At The Movies with Bryan, the Wannabe Filmmaker

Britney Spears! It's a name that will always get a mixed reaction. There a die hard Britney Spears fans that think she is one of the greatest performers of all time. Then there are people that think Britney Spears is the death of music itself. I find the majority of her music appallingly bad, but at the same time it's no worse than that of the many teen idols that flooded the music scene in the early 60s and late 80s.  Try listening to Frankie Avalon's "Venus," if you don't believe me. And who can ever forget Tiffany's painful cover of the Tommy James classic "I Think We're Alone Now?"  God knows I've tried!  Plus, every once in a blue moon Britney Spears puts out a song that is listenable, if not good. I have a fondness for "I'm a Slave 4 U," "Toxic," and "I've Just Begun (Having My Fun)." Some of my more artistic minded friends will probably brand me a traitor.... oh well, so be it! I didn'

The world of Doctor Who has been and always will be a mixed bag, one story can amaze you with it's creativity and intelligent writing, the next can bore you to tears with it's laziness. There are undisputed masterpieces from both eras of Doctor Who, then are the complete duds, ones that you would like to forget about. Then there are stories like The Chase which leaves you scratching your head, wondering what in the hell it is you are watching. The Chase is a six part serial from the second season of Doctor Who, it was also the season finale which saw the departure of longtime companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. It's hard to describe The Chase, because while it isn't particularly good, it's also extremely hard to dislike, because it's an extremely ridiculous story, punctuated by bumbling Daleks, a pit stop on top of The Empire State Building, a misadventure inside a carnival horror house, and a robot duplicate of the Doctor. It's borderline su

Ray Harryhausen was a pivotal part of my childhood. My introduction to the world of Ray Harryhausen was Clash of the Titans  at the age of five. The movie itself is mediocre, but it is loaded with memorable moments, courtesy Mr. Harryhausen.  The image that always remained with me a kid was when Kraken turns to stone after Perseus shows it  the severed head of Medusa. I've never forgotten it and never will. Harryhausen's stop motion effects had the ability to turn a potentially schlocky movie into an extremely enjoyable one. See: The Valley of Gwangi, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, and One Million Years B.C. for examples.  His greatest talent was the ability to interject personalities into his creations, to the point that they became genuine characters in the narrative, as opposed to just flashy objects for the audience to "ooohhh'' and "aaahhh" over. Quite often, they were the most interesting characters characters in the entire movie. The Ymir