Brian's Movie Reviews

Hi everyone!

I'm new on the site, so I apologize if I mess something up in this topic. I'll try my best not to. I'm still trying to get to know the site, particularly how to include movie posters for my reviews. I will get better as I go.

As the title of this topic says, this is the place where I will be posting my movie reviews. I've been a fan of movies ever since I was a little kid. Movies are a huge part of my life, but I've never really bothered with reviewing them online. I usually just discuss them with my friends and family.

I like all kinds of movies, predominantly action movies and thrillers.

Stay tuned for movie reviews by... me

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I see movies differently

The Terminator (1984) is a fresh take on the action drama genre. It's a sad, crushing story which goes against all ''classic'' approaches to action movies, so it's not surprising that the movie is referred to as an absolute masterpiece.


The main character/hero of the movie is, as the title says, the Terminator; a lone cybernetic organism sent from the future into the past with one mission - to try to ensure the survival of its kind by stopping the event that leads its kind to being exterminated by humans in the future, the birth of John Connor, the leader of the human kind in the future. However, humans send Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), one of their soldiers, back into the past as well to make sure that the Terminator fails.

This movie differs from the classic approach to action dramas. Usually, the villain has the upper hand in the story and the hero, being at a disadvantage, has to find a way to overcome the villain in order to win. However, in the story of The Terminator, a new formula is introduced. In this story, our hero, the Terminator, actually has the upper hand on the two villains, Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, from the start. But, that's not the biggest twist of the movie. There's an even bigger twist that the movie delivers at the end, but I'll get to that shortly.

The Terminator's mission involves killing Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of John Connor, before she gives birth to John. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned when Kyle Reese shows up. He teams up with Sarah in order to put the Terminator through a lot of horrible stuff.

Throughout the movie, we don't see the Terminator show any kind of emotion which actually perfectly shows the only emotion the Terminator has left - desperation. The urgency of the situation, the burden it carries throughout the movie - being sent to an unknown point in time, having no backup, while at the same time knowing that its whole kind is depending on it to get the job done... It would be too much for anyone to handle.

The movie keeps us on edge the whole time as the Terminator almost manages to succeed in his mission on a few occasions throughout the movie. But, at the end, we are hit with that huge twist I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago. The hero, despite being stronger than the villains and despite having the upper hand during the better part of the movie, ends up tragically losing in the end. Granted, the Terminator does defeat one of the villains (Kyle), but unfortunately, it's all in vain as Sarah manages to kill the Terminator at the very end.


Action packed and fast paced from start to finish. Oscar worthy performances. Groundbreaking cinematography. The Terminator has everything you want and expect from an action movie and more. Way ahead of its time.

Arnold Schwarzenegger played the Terminator perfectly. He captured that single expression of desperation in a way that it was arguably Oscar worthy. However, the movie's sad and unpredictable ending is, in my opinion, the reason that the movie gets its spot on the ''greatest movies of all time'' list. Well deserved!

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Not sure exactly what problems you're encountering with incorporating pictures but the only way to ensure they are permanent is to upload them from your computer via the attachments icon (paper clip) on the top row in Advanced Reply. You can of course incorporate pictures from off the interweb as well, via copying the image address and pasting it into the box that comes up when clicking on the insert image icon (bottom row, 5th from the right - kinda looks like a mountain view with a red sun or something above it ).

By the way, we use a popcorn box rating system here - this thread covers how to include them.

Thanks! I got it to work!

Kewl. You just need to get that popcorn box rating showing properly now - it should show as (code is [*rating]4.5[/*rating] without the asterisks).

Hello and welcome!

Echoing what Chyp said about popcorn ratings: makes it much easier for us to approve the submitted reviews.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

The Terminator is a great movie, and your review was a very interesting read. I've never heard anyone refer to the Terminator as the hero, and Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese as the villains. It kind of puts a whole different spin on the movie.

