Thursday, July 13, 2017

Thursday Movie Picks- Amusement Parks

I'm off to Quebec this coming week. My hubby has an Aunt who lives right on the Richelieu River south of Montreal. My hubby is bringing his kayak and we will be just resting and enjoying ourselves. This week is all about amusement parks which I actually love. I have to admit, no roller coasters for me because the feeling of impending death doesn't appeal to me, but I love the twirly rides. I actually have a ticket for Canada's Wonderland and hope to go with my friend since my hubby hates these places. I picked an oldie but a goodie, a fun flick and..believe it or not, a horror flick. Head on over to the brainchild of this weekly series, Wandering Through The Shelves, who chooses a theme each week and one has to pick a movie that fits the theme. It's fun and hope you enjoy the others' picks. Here are my. 3....

1. STRANGERS ON A TRAIN-1951


Yes, I chose this film before and have spoken about it more than once but I love it! It is a great Hitchcock film starring Farley Granger and the great Robert Walker, a troubled actor who always played the boy next door. Walker's part in this film is anything but wholesome and he should have been nominated for an Oscar. 2 men meet on a train, one is a stable tennis pro who loves a senator's daughter but his shrewish wife is in the way. The other is a nutty psycho who is actually quite fun and has nothing to do and hates his dad. The nut proposes to switch murders...criss-cross and he means it. He ends up doing away with the shrewish slutty wife at an amusement park and tells his "friend" the tennis pro who, now realizing Bruno is a true nut, is unsure what to do. He is stalked by Bruno and the climax takes place at the amusement park with a carousel ride to end all rides. A Must See!

2. NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION- 1983


This is the start of the Griswald family who keep taking vacations(except for the Christmas one) which end up in much hilarity. Good ole patriarch Clark, aka Sparky, decides to take his family to Walley World which is at the other end of the country. They go through much mayhem from visiting her cousin headed by Randy Quaid, having to take the Auntie who ends up dying, meeting Christie Brinkley and finally getting to Walley World  but it is closed! What will Sparky do. This film has many dumb moments but it is so funny and actually endearing in a weird sort of way. Comedy, I find is personal, but I enjoy just about all forms of it and this film started a big franchise.

3. ZOMBIELAND-2009


I don't like zombies, we have too many shows about these things, I don't like horror films that are slasher flicks or really gross or even very scary since I bring it with me( I watched a clip last week from one movie pick and it has stayed with me and has bothered me and it is just a stupid clip!)  and I can't stand Jesse Eisenberg who stars in this film. Wait for it...I enjoyed this movie! It is not a regular film but one that is quite funny and pokes fun at the genre. A young man wants to find out if his parents have survived the zombie apocalypse and has a 30 rule list about not becoming zombie food. This alone is quite funny but then he meets a redneck, played by Woody Harrelson and 2 gals who can't be trusted. Woody's quest is for a Twinkie and they all set out on a journey where they actually meet Bill Murray and hang out with him. Murray just dresses up like a zombie so he can go out and golf and the zombies don't bother him. The group end up at an amusement  park  where all zombie hell breaks loose. It's fun and very dark but I enjoyed it. What film would you choose?

79 comments:

  1. I have probably seen Strangers on a Train but I can't remember, so I must watch it again. I like the sound of it. I don't really watch recent movies from the US, but I loved National Lampoon's Vacation. The poor dog! And the aunt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Strangers is excellent and a must see. I felt bad for the dog to...not so much the Aunt:)

      Delete
  2. Seen all and Zombieland is an awesome pick!
    There's also that cheesy 70's film, Rollercoaster.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have never seen Rollercoaster-have to look that up

      Delete
  3. Strangers on a Train was my first thought. Yay! But maybe that is because I just read the book about an month ago. Movie was way better, IMO. I've only seen parts of NL Vacation and never even heard of that last one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love the movie and will forget about the book.

      Delete
  4. I also chose Zombieland! I think Vacation will be popular this week, though I didn't pick it myself. Have fun on your trip next week!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad we match! Vacation will be popular I think...love John Candy. Thanks and I hope it will be relaxing

      Delete
  5. Hi, Birgit!

