Brian's Thoughts on Movies

 Tom Hanks has had a leading man career since the 1980s and is keeping himself relevant by playing complex characters who are not always the dad types many people, rightly or wrongly, often associate Hanks with.   In recent years he has headlined a Western directed by Paul Greengrass (News of the World)  and left a strong impression as the grumpy retiree in A Man Called Otto.  When asked to describe the movie “Elvis” I answered stating “You will hate Tom Hanks in this movie.”  In the film “Here” Hanks reteams with director Robert Zemeckis which with his made the cultural landmark “Forrest Gump”,  as well as “Cast Away” (my favorite of their collaborations), Polar Express, and Pinocchio (which I have not seen-nor have many others based on the grosses).  Zemeckis has always been an innovative director and his films often defy easy characterization.  The Back to the Future films mix comedy and science fiction.  Death Becomes Her is a comedic hor...

Each February I try to have a post ready for a romantic themed movie and so for this year I have picked one of my wife’s favorite movies. The Notebook is based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks.  Sparks has written over twenty novels, which from what I can tell mainly focus on the romantic lives of people on either of the Carolina coasts.  I have not read any of his novels (apart from a few pages of The Notebook) but I have seen Dear John, Nights in Rodanthe, and pieces of Message in a Bottle.   Of these films only The Notebook had any impact on me, though I did like the song “I Could Not Ask For More” from Message in a Bottle.  It is a popular joke among men that their wives and girlfriends make them watch The Notebook as a form of torture.  It is true that it was my wife’s call to go see that film and she certainly shed more tears than I did while watching it but I enjoy a romantic themed film if it the characters and story are intriguing.  As such I found th...

 Ridley Scott has had such a long career that every time a film fan looks at one of his films there is a temptation to see it in context of his other work.  Scott has never been my favorite director and I am not a fan at all of one of the films he is most known for, Blade Runner, but overall I am pretty fond of many of his films, mostly due to the unique settings his characters get to play in.  Alien is a superb horror movie in space, Black Rain is well made cop thriller with an edgy performance from Michael Douglas as a NY cop chasing a criminal in Japan, Thelma and Louise may be his most successful film creatively.  Scott bravely took on Hannibal, the sequel to the Oscar winning The Silence of the Lambs, a high profile film that was destined to be far less loved than its predecessor.  Scott accepted the offer because he liked the novel and didn’t worry about anything other than making the best film he could. More recently I enjoyed The Martian and All The Mone...