Thank you all very much for the warm welcome! I will make sure to use the rating code appropriately as soon as I get 10 posts in total because, as of now, I'm not allowed to edit my post.

As far as I know post minimum should only be for links. @Yoda - you might want to take a quick look into this when you get a chance?

edit: Ok, can see what the problem was - for the image you have it linking to the attachment via an IMG tag whereas ideally you should have used the code generated by the 'Insert' button after uploading the picture which would have looked like this: [*attachfull]88755[/*attachfull] (without the asterisks of course) so the system rightly identified a link in your post albeit said link was actually an internal one to a movieforums.com address.

Here's the same attachfull code without the asterisks (note the 88755 is the same internal identifier for the attachment as in your IMG tag):


All moot now as you've reached the 10 post threshold anyway but providing clarification for both yourself and Yoda.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) is an epic love story and in my opinion, the greatest sequel ever made (tied with The Terminator 2). I haven't had such positively strong feelings about a movie in a long time. It is easily the movie of 2022 as far as I'm concerned. Perfect blend of classic and modern.


Top Gun: Maverick is a love story about Pete Mitchell, call sign ''Maverick'' (Tom Cruise), a distinguished pilot/naval aviator who uses his tough life situation to his advantage in order to re-ignite the past love with a stunning owner/bartender of a local military personnel favored bar Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly). Penny Benjamin was only referenced as a character in the original Top Gun, so bringing her on the big screen in the sequel was a great decision as it was shown in the movie how much potential her character had.

Due to the facts that Maverick and Penny have a shaky history and that Penny is now a single mom, meaning her priorities have greatly changed, Maverick realizes right away that he's going to have to really dig deep in order to achieve his goal, which is of course, winning Penny's heart again, this time once and for all. He wastes no time and immediately puts an epic, ecstatic and romantic 3-stage plan in motion in order to achieve his goal.

With the help of his old friend/wingman Tom Kazansky, call sign ''Iceman'' (Val Kilmer), Maverick gets reinstated back as the instructor at the famous Top Gun school in order to be close to Penny's bar and therefore close to Penny. At the first stage of his plan, he cleverly drops by Penny's bar and acts like he didn't know she owned it in order to keep things casual. The execution of this stage of the plan doesn't go perfectly as Penny forces Maverick's hand with her bar rules and puts Maverick in a situation where he's forced to pay for everyone's drinks at the bar. Unfortunately for Maverick, his card gets declined which reveals to Penny that Maverick doesn't really offer the financial security she, as a hard working single mom, deserves. However, Penny immediately shows us, although very subtly, why she got a hold of Maverick's heart - by not minding Maverick's financial situation at all or, more accurately, by not being a gold digger. Despite the rocky start, Maverick manages to lay the very much needed foundation for the achievement of his ultimate goal, and with that, completes stage 1 of his plan.

Upon arriving at Top Gun school, Maverick enters the second stage of his plan. He uses Bradley Bradshaw, call sign Rooster (Miles Teller) - his deceased wingman's son (who is also one of the top graduates at Top Gun school), to practice being a father figure, and with it, convince Penny that he's fit and able to be a good father which is crucial as Penny has a daughter. Throughout the movie, Maverick goes all out and over the top to refine his parenting skills to be able to achieve this crucial part of the plan - he gets really into it to the point where he even saves Rooster's life at the end of the movie even though he doesn't have to since Penny's not there to see it, thus showing us he has really embraced and refined his parenting skills which are now second nature to him. By the end of the movie, Maverick and Rooster bond like father and son which successfully completes the second stage of Maverick's plan with an added bonus.

While completing the second stage of his plan, Maverick simultaneously completes the third and final stage of his plan - proving to Penny that he is the man she has been waiting for. Maverick takes on a mission for the Navy which he manages to successfully complete in a spectacular fashion and therefore solidifies himself as the man Penny has been waiting for her whole life.


