Thursday Movie Picks: All in the Family Edition - Twins

When I think about Twins in Movies, I instantly go, in my mind, to two places: one light, one dark.

In Movie Lines: July 19th - July 25th

Week of July 19, 2015

Here's the recap of what I watched this past week (a few days late, I know):

Blind Spot 2015: David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia

It took a lot of stones I'd say, even in the early 1960s, to deliver this product to the public. Lawrence of Arabia shouldn't have worked, but it did...for many, and it doesn't...for me. In fact, this is one of the most overly-long, boring movies I've ever tried to watch.

Thursday Movie Picks: Sequels

Why oh why didn't I look ahead to this one all those months ago? I have used almost all of my favorite sequels in previous posts, and my goal was to never double up. I've used Spider-Man 2. I've used The Dark Knight. I've used The Godfather Part II. Just last week, I used T2. Damn it!!

Anyway, this gives me a chance to do something interesting. This week I'm not focusing on the second film but the third. There are instances, although rare, where the third in a trilogy or series is better than the second, or even the original.

Another Thursday is here. This week on Wandering through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks, we pay tribute to the Sequel.

A Trainwreck that doesn't derail

★★★ out of ★★★★

A Review by Kevin Powers

I came into Judd Apatow's latest movie Trainwreck as a fan of Judd Apatow. I knew nothing of Amy Schumer other than that she is all over the place these days. I have not seen her standup. I have not watched her show, Comedy Central's Inside Amy Schumer. I had even heard from friends of mine, who love standup comedy and comedy television, that she's not very good. Most of my guy friends don't like her.

Thursday Movie Picks: Science Fiction Movies (No Space or Aliens)

Well, I have two science fiction films in my All-Time Top Five. Sadly, my favorite of those two is ineligible here, what with the "No Space or Aliens" rule. That movie is Steven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi masterpiece Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's okay. He made another one that works here.

This is good though because I have some good ones lined up, thought-provoking, futuristic tales of warning about what Man might be capable of, or what we one day might go through. No doubt, my favorite sort of sci-fi comes from the Utopia/Dystopia dynamic we love so much as movie fans. I also dig robots. I love time travel. There's a bit of all that here today. No space. No aliens.

Horrible Boss Wanted

★ 1/2

A Review by Kevin Powers

I was browsing around rogerebert.com the other day, as I've done regularly since I was about 14-years-old, and I saw a post on Chaz Ebert's blog, an entry in her series called "My Favorite Roger". The entry was from Chicago film critic and site contributor Nick Allen in which he discussed Roger's review of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). He recalls a couple of quotes from that review, which Ebert opened with a quote of his review of the original Scooby-Doo (2002): "The Internet was invented so that you can find someone else's review of Scooby-Doo." Start Surfing."

When I Was Thirty: Wes Craven's Scream

The story of me and horror movies is not a good one. It's a genre I rarely watch, though I've had experiences with it that have made me the movie fan I am today. There are some great ones out there. John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) comes to mind, especially as far as the modern, mainstream slasher sub-genre goes, something that would ride through the 80s, creating some of the most memorable horror ever made. Michael Myers begets Jason Voorhies begets Freddy Krueger and on and on and on. As a child of the mid-1980s, I consider myself lucky. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like it might be the best decade for horror movies. Of course, my horror experience, pre-1978, is limited to Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973). It's not good that I've seen so little. That's what I meant when I started this paragraph.

Philip Seymour Hoffman Blogathon!

I'll start by saying that the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman stands as one of the great tragedies of my movie-loving life. He was an actor of immense skill and passion. One able to transform into any character, make us believe him, and thus effortlessly reminding us that performers can truly transform us.

Last week, a new blogathon made its way to me by way of Wendell at Dell on Movies, a movie blogger tribute to Philip Seymour Hoffman.

It comes from a blog new to me but one I plan to keep up with going forward.

That blog is Epileptic Moondancer. And this is my contribution to the Philip Seymour Hoffman Blogathon! Note that I am going outside of the original rule of choosing one Hoffman role and discussing it. I just can't do that. Hoffman's work is too ingrained in me. I can't choose one. I have to choose many. I promise. I'm not showboating. I'm just in awe and still utterly devastated by the loss of a man so dear to me, a man I only knew through these great performances I hold so dear.

In Movie Lines: July 5th - 11th

I've decided to start a new weekly post, one that I can easily get to every week. If you're a regular here, then you've probably seen my weekly Saturday Speaks posts. Those are hard for me to to every week. I just don't often have a lot going on, and I want those to be more about me and my everyday life outside of my movie obsession.

So, I present to you my weekly movie recap. It's called In Movie Lines.

Thursday Movie Picks: Road Trip Movies

It's Thursday. I put this post together now from my vacation spot, the destination of a Road Trip. I am in South Carolina, near Charleston, on "the Edge of America," the Town of Folly Beach. My Grandfather lives here with my uncle, so I afford myself a visit down here every year. It is hot. But beautiful and the Atlantic is magnificent.

So, here's a short and sweet post for you as part of Wandering through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. The perfect topic for me this week: Road Trip Movies.

Thursday Movie Picks: Adaptations of Classic Literature

It's Thursday! And another week where I get to recommend three titles from the vault as part of Wandering through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. This week: Adaptations of Classic Literature.

Much like earlier this year with the infamous Live Action Fairy Tale Adaptations, I found myself at a bit of stand still on this one. I just haven't seen many in the "classic" sense I feel is warranted here. I have seen no adaptations of Bronte or Austen or Dickens. I have seen what Peter Jackson did with Tolkien, but that's been beaten half to death by now.

I've decided my spin this week will be adaptations of classics that are more reimaginings than true source-to-screen adaptations. These are movies far away from their sources but with the core through line intact, for the most part.