Hey! Welcome to Thursday Movie Picks where you get to share your movie picks for each topic presented every Thursday! Based on the theme presented each week, you can pick up to 3 to 5 movies and explain why you picked those movies! This meme is being hosted by Wandering through the Shelves!
This week's theme is: Movies about Villains!
Now, usually most movies has us, the audience, looking at the events from the hero's perspective. But, what about those films that are about the villains? Well, I'm going to choose three movies that are about villains that I really enjoyed!
The infamous story of Benjamin Barker, aka Sweeney Tood, who sets up a barber shop in London which is the basis for a sinister partnership with his fellow tenant, Mrs. Lovett.
Wow! I have to say that this is Tim Burton's goriest film to date! The fact that the main character, Sweeny Todd, spends most of the movie murdering various people to get his revenge was really shocking to me! I mean, sure Sweeny Todd had a pretty tragic backstory that got him set on this path, but he still spends most of the movie murdering people.
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Geez...I'm always mentioning this movie, aren't I? Well, that's because this movie's AWESOME! Anyway, I loved the way that the movie actually shows us just how a person goes from well-meaning to being a villain in a matter of minutes! While Jack didn't start off the film as a villain, the nightmarish events that happened in this movie is enough to make anyone a villain!
3. Pulp Fiction
The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.
It's been awhile since I last seen "Pulp Fiction," but I remembered loving this movie when I first saw it! Anyway, I honestly didn't know that the main characters were villains until it was pointed out that they are hitmen working for a gangster. Still love this movie's unique narrative though!
Great picks! Pulp Fiction is my favourite. Love that movie so much.
ReplyDeleteSame here!
DeleteWe match on Sweeney Todd! I love all of your picks this week.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the filmed version of the original Broadway version of Sweeney Todd with Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett (she was fantastic) but never this one. Quite frankly I didn't love the show so that one viewing of it was enough.
ReplyDeleteThe book of The Shining has a sense of creeping dread that's hard to replicate. This film does a good job but it's not nearly a match for the book.
It's got an extraordinary cast but I hated Pulp Fiction.
There are a surprising number of films where the main character is villainous so the pickings were easy this week.
The Shadow on the Wall (1950)-Businessman David Starrling (Zachary Scott) is knocked unconscious by a mysterious figure during a confrontation with his faithless wife Celia (Kristine Miller) and wakes to find Celia murdered. The couple’s young daughter Susan (Gigi Perreau), witnessed her mother's death but saw only a shadow on the wall and is unaware that the killer is Celia's evil sister, her Aunt Dell (Ann Sothern). Dell, now terrified of discovery must find a way to do away with her own niece before Susan realizes the truth. One of Ann Sothern’s rare villainess roles this includes future First Lady Nancy Reagan (billed as Nancy Davis) in a major supporting role.
M (1931)-Moody, expressionist classic tells the tale of Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre), a serial killer who preys on children. When he becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt his crimes are so repellant that other criminals join the police in his pursuit. Lorre is brilliant in the lead.
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)-Vicious New York columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) is a powerful man capable and willing to make or destroy Broadway careers in print. However he can’t seem to control is his younger sister Susan (Susan Harrison) who he is abnormally fond of and who is in a relationship with jazzman Steve Dallas (Marty Milner) of which he strongly disapproves. To get his way Hunsecker recruits publicist Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) who he describes as “A cookie full of arsenic” to find a way to split the couple, no matter how ruthless the method. Well-acted portrait of deeply rotten people.
Hmmm...M sounds like an interesting film! Great list!
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