Impeccable acting by the entire cast, especially the last true action hero of our time, Tom Cruise. True to the original in every way possible and then some. The ambience and the kickass music take the very much necessary nostalgia rush to the highest levels known to man. Cinematography and writing work hand in hand from start to finish to knock it out of the park and catapult this movie into the all time great romantic movies list. On top of that, the message of the movie is beautiful and clear cut - it's never too late for love or, if you want, all you need is love. Unequivocal 5/5.

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Independence Day (1996) is a movie which I think is unfortunately perceived the wrong way by many. People keep putting Will Smith's character (Captain Steven Hiller) and Bill Pullman's character (President Thomas Whitmore) in the center of the story where they're the main heroes fighting against an alien invasion, but that's not really the case. Despite that, it still gets the recognition it deserves which is great. It is definitely one of my favorite movies of all time.


Independence Day is actually a love story with a psychological twist wrapped inside a Sci-Fi adventure. The main protagonist/hero of the story is undoubtedly David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), an overqualified cable repairman who is an awkward, nerdy genius engineer specialized in the computer field.

Although it happens off screen before the first scene of the movie (I'm sure it was meant to be left out on purpose to keep the audience guessing which was a great decision), due to his genius intellect and capabilities, David Levinson is actually the person who, unbeknownst to the rest of the world, contacts the aliens in the first place by secretly hacking into and using the Earth's satellite system to send out a signal to draw them in and make them come to Earth.

Later on throughout the movie, David acts like the alien invasion is a surprise to him to successfully cover his tracks. However, the foreshadowing and clues that he's the mastermind behind the arrival of aliens are there in each of the acts of the movie, most noticeably in the first act where David (and David alone) ''discovers'' the signal cleverly hidden inside the Earth's satellite system (of course he's the only one who discovers it because he's the one behind it).

By the second act of the movie, the very uniquely crafted love story unveils completely. We learn that David is unable to let go of the past, more accurately, his divorce from Constance Spano (Margaret Colin), an attractive and smart woman at a high position in the White House. So, for 3 years after the divorce, David has been working on an extremely complex, romantically obsessive plan to re-ignite the love spark between them again and to get her back. The reason behind their divorce, according to Constance, was the fact that David wasn't ambitious enough. So, to prove his love, but also his ambition growth to her, David goes all out and uses the aliens and alien invasion as the foundation/stepping stone to becoming the ultimate hero in Constance's eyes and ultimately getting her back.

By the end of the movie, David reaches his goal in the most spectacular fashion as he executes his master plan perfectly - from luring the aliens to Earth to secretly, but masterfully influencing the government and the military to do his bidding by starting an intergalactic war which he would then conveniently end and subsequently become the hero of not just Constance, but also the whole world, as he planned to do from the beginning. All that careful and complex planning finally comes to fruition once the aliens are defeated which pushes Constance into falling completely head over heels for David. Them getting back together in a love outburst neatly concludes the movie.


Most guys would definitely fail in trying to get an ex back the way David did, but David is not most guys. He didn't succumb to grief and depression and instead he went all out and showed us that anyone can rise above those things and get back with an ex as long as there's the right amount (or excess amount) of motivation present. Not to mention the subtext or the secondary moral of the story that the movie brilliantly gets across, which is that the properly channelled love for your ex can make you a better version of yourself. And that's what makes this movie such a great love story and one of the greatest romance movies of all time.

On top of the unique love story which drives the whole movie, the audience gets many cherries on top as bonuses - the setting, the stellar acting by the whole cast and the amazing visuals create the almost unparalleled concoction of cinematography experience rarely seen on the big screen.

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@BrianThompson,

I didn't read your Top Gun: Maverick review because I haven't seen the movie yet, but based on your other two reviews, you have a unique way at looking at movies. You seem to find a way to see the movie that's different from the way most people see it.

That's a good thing because it makes your reviews fascinating to read.