Thursday, September 24, 2015

Thursday Movie Picks: Adopted/Foster Families


Happy Thursday! Better yet, Happy Thursday Movie Picks! Happy is the key word. I'm going to keep it nice and fun on this week's edition. Oh, real quick, Thursday Movie Picks is a weekly meme hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves. Click the link to find out who to take place. And take place.

Anyhoo, the theme for this week is Adopted/Foster Families. Since I'm in a happy mood...and I know things are going to get dark next month as Halloween season starts. I'm going to keep it all sunshine and gumdrops.

Today.


Superman: The Movie
(1978)
When the Kents, a nice mid-western couple, come across a little boy who is all by himself, they do the only decent thing and take him in. They painstakingly pour all of their down home values into him and it pays off. He grows up to be a fine, upstanding citizen. He even maintains those values and practices all the lessons they taught him after moving to the big city and getting a job as a reporter (yes, I almost picked this last week). Oh yeah, he saved the world a time or two. (click here) for my full review)

Kung Fu Panda
(2008)
As the Kents did, Mr. Ping takes in Po and trains him how to run the business Mr. Ping hopes he will take over one day. However, the youngster wants a more adventurous life and finds out he's destined for a higher purpose. I'm not sure why you didn't think of this. I mean, the hero is a panda...who was raised by a goose. Oh yeah, he saved the world.

Despicable Me
(2010)
Gru is a guy who has made a living running afoul of the law. As fate would have it, three orphan sisters would come into his life: Margo, Edith, and Agnes. They help him realize that there's a better way. We follow along as he efforts to change not only his ways, but the ways of everyone he knows. Oh yeah, he saved the world.


Click below for more Thursday Movie Picks!

18 comments:

  1. You can't go wrong with those choices. Say, have you seen 7 Days in Hell about the Williams sisters' adopted white brother Aaron?

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    1. Thanks. Never even heard of that one. I like the Williams sisters, though.

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  2. Great choices! I picked Kung Fu Panda and Despicable Me, too :)
    Your banner for this week is perfection, by the way.
    - Allie

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  3. Oh my God, Stephen's comment about 7 Days in Hell..I should've chose that, that was brilliant.

    Nice picks here! Superman is a great choice, I never would've thought of it. It's nice to see more animated film love as well.

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    1. How have I not heard of this 7 Days in Hell? I need to find it.

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  4. You know I'm terrible with animated movies so I haven't seen two of these but I LOVE this Superman!! What a great catch, Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter do wonderful things with their roles of Ma & Pa Kent. Did you know that Ma Kent was offered to Joan Crawford first but she was too ill too accept? She would have been interesting but Thaxter is perfect in the role so no loss. I'll be swinging back later to read your full review of the film.

    I didn't go as happy go lucky as you but two of my picks are towards the lighter side. My extra is a weird hybrid that's a bit of a stretch on the theme but I just stumbled across it this week and it proved so bizarre I decided to throw it in as a sort of caution.

    Loggerheads (2005)-Three separate vignettes look at an adoption story from different angles. Feeling unsure and unsettled Grace (Bonnie Hunt) returns home to visit her mother and search for the child she gave up for adoption years before. Young drifter Mark (Kip Pardue) begins a relationship with a handyman while trying to help endangered loggerhead turtles survive. Elizabeth (Tess Harper) struggles with defying her pious minister husband to seek out her estranged adopted son. On a Mother's Day weekend in North Carolina their three stories converge.

    Baby Boom (1987)-Hard driving executive J.C. Wyatt, not affectionately called The Tiger Lady, is on the cusp of being made a partner in her advertising firm when she is named guardian for a baby when a distant relative and his wife are killed in an accident. Unexpectedly taking to the little girl she decides to adopt and raise her which throws her life into tumult and takes her in a direction she never expected. Charming comedy is a perfect fit for Diane Keaton.

    Room for One More (1952)-Cary Grant and Betsy Blair, married in real life when this was made, play a couple with three children who also have been foster parents to many over the years. They take two deeply troubled children into their home who prove to be almost more than they can handle. The film follows the difficult adjustments they all face when they decide to adopt rather than foster them.

    Dishonorable Mention: Happy Mother’s Day, Love George aka Run Stranger Run (1973)-What starts out as a quiet drama about a young man, adopted at four days old, returning to the Nova Scotia coast of his birth to search for his roots takes an extreme wrong turn about 3/4 of the way through and becomes a slasher flick for no discernible reason. Up until then it's not a bad little film, with a very strong performance by Cloris Leachman, in a terrible black wig, as a sad, beaten down woman but that severe shift in tone scuttles the movie completely. How this ever attracted a cast of such quality, aside from Cloris there are two other Oscar winners-Patricia Neal-chewing scenery like crazy,(one of her real life daughters with Roald Dahl, Tessa, plays her daughter here...the physical resemblance is uncanny unfortunately her immense acting talent was NOT handed down) and a brunette Ron Howard as well as Bobby Darin in his last role (as a fry cook!) is a mystery. There are some beautiful shots of the Nova Scotia area but this is a strange mishmash of a movie.

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    1. Thanks! Haven't seen any of your picks, but Loggerheads is one I have been meaning to. That Dishonorable Mention sounds crazy.

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  5. I'm a huge fan of Despicable Me. One of the problems I frequently have with animated movies is the depiction of the parents, particularly the fathers. Animated movie dads (actually, dads in any movie geared for children whether animated or not) are generally stupid, clueless, overweight, dumb, absent, and/or inattentive. Take your pick of those qualities--most kids' movie dads are a combination of those traits.

    And, while Gru is that guy initially, he doesn't end up that guy. This is someone who genuinely loves his kids and who really wants what is best for them. He's a good dad. As a father, and more specifically a father of daughters, I appreciate that. No matter where that series goes, I will always have a soft spot for it because of that.

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    1. I have daughters and hate movie dads for precisely the reasons you give. Thank goodness for Gru.

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  6. Oh I almost picked Superman and I always loved that scene at the beginning. I have not seen Kung Fu Panda because the looks of the panda remind me of my Ex and even though we are still good friends, I still can't get into seeing that film. I love the 2nd one because it is so funny and sweet

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    1. I hope I'm not wrong, but I'm laughing hysterically because Kung Fu Panda reminds you of an ex. For what it's worth, the creatures my exes remind me of aren't so cuddly.

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    2. Oh no..laugh away:) He was known as the A & W Rootbear in University and he would do that Rootbear walk. His other nickname was sloth since he would have about 12 essays to do by the end of the year (in those days one could get away with that)

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  7. Despicable Me and Kung Fu Panda are such adorable movies. And Superman is a GREAT pick.

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  8. Nice pick with Superman. I thought more people would pick it. Thought Spider-Man would be popular too. Superhero stories does have quite a number of orphans.

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    1. Thanks. I'm also surprised it wasn't more popular.

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