business. Anyway I found the series to be a very well made fast paced drama that manages to marry rock music well with the early 20th century setting. Cillian Murphy plays the leader of the family and he is soo good in this. 

Boardwalk Empire  (2010-2014)
Set in the Prohibition era of the 1920s Atlantic City featuring some real life gangsters in, I assume, mostly fictional storylines. Have only seen the first two seasons or so, really like it and hope to pick up again soon. I actually saw it before Peaky Blinders and when I did see Peaky Blinders, I thought wouldn't it be great if Boardwalk Empire was still on air and there was a crossover episode. 

Black Sails (2014 -)
It's actually a prequel of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, so it's fictional but it also features several real life characters in fictional roles which is sort of awesome. I love naval period dramas, so I am really enjoying this. 

Wolf Hall (2015 -)
Love historical dramas and the Tudor period is just fascinating. This one is from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell during his time at Henry VIII's court and I think this mini series is probably the best depiction of the time and place...not that I'm a historian and can say for sure, but I definitely notice it's effort; it looked like it shot on location for most of the scenes, it burned a lot of candles, used music that seemed to be from the time and the actors all stood and carried themselves like in the Holbein paintings. Also good performance all round especially Mark Rylance and Claire Foy. 

The Crown (2016 -
It's that Netflix series about Queen Elizabeth II's reign. Was a little unsure about it since Netflix tend to do more contemporary things and not period/historical dramas. Anyway, so glad this turned out to be good. Incredibly well made and can't wait for season 2.
 
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Friday, March 24, 2017

Thursday Movie Picks #141: The Underdog



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple 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 Underdog

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It seems a lot of movies about underdogs are family friendly movies...I guess because the whole perseverance thing. Anyway here are some underdog movies from my childhood.

Cool Runnings (1993)
Haven't seen this in ages, but I remembered it being funny. My school used to play us movies after exams, and I'm pretty sure this was one of those.

The Mighty Ducks (1992-1996)
Love the Mighty Ducks series growing up. The kids were cute and it seemed to be so much fun to be  a part of a team.

The Karate Kid (1984)
Hmm...I'm not sure I saw all of them. I think it was only 1,2 and 4. I definitely did not see the last one with Jaden Smith which just sounds like the dumbest thing naming it Karate Kid when it's Kung Fu.

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Friday, March 17, 2017

Thursday Movie Picks #140: Ancient World (3600 BC – 500 AD)



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple 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 Ancient World (3600 BC – 500 AD)

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I'm a big fan of period dramas, but the ancient world is not particularly a period I like for movies. That said here are the ones I like.

Gladiator (2000)
I've picked this before for some other theme. I was actually quite surprised that I liked it the first time I saw it. The performances here are great, both Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix who played an incredible hateable, as well as the score.
 
300 (2006)
Great action and visually stunning.

Centurion (2010)
A small group of Roman soldiers, survivors of a guerrilla attack, try to get back into the safety of Roman territory. It's a pretty great action movie and has a couple of actors I like in it as well.

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Friday, March 10, 2017

Thursday Movie Picks #139: Remakes/Sequels/Reboots (of a movie that hasn't got one) You Want to See



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple 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 Remakes/Sequels/Reboots (of a movie that hasn't got one) You Want to See

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Have you ever seen a movie and think "I can't wait for the sequel" but it didn't happen. I do, quite a number of times. Of course as I sit here trying to remember what they were, I having a hard time recalling, but here's the 5 that I do remember.

Chronicle (2012)
The movie follows three teens who develop powers after entering a hole where they find a mysterious object. I really enjoyed the Chronicle and have been looking forward to the sequel which apparently has been in development since the success of the first movie but has had no new news in a really long time.
 
Daybreakers (2009)
I've talked about how I really like the world building in this movie which features vampires as the dominant species. Daybreakers did some creative things with a world made for vampires like how would vampires drive around town in daylight. I would love to see a sequel/spinoff set in the same world.

28 Days Later... (2002)/28 Weeks Later (2007) 
The non spoilery gist of the story of both movies is survivors of the Rage virus try to escape infection. I love love 28 Days Later. Not that much 28 Weeks Later, but it is still a good sequel. What sets apart the 28 movies from other zombie/infection movies? I'd say the infected and the pacing which is just intense. And oh the music as well which is just scary haunting. So I would love to see them return to the 28 world and expand to other countries which we did see a tiny sneak peek or maybe follow up on Jim and Selena.

A Little Romance (1979)
A Little Romance is a charming little movie about 2 high IQ tweens that meet in Paris, and having never met someone else like them, they think they're soulmates. Basically I'd love to see them do a sort of "Before Sunrise/Sunset" thing except with a 30-40 year time gap in this instance where we just follow up on where the characters are now, perhaps meeting again for the first time after all these years and it would definitely be a dialogue heavy movie with lots of reflecting and reminiscing.

Another Earth (2011)
In Another Earth a young woman attempts to atone for a tragedy she caused against the backdrop of the discovery of another planet like ours. Love the movie and I really like the ending. I'm being vague here as I don't want to spoil anything - I think it would be great to have a sequel to see that actual meeting in the ending and explore the whole contact with Earth 2.

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Friday, March 3, 2017

Thursday Movie Picks #138: On the Run



Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie picks each Thursday. The rules are simple 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 On the Run

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Ok another late one so I'm going to make this quick.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Three escape convicts look for treasure while trying to not get caught by the law. It's sort of odd, but fun and funny and I really enjoyed the music in this.
 
The Bourne Series (2002 - )
An amnesiac tries to rebuild his memory and is constantly on the run from assassins. I haven't checked out the latest one but the first three were excellent.

Road to Perdition (2002)
When the young son of a hitman witnesses him doing a hit, they both become targets of the hitman's employers and go on the run. Just a really good film with great performances all around.

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