Brian's Reviews

21 - B+

28 Weeks Later - B

300 - B

3:10 To Yuma - B

500 Days Of Summer - A+

Adventureland - B+

Against The Wall - B+

Amazing Grace - C

American History X - B+

Apocalypto - A

Army Of The Dead - D-

Atonement - C-

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery - B

Australia - C+

Autumn Hearts - D

Avatar - B+

Bank Job, The - C-

Batman Begins - A

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead - C-

Beowulf - C

Big Lebowski, The  - A

Black Book - A

Black Snake Moan- B

Blade Runner - B

Blow - B

Body Of Lies - B-

Boiler Room - B

Brick - A-

Brideshead Revisited - D+

Brothers Bloom, The - A

Brothers McMullen, The - B+

Burn After Reading - A-

Capote - C-

Capturing The Friedmans - C-

Changeling, The - A-

Chasing Ghosts - D

Children Of Men - B

Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, The - B+

Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The - A-

Citizen X - B

Clerks 2 - D+

Closer - A-

Counterfeiters, The - B-

Crank - B-

Crash- A

Crazy Love - C

Crossing, The - D+

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - A

Dan In Real Life - C

Darjeeling Limited, The - D

Dark Knight, The - A

Dead Man's Shoes - D+

Dear Zachary - B+

Death Race - B

Death In Paradise - C+

Deja Vu - B

Descent, The - B-

District 9 - A-

Dog's Breakfast, A - B+

Donnie Darko - A-

Dorm Daze - C-

Doubt - B+

Eastern Promises - D+

Eight Below - C

Empire Of The Sun - A-

Enchanted - B-

Enemy Of The State - A-

Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room - C-

Equilibrium - C-

Face/Off  - A

Facing The Giants - F

Family Guy: Blue Harvest, The - A

Fellowship Of The Dice - C

Fireproof - D

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - D+

Fountain, The - B

Freedom Writers - C

Frida - C-

Frost / Nixon - C+

Frozen River - C

Gladiator - A

Glory Road - B

God Grew Tired Of Us - D+

Golden Compass, The - C+

Gone Baby Gone - A-

Good Night & Good Luck - C+

Groundhog Day - A-

Hairspray - C

Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle - D+

Heat - A+

Hellboy - B+

Hero - A

Hidden Half, The - B-

High Fidelity - B

Highlander - B+

History Of Violence, A - B

Hoax, The - C

Honey And Ashes - D+

Hot Fuzz - A

House Of Flying Daggers - B

I Am A Sex Addict - C-

I Am Legend - A-

In The Valley Of Elah - A-

Incredible Hulk, The - A-

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - B+

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade - A-

Inglourious Basterds - A+

Into The Wild - C-

Iron Jawed Angels - B-

Iron Man - B

JCVD - A-

Jesse Stone: Night Passage - B

Juno - B

Kill Bill Volume 1 - A+

Killing Fields, The - B

King Of Kong, The - B

King Of New York - B-

Kingdom, The - B

Kingdom Of Heaven, The - B+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - B

