Mr. Brown Versus

I owe Mad Max: Fury Road  and apology. I'm sorry, Mad Max: Fury Road  -- I was too harsh on you. I said that you were overrated; I called your action scenes a one-note car chase/gunfight through an apocalyptic wasteland & thought they got repetitive very fast; I thought some of the characters like Immortal Joe's prized Breeders and the title character didn't get enough characterization; etc. Sometimes, you have to own up when you're wrong, and I was in this instance, especially when you come across watching something so laughably bad that it makes you pine for a better, more competently made picture. Revelation Road: The Beginning of the End  is just that sort of movie that made me pine for George Miller's expertly made, but flawed action-thriller, warts and all. In fact, this is a low-budget action movie that will take its cues from other better movies, but more on that later. Revelation Road  was made by Pure Flix Entertainment. Who are they, you a...

*  Bad people can still make fine art. I love Michael Jackson's music while acknowledging that he was a man who had serious demons that were never exercised over the course of his life. I'm just getting into the works of writer-director Woody Allen and I think his movies are just incredible from what little I've seen, yet I do think he's definitely a pervert at best and a messed up child-fucker at worst with the allegations that he molested his own daughter, Dylan, during his widespread split with actress Mia Farrow in '92. Johnny Depp, in spite of taking paycheck roles since he rose to superstar status with the  Pirates of the Caribbean  movies as Capt. Jack Sparrow, I still think he's one of our generation's finest actors, and he's a woman-beating piece of shit (allegedly). People who make exemplary art shouldn't be punished just because they're a shitty human being, nor should they be driven out of the Oscar race, which is what is happening t...

It was 15 years ago today that I went on a camping trip with my 6th grade class, along with the others from across the San Diego Unified School District up in Palomar. The whole idea is to to get the students to learn about nature, the environment and to enjoy meeting new people from another school; it's a tradition that's been going on for decades in the school system in SD.  That was also the day everything changed, as the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. & a fourth plane taken over by ordinary passengers on United Flight 93 crashed into a meadow in Pennsylvania, put us on a different path, one that led us into a fearful place, driven by our need to feel secure, whatever the cost. It also shined a light on the people we might take for granted - police officers, firefighters, first responders - men and women who went into harms way to save as many lives as possible, and lost their own in doing so. It signaled that even in ...

Ok, let's be honest -- the calendar year for 2016 has been kinda shit, hasn't it? Sequels to cult hits that gave us secondary slop....superhero movies that failed to deliver on the super....studios still trying to cram the awfulness of Kevin Hart down our throats....and this season's offering of summer popcorn flicks did nothing to buck the trend. Does it get better as we turn to fall and the Awards race? Maybe, but for now, here's my compiled list of the worst this calendar year had to offer us thus far. London Has Fallen  - Baltimore movie critic Max Weiss warned me about this abhorrent, xenophobic, racist and profoundly idiotic picture and gave it one star in her review. I felt that was waaaaaaay too kind after sitting through one of the worst action films I've seen in the last 15 years. Gerard Butler is doing his second rate John McClain thing, Aaron Eckhart is still the President with a target on his back, and fine performers like Angela Basset, Melissa ...

Editor's note: the point of this post is not to target Bernie Sanders supporters. My intention is to talk about an experience I had with one person in particular and convey that I'm not a fan of his "agree with me or you're not a real liberal!" style of radio/podcasting. From the website Dictionary.com: obnoxious: adjective 1. highly   objectionable   or   offensive;   odious: obnoxious   behavior . 2. annoying   or   objectionable   due   to   being   a   showoff   or   attracting   undue at tention   to   oneself: an   obnoxious   little   brat . 3. Archaic.   exposed   or   liable   to   harm,   evil,   or   anything   objectionable. 4. Obsolete.   liable   to   punishment   or   censure;   reprehensible. I love watching The Young Turks on You Tube. I try to catch ...

This will be a new segment where I muse about anything and everything: current events, movies, personal issues, etc. It gets me writing more, which (I hope) will get me back into the creative mood, and perhaps gets you, dear reader, thinking as well. So, without further ado..... I want to say the Colin Kapernick should be is a non-issue because it is is right as an American to not stand for the National Anthem (even though I find it disrespectful, IMO), but I understand his reluctance and the reason why he has chosen to protest. In my lifetime, I have never been pulled over by the police. I haven't been stopped and frisked by police officers, and I haven't been harassed by local law enforcement. But I cannot deny this is a common occurrence in the black community; that I am more likely to be stopped by police officers than a white male; that I am more likely to be placed under arrest because of my skin color; that we've seen an alarming increase of young black, un...