    You don't like zombies? Why, some of my best friends are zombies. :) See what I did there? Do you remember how the word "why" was often used for emphasis at the beginning of a spoken sentence in old movies? For example comic actor Joe E. Brown began many of his sentences with "why." Why, it has been ages since I heard the word used in that manner, even longer than it has been since the word "gay" has been used to mean happy. :)

    I like today's theme and, by chance, you and I are both featuring Chevy Chase in our new posts. Both of our posts show Chevy in his early prime.

    I love Hitchcock films and the plot of Strangers On a Train is one of his most brilliant. I tend to enjoy movies in which most or all of the scenes take place on a moving train.

    Vacation is one of my all time favorite movies and represents the peak of Chevy's career.

    I will watch any zombie movie with glee. I even saw one recently called Zombeavers. (Spoiler alert!) At a remote lake in the wilderness a family of beavers is exposed to toxic waste. The rodents turn into zombies and hunt and kill humans, specifically a group of young people vacationing at a cabin along the lake. (There's an original idea!) My favorite movie set at an amusement park is The Funhouse (1981) directed by Tobe Hooper who gave us two other classics, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Poltergeist. At least one sequel of the Final Destination series includes a killer roller coaster sequence at an amusement park.

    Thanks for the entertainment, dear friend BB!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zombeavers sounds like Attack of the Killer Shrews and might be fun to watch:) You are right! Why? was often used as a set up for the movie trailer. Chase was on a roll with this film and his earlier works like Caddyshack and Foul Play

      Delete
  6. National Lampoon's Vacation was the best of the NL movies!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was great but I love all of them even the not so great Vegas one

      Delete
  7. Haven't seen Strangers on a Train but must do so! Love the Griswold's in allvtheir ridiculousness and am a Zombieland fan. Good picks!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Haven't seen any of these Birgit.....added to my list.Have a great vacation and relax xxxxxxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For fun-Vacation can't be beat and Strangers I always say, is a must see

      Delete
  9. Seen all this time at my sea. Zombieland is a great pick indeed. Yeah, Eisenberg I usually can't stand either. One that popped in was Beverly Hills Cop 3, completely awful movie though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not seen Cop 3 because it didn't look all that great.

      Delete
  10. I love zombies and I loved Zombieland.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am not a zombie lover-overdone but I enjoyed this flick

      Delete
  11. Over the years I've seen and enjoyed all three of these movies.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Strangers on a Train is a great catch!! Love that film! It's unique in a couple of ways, no Hitchcock blonde for one though I love Ruth Roman whether the studio forced her on Hitch or not and whether he wanted her or not (he didn't) and Patricia Hitchcock is super as her sister. Also usually the lead can hold his own against the villain in his films but while Farley Granger is perfectly fine as Guy he is completely overshadow by Walker's phenomenal work as Bruno. Love Marion Lorne as Bruno's mother as well.

    NL Vacation is a fun, goofily silly film but then it doesn't set out to be anything else so on those terms its a great success.

    Haven't seen Zombieland for all the reasons you listed especially my distaste for Eisenberg however I ended up with a Zombie film too!

    I have limited patience for amusement parks, like most people the crowds are off putting, but usually have fun once there as long as they have ample rides that spin around. It was a slight challenge to come up with three for this and included one set in a carnival-which I think counts as an amusement park.

    Rollercoaster (1977)-After a rollercoaster derails due to a device placed on the track the major amusement park owners receive a taped message from the mad bomber (Timothy Bottoms) that unless they pay him a million dollars the carnage will continue. Safety inspector Harry Calder (George Segal) who had cleared the first coaster and was investigating the crash is pulled in by FBI agent Hoyt (Richard Widmark) when the nameless young man demands Harry deliver the extortion money to his next target or he’ll detonate another bomb. Suspenseful but not quite the experience it was in theatres where it was presented in Sensurround.

    The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964)-I really can’t better this IMDB description: "Jerry falls in love with a stripper he meets at a carnival. Little does he know that she is the sister of a gypsy fortune teller whose predictions he had scoffed at earlier. The gypsy turns him into a zombie and he goes on a killing spree."

