Wednesday 8 July 2015

Thursday Movie Picks: Road Trip Movies

This week its Road Trip movies, which can come in all modes of transport. But for 'road' movie, I thought vehicles not planes or trains or ships. I've gone for an obvious choice, an old favourite and an obscure find.

Wristcutters: A Love Story
 
Set in the after life, which looks exactly like it does in the land of the living only worse. When Zia kills himself he end up where everyone who commits suicide goes. A place of bland jobs, weirds characters, uncomfortable situations and no where to escape. But when word gets out there there is cult leader performing mircales, Zia, along with two strange pals, set out to hopefully be returned to the land of the living. Its an odd films and literally the definition of quirky. A serious subject with a bit of romance and comedy on the side.

Thelma and Louise
 
Obviously, this is the obvious choice for a road movie theme. Two women, best friends, one annoying and ridiculouslt naive, the other just plain cool. Its a great film and promotes strong female characters in film (despite some light crimes along the way). Plus, the ending is freeze frame perfect.

It Happened One Night
I adore this classic Frank Capra film. I love because the two lead characters (and actors) have great chemistry. It isn't over the top, its hilarious in a few places and (apart from the censored ending) really does make you yearn for the old films. Spoilt heiress, Ellie, tries to runaway to marry a playboy aviator who her father disapproves. Caught short on a bus into the city, she accidentally meets disgraced journalist Peter. The two pair up in the agreement he gets the scoop on her love affair. But of course on the road the two go through a few changes of the heart. Classic road trip movie that is in no danger of being ruined by a remake. Look out for the walls of Jericho coming down.

Don't forget to check out what Wandering Through the Shelves picked, the blog that started Thursday Movie Picks.

12 comments:

  1. I haven't seen Wristcutter's yet, it looks intriguingly bizarre, but LOVE your other two choices. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are perfect in their parts and of course the side dish of Brad Pitt ain't bad either. It Happened One Night is such a charmer, Gable just exudes movie star magnetism and Colbert is an excellent match for him. Terrific picks!

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  2. I haven't seen Wristcutters or It Happened One Night, but I can't fault your choice of Thelma and Louise. It's always great to watch a film which has such interesting, three dimensional female characters

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  3. Andrew Ellington9 July 2015 at 21:37

    Love that you went with It Happened One Night. Gable's best performance, in my book, and such a delightful little film. I adore Thelma and Louise, but I haven't seen Wristcutters yet...I'll have to check that one out!

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  4. I haven't seen any of these but Wristcutters sounds absolutelt bizzare...and I REALLY want to see it now!
    - Allie

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  5. Wristcutters always struck me as an interesting film, but I never saw it. I have never been able to make it all the way through Thelma and Louise. May need to give it one more try. Good picks!

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  6. Thank you! I went the route of dynamic duos - sort of - Wristcutters has a trio. Definitely reccommend the film - its bizarre but a cameo from Tom Waits is always too good to miss.

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  7. I completely agree. These female characters are few and far between but Thelma and Louise are still leading the way.

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  8. Thank you :) I would definitely say give them both another try, especially T&L its a classic in its own right.

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  9. Yes! Its bizarre and wonderful, if you find it, definitely watch it :)

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  10. I think It Happened One Night is almost in my top ten films, watched it all the time during Uni and after, its sort a comfort film or whenever its raining, its always cheers me up. And Gable is pretty good in a comedic role too!

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  11. I meant to ask if you'd ever seen the musical remake of It Happened One Night called You Can't Run Away From It with Jack Lemmon and June Allyson? I finally caught up with it last month on TCM, it's not a patch on the original but a harmless enough time passer. While Lemmon is no Gable this was early in his career and he's a genial presence, June however was almost 40 when she made it, a bit far on to be convincing as a madcap runaway heiress. The biggest problem though is that while Gable & Colbert had tremendous onscreen chemistry Jack & June share little.

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  12. I haven't seen this! But I will now, as soon as you said Jack Lemmon I'm in! Oh thats a shame about the chemistry but I love Lemmon so I'll see if I can seek this out. Thanks for the recommendation!

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