Kite Runner, The - C+

Knocked Up - C-

Knowing - C

Kung Fu Hustle - A-

Kung Fu Panda - B-

Kurt Cobain: About A Son - D+

Lakeview Terrace - D+

Last Seduction, The - F

Lather Effect, The - D

Layer Cake - C

Leatherheads - C-

Letters From Iwo Jima - A-

Little Miss Sunshine - A-

Lives Of Others, The - B+

Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels - B+

Longford - C

Lookout, The- A

Lord Of War - C+

Matchstick Men - B

Matrix, The - A+

Maxed Out - D+

Memento - B+

Men In Black - B

Misery - B+

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - C

Mission, The - A-

Mission Impossible 3 - B+

Mongol - C-

Moon - B

Mr. Brooks - B

My Fellow Americans - C+

Needful Things - C

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - C

Oldboy - A+

Once - B

Orphanage, The - A

Owning Mahowny - A-

Painted Veil, The - B+

Pan's Labyrinth - A

Paranormal Activity - B+

Patriot, The - B

Persepolis - D

Planet Earth - B

Planet Terror - C+

Predator - B-

Prestige, The - A

Priceless - C

Primal Fear - B+

Proposition, The - C

Pulp Fiction - A+

Punisher, The - B+

Quantum Of Solace - C

Raiders Of The Lost Ark - B+

Raising Victor Vargas - B

Ratatouille - A

Reader, The - C

Red Dust - B+

Replacement Killers, The - C

Reservoir Dogs - A-

Revolutionary Road - C

Rocket, The - C

Run Lola Run - B-

Shawshank Redemption, The - A+

Short Circuit - C-

Signs - A

Simpsons Movie, The - A

Slumdog Millionaire - B+

Sophie Scholl - C-

Special - B

Spun - C-

Squid And The Whale, The - C-

Star Trek - A-

Starship Troopers 3 - C-

Still Crazy - B

Stone Cold - C

Sunshine - B

Superbad - B

Swimming Upstream - B+

Taken - B

There Will Be Blood - C

Third Miracle, The - C+

Touching The Void - A

Training Day - A-

Transsiberian - B-

Tropic Thunder - B

True Romance - A

Tunnel, The - A

Uninvited, The  - B

United 93 - A

Untraceable - C-

Up In The Air - A

Usual Suspects, The - A+

Valkyrie - B-

Walk The Line - B-

Wall-E - B

Wanted - B+

Watchmen - B+

Wedding Singer, The - D+

Without Limits - C+

World's Fastest Indian, The - B

Wrestler, The - B

Zero Effect - B-

Zero Kelvin - C-

Zombieland - B (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Mystery Cameo)

The Freak recommends Brian sees and reviews:

The Gift

Why Trust Brian?

Profile:
Born in '76, married w/ 2 kids
Occupation - Software Engineer at IBM

Movie Bio:
I have zero credentials in reviewing movies.  I know when I like a movie, and I know when I do not like a movie so much, but I admittedly have absolutely no idea how to tell if other people will like a particular movie.  Some of the worst movies I have seen have somehow won awards, so it tells you that my opinion should always be taken with a grain of salt.

Everybody has a few buddies that they have gone to the movies with growing up, but I had a couple of guys that shaped my cinematic perspective.  The first was a film-buff buddy I had in high school.  He would read all the entertainment junk, kept track of all the actors/actresses, and directors, and always knew when a potential good movie was going to come out.  Due to this, we ended up seeing a movie just about every weekend the year Hudson Hawk came out.  Even then I knew that movie was terrible.  This guy probably warped me because for some reason, one of his A-list male actors was Charlie Sheen.  Yeah... I know...

Most of my perspective came from Scott's evil twin brother.  He was a guy I knew in college, and if you read Scott's background, it was almost exactly the same.  He worked in a movie store, watched at least 3 movies a day, knew everything about the movie business and all the players, and probably is still trying to graduate due to the inordinate amount of classes he would skip to stuff as much movie trivia as possible into his brain.  Despite his bad academic influence, he managed to educate me a lot on good movies.  He introduced me to Hard Boiled, Reservoir Dogs (later Pulp Fiction), and other awesome movies that I would have never otherwise seen.  Whenever I wanted to see a good movie, I would ask him, and inevitably whatever recommendation he had is a movie I like a lot.

Other than my background of movie-geek friends, there are some other general concepts that shape my reviews.  I am spoiled by special effects, and am a lot harder on older movies that have a good story, good acting, but predated the good CGI effects of the movies we see presently.  I have tried as hard as I can to appreciate the poorly named romantic comedy genre, but I just cannot seem to do it.  They are all so formulaic, and they all give women false expectations about what a relationship is really like.  For that reason, I have a strong bias against them.  Other than that, I follow all the typical male stereotypes for movie preferences.  I like sports movies, action flicks, sci-fi, kung-fu, and selected dramas.  I am not all that big on documentaries, but occasionally there is one that exceeds my expectations.  Movies heavy on theme where 99% of the movie is character development do not appeal to me.  Something needs to happen.  There needs to be a plot other than the broad-based discovering-the-nature-of-humanity plot.