    Or the tagline:
    SEE: the dancing girls of the carnival murdered by the incredible night creatures of the midway! SEE: the hunchback of the midway fight a duel of death with the mixed up zombies! SEE: the world's first monster musical!

    It’s not good but it’s unique!

    40 Pounds of Trouble (1962)-Sixties version of the Damon Runyon story Little Miss Marker about a little girl left in Lake Tahoe casino manager’s Steve McCluskey (Tony Curtis) care as a hold against the debt owed by her father. When the father is rubbed out Steve with the help of the casino’s singer Chris Lockwood (Suzanne Pleshette) has to look after the tyke and dodge various people after him for different reasons. They decide to take the little one to Disneyland (at this point open less than 10 years) and between rides are chased through the park offering a pretty complete picture of what the place looked like in the 60’s. Cute comedy where unsurprisingly being mostly a Disney movie all ends happily.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have seen Rollercoaster a couple of time today but i have never actually seen it and want to! Your Zombie flick sounds like a lot of fun. 40 pounds sounds fun too and the theme is tried and true but it would be fun to see Disneyland as it was back then.

      Delete
  13. I've heard of two of these films (the first two), but not the last. I've never seen any of them. I always feel like I've missed so much when I visit you. The first one has been referenced by so many other shows, that I knew a bit about the plot, but not the complete part. Glad you explained it.

    LOVED the cake you made for your brother's birthday. I laughed and laughed at the seeds catching in the nozzle. I thought only I could do something that unique.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hope you see strangers-excellent film. Oh I could have thrown that nozzle across the room

      Delete
  14. Forgot to mention, have a great, albeit safe, holiday. Hope you don't get stuck on one of those rides. They ALL scare me, except the carousel, which I'm more than willing to ride!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think my week away will be fun. If you see Strangers you may think twice about the carousel

      Delete
  15. Vacation always make me want to fly instead

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahaaaaaa-until you see European Vacation:)

      Delete
  16. Hi Birgit - have a wonderful weekend ... with whichever amusements amuse you ... I agree just not the roller-coaster - have fun and cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
  17. I've seen NL's Vacation and Strangers on a Train.

    I'll add The Third Man and Fatal Attraction.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Strangers On a Train is great.

    Love,
    Janie

    ReplyDelete
  19. I've encountered an awful lot of people who don't like Jesse Eisenberg, and I've never understood why. I'm not a huge fan of his, but I've never been put off by any of his performances, either.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I'll have to check out Zombieland, then. Not my usual fare.

    ReplyDelete
  21. My first image was a scene of Jesse Eisenberg at a carnival, but I couldn't remember the movie. I liked The Way, Way Back with Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, and a bunch of other great charactor actors. I had to go look it up before it drove me nuts trying to remember. Good practice for me. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just watched that movie and found it very sweet. This time the tables are turned as Dteve Carrell plays a jerk and Sam Rockwell is sweet

      Delete
  22. You can never go wrong with National Lampoon's Vacation as that is an essential pick but I felt it's been said so many times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh gosh, yes it has but I love John Candy in this flick

      Delete
  23. I think I've seen the 2nd and the 3rd pick but I'm not sure about the 2nd..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd be surprised if you haven't seen the second movie...it's always on tv somewhere

      Delete
  24. You do love certain movies, but who can blame you?

    ReplyDelete
  25. I used to love amusement parks and once went on the roller coaster at the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark which at the time was quite a frightener. However, in latter years I am more inclined to think of accidents. Not seen any of these movies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I still love amusement parks but not the roller coasters

      Delete
  26. Vacation, hands down.
    Curious...do you know what amusement park was used in Tom Hanks' 'Big'?
    When I was an altar boy (yeah, ain't THAT something?) sooooooo many years ago, we used to go there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Big is a good pick and I just read where that movie was done but can't recall now

      Delete
  27. The only other one I could think of was The Third Man and I see someone else got there first. Have a great time in Quebec.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I love Vacation and Zombieland. Both are an absolute blast. Still need to see Strangers on a Train.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Birgit,

    I loved Chevy Chase back in the 80s and 90s! Vacation is a good classic summer movie, too! I'm a huge fan of The Walking Dead series, which surprises even me and since getting hooked on the show I've looked for good zombie films. I recently watched Zombieland and you're right it's not the ordinary horror flick. It's definitely a good film when you're in a goofy mood. The writers did a good job and the actors were great. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not into the Walking Dead at all since I can see that at any mall:) Glad you like my picks

      Delete
  30. Anything Hitchcock did left a strong after-taste. Strangers on a Train is one that I've enjoyed/shuddered at seeing a couple of times. It is a haunting film that really let Robert Walker shine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is great and that old man crawling under the roller coaster is real!

