It’s Thursday and I’m back with a new Thursday Movie Picks feature post. This series is hosted by Wandering through the Shelves and offers you a weekly prompt to post some movie recommendations/talking points according to the theme. Usually, you are supposed to post about 3-5 examples, which I find a very manageable amount.
The theme for this week is amateur sleuths, and I’m not going to lie to you, I was completely blanking on what that even means. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it’s basically … amateur detectives, who don’t do this professionally? Either way, that’s what I’m going with.
Scooby-Doo (2002)
I know that these movies were kind of corny, but I really loved them and had a lot of fun watching. I think at this point, with the amount of memes that go around, it has reached some kind of cult status though, because those outfits – they were something!
TKKG (2019)
*please use auto-translated subtitles for the trailer, they’re not perfect but the only way for non-Germans I’m afraid*
If you grew up in an English speaking country, the teen detectives you probably knew most were Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and their likes. But in German speaking countries, we had Fünf Freunde and TKKG instead. I couldn’t find an English trailer, but there was one movie in 2006 that I adored and a remake of the entire franchise just in 2019. To be honest, it was not a hit in cinemas, but I watched it and enjoyed it quite a bit, because for the first time you found out how the gang met each other.
Enola Holmes
As much as I liked Sherlock Holmes, I was really surprised by how much I adored whip-smart and fun Enola. I hope they’ll continue to adapt the books for Netflix, because I can see it being a great franchise.
Veronica Mars
This movie was nothing but fan service, which is alright, because it was also financed by fans through crowdsourcing. I had a good time with it anyway, although I’m not sure you can call it sleuthing when I’m pretty sure Veronica has a PI license … Anyway, I think this movie showed how invested Marshmallows still were and paved the way for another season … although I refuse to acknowledge the last couple minutes of that last season.
Life and Other Disasters 
Scooby Doo was the first one to come to my mind too. And Veronica Mars though I only watched the first season of the show. I’ve heard good things about Enola Holmes but haven’t yet watched it!
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Enola Holmes is fun! It’s also given me one of the most empathetic versions of Sherlock to date.
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I watched Scooby Doo cartoons occasionally as a kid but was never the biggest fan. I thought the movie was dumb as dirt.
I’ve watched a random episode of Veronica Mars but never enough to get into the show so I never bothered with the film.
I’ve heard of Enola Holmes but don’t have Netflix but there is a lot of positive feedback on it so I’ll get to it someday. Your other is completely unknown to me.
I went with a perennial girl detective and two that I watched within the last year that fit the theme.
Nancy Drew: Detective (1938)-A brief Warner Brothers series (this was followed by: Nancy Drew…Reporter, Nancy Drew…Trouble Shooter and Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase-all released in 1939) starring Oscar nominee Bonita Granville as the intrepid and curious young Nancy who sniffs trouble and cannot help investigating. That usually leads her into endless difficulties, but she always manages to solve the mystery in the end!
Hue and Cry (1947)- “The Blood and Thunder Boys” are a neighborhood group of kids in a partially bombed out section of post-WWII London. They suspect the boss of the village gang is directing his cohorts to their various criminal enterprises by manipulating stories in a popular kid’s paper “The Trump” (an actual kid comic of the time). Determined to stop the crooks they set out to solve the mystery of the leader’s identity and turn him over to the cops! Considered the first of the British Ealing comedies.
Who Killed Mary What’s ‘Er Name? (1971)-When a local prostitute is slain in a rough, rundown part of town, the police and neighbors react with little more than a shrug. Outraged, retired boxer Mickey Isador (Red Buttons), who knew the woman slightly, decides to try and find the killer. With the aid of his daughter, he pokes around the gritty dilapidated slum looking for answers, nearly getting himself offed in the process. Low-budget film captures the ramshackle decay that had infected many parts of New York City in the late 60’s/early 70’s.
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I enjoyed the 2002 Scooby Doo film as well. And Enola Holmes is awesome. I agree, I hope they make more films based on those books.
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I know that the Arthur Conan Doyle foundation sued the author of the Enola Holmes books, because the depiction of Sherlock was close to the last 6 books that aren’t public domain yet, so I don’t know if Netflix has to deal with repercussions on that too. But viewer numbers were definitely there enough to make more in my opinion.
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I’m pretty sure I read those last six books, and I don’t remember seeing a resemblance.
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It’s about the characterization of Sherlock. In later books, as Doyle had lost a son in the war etc., he made Sherlock more sympathetic and empathetic. Enola’s brother was closer to those last books in terms of character than the colder, analytical one from the early books.
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Ah. But is that enough to build a case on? I’m going to have to look it up and see for myself.
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I know they sued, I don’t know if they were successful though. I didn’t check up on it again.
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Okay, I looked it up. The case was dismissed back in December.
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