Part of the Club

I love The Breakfast Club. The movie came out during my junior year of high school. I was a wrestler (and can dissect the strengths and weaknesses of the portrayal of a high school wrestler ad infinitum). I could identify in different ways with the other characters. The theme song was the theme of my girlfriend’s […]

The Rest of The Brians

I was supposed to post these last week, but forgot. I wrote it and had it saved, but totally forgot to post because I was headed to Vegas. So here you do – the “minor” awards for The Brians which are actually more fun than the real thing. The Dorian Gray Award: Felicity Jones for […]

The 2015 Brians

Now that we have that silliness known as The Oscars out of the way, it’s time to focus on the real awards – The Brians. In case you don’t know, these are the awards recognizing the best in film for movies which I saw in the theater the previous year. This is a big year […]

The Brians Go on Hiatus

I usually find myself in a celebratory mood about this time of week. I’m usually ready to take a wistful look backwards at the year in cinema. No, not The Oscars. I’m talking about The Brians, the awards I have handed out for the best movies I have seen in the theatre each year since […]

Not Great, Not Powerful, but Not Bad

We went to see “The Wizard of Oz” prequel “Oz the Great and Powerful” a few weeks ago. I can think of a bunch of reasons to bash the film, but none of them compel me to care enough about the weaknesses. In the end, I found the film to be harmless and entertaining despite […]

Time for The Brians

Each year, people analyze the quality of the field vying for movie awards. They proclaim whether it’s a “good year” for The Oscars. I think 2012 will go down as one of those years which people will say that the field for The Brians – my yearly awards for the movies I see in the […]

‘Dog Days’ Quite a Relief

Sometimes when I take my daughter to a movie, I have to grit my teeth at the end when she talks about how she liked it. I don’t question her taste. I just know how some films don’t quite reach the bar of entertaining both youngsters and adults. As we left “Diary of a Wimpy […]

Jumping for Joy

Hollywood has a way of wearing us down. Their current tactic combines a heavy dose of sequels and re-makes. Sometimes, I think they don’t want us to go to the movies anymore. Then I go see a movie like “21 Jump Street” and have my faith restored in the decision makers (something I know I […]

Admitting My Shameful Secret

I admitted a deep, dark secret to some friends the other day. I felt much better afterwards, even though they gave me some grief for my transgression. While I feel good about taking this step with some people close to me, I don’t know if I can bring myself to make the same admission here. […]