      Delete
  31. For this one, you've totally stumped me. I can't think of a single movie that takes place at an amusement park, unless you count Jurassic Park.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, that is a good pick and I now wish I would have picked The Lost Boys which I think you must have seen since it involves vampires

      Delete
  32. Hey Birgit,
    I love Strangers on a Train. I love just about any Hitchcock film. He was so brilliant.
    And National Lampoon's Vacation is a classic. Funny for sure.
    Now Zombieland I know nothing about...well, I do now that you've summed it up for us (thanks for that!). I'm not into zombies per se but I am a huge Walking Dead fan. Zombieland sounds really funny...especially with Bill Murray. Dressing up like a zombie to go golfing. That's funny. I'll have to check it out sometime.

    I'm curious: what horror clip did you see that has stuck with you and bothered you so much? What movie is it? I do like a good horror flick...

    Your trip to Quebec sounds wonderful! I love Quebec. Well, I haven't been there since I went in high school with the French Club (I sold a shitload of cheese to go on that trip! :) ) but I remember the city being so beautiful and so much fun (a few of us girls snuck out and we were later caught by Mr. Cosby, the awesome French teacher, hanging out in a bar flirting with Quebec boys. Lol). I bet the weather is going to be magnificent this time of year. Have a blast! How long will you be there? I'm jealous! :)

    Michele at Angels Bark

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was Sleep away Camp. The still just of that girl screaming is enough for me because I had that in my dreams. We are actually an hour south of Montreal right on the Richelieu River. My hubby's aunt and uncle have a home here and it is beautiful. I love it here because it is a bit of Europe. One mall we went to was like a market, one store had meats, another, cheeses, another breads...really sos relaxing. I will get to Quebec City another time but it is beautiful

      Delete
  33. Chevy Chase, I rmember those fims on tv. Of course, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong and he's a pro at goofing off in National Lampoon with such glorified Chevy eloquence. How does he say all that manic stuff - so hilarious and manage a cheesy hairball grin at the end?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's goofy, fun, squeamish with that cousin and funny

      Delete
  34. I haven't seen all of Zombieland. It was on TV the other day, actually, and I only watched a little. I'll have to sit and watch the whole thing one of these days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a better film than I thought it would be and quite funny

      Delete
  35. Some say that Strangers on a Train is Hitchcock's best. I think it deserves more kudos than it got.
    Have a great week, Birgit!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love this film and it is one of his best

      Delete
  36. Anything Hitchcock touched was a classic.
    Have fun. We'll leave the light on for ya.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with almost all of Hitchcock films. Having fun!

      Delete
  37. Strangers on a Train is one of my favorite films--great film editing. One of my ex sister-in-laws was an extra in Rollercoaster which was filmed near Richmond, VA. I've seen the film a few times but never could spot my SIL.

    There are a good many films with amusement park themes, but I can't recall most of them. In fact,saw one just the other day, but I can't remember what it was. The classic cult horror film Carnival of Souls was shot at an abandoned amusement park near Salt Lake City--I've seen that a couple of times.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you mentioned Carnival of Souls...a great B movie that still sends chills

      Delete
  38. Those National Lampoon Movies were a hoot!

    ReplyDelete

  39. I stay away from zombies in real life, and movies, lol. Enjoy your holiday!

    I'm leaving my link below, but following the discussion on my blog, it'd be wonderful if you allowed comments from Name/URL as well :)

    Damyanti

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I often see Zombies in malls. I'm so sorry...I thought I left my URL...I will check it out

      Delete
  40. One out of three! Great topic pick for films

    ReplyDelete