Brian Sieck
Brian has been working for Movies Unlimited since 1998. He has a Music & Video Business degree and has contributed writing to various forms of media. He also considers himself a pop-culture junkie, amateur poker player, and a hardcore sports fan.
Brian's Posts
Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
Yep, it’s that time of year again… Valentine’s Day. Everyone will surely be busy watching staples such as Casablanca, An Affair To Remember, Pretty Woman, and When Harry Met Sally on this “special” occasion. However, while the aforementioned films are certainly all worthwhile, there are plenty of other solid movies dealing with romance—that may not seem appropriate for February 14, at first glance—that deserve attention. Furthermore, speaking from a man’s perspective, the idea of sitting through a significant other’s favorite like Sleepless in Seattle for the umpteenth time sounds like a sweat-inducing nightmare.
Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
There are filmmakers out there who turn anything that they touch into gold. As far as the modern era is concerned, men such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and even Clint Eastwood come immediately to mind as those who would fit into this category. There are arguably a few others, I’m sure, but then there are the filmmakers who demonstrate undeniable talent only to sometimes squander it with incredibly poor motivations and decisions that result in projects that can be downright contemptible. Director Gus Van Sant is such an individual for me. Here’s a man whose career started out with incredible success, as he turned out a host of winners in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. However, since the late ‘90s, I’m not sure there has been a director who has vacillated between creating films that are so brilliant and alternately insipid, with such volatility as Mr. Van Sant.
Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
Alright, it’s with the fear that I’ll automatically be dismissed as a cynic that I admit to this, but honesty is the best policy, after all: Yours truly is NOT a big fan of celebrating the holidays in any imaginable aspect that the season lends itself to… However, I’m certainly not looking to bum anyone out. I don’t consider myself to be a complete curmudgeon (though, some may disagree), and the concept of holiday cheer isn’t totally lost on me. It’s often one of the few times during the year when family and friends can actually make time for one another, so I suppose that’s a good thing (most of the time). My only argument would be that folks maybe shouldn’t need a holiday as an excuse to get together and celebrate, but maybe that’s a musing for another time.
Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
The late master filmmaker Orson Welles once stated in an interview that The Trial was the best film he ever made. That’s highly unlikely since the American Film Institute voted Citizen Kane to be the greatest American film of all-time, but some argue that his adaptation of the Franz Kafka novel of the same name published in 1925 was his most ambitious. That could be true, especially considering many people believed Kafka’s bureaucratic nightmare to be “unfilmable.” That belief was additionally reinforced by the fact that The Trial was technically an unfinished work from Kafka that was only released after Kafka’s friend and literary executor, Max Brod, found a chapter that brought the story to a conclusion and edited the text for publication, which ultimately leaves the story open to much speculation and interpretation. It’s interesting to wonder how Kafka would have felt about any of this, since it’s believed that he actually wanted all of his unfinished work destroyed after his death in 1924. Regardless, Welles decided to give it the old college try by putting his own stamp on a film version of the novel. I had never seen the film, but was always interested in the material, so I recently took some time to review it for a fresh perspective on an effort that has polarized critics of Welles over the years.
Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
Whoa! Take it easy. I’m not here to grandstand about what an amazing and talented thespian Keanu Reeves is. It’s quite the opposite, actually. In fact, it probably wouldn’t be reaching very far to assume that a majority of film buffs would be in agreement with me that Reeves is one of the stiffest and most one-dimensional big-name actors working in Hollywood today… (Here it comes)… HOWEVER… I don’t know what it is about this guy, whether he just gets really lucky with some of the projects he chooses, has compromising photos of big players in the business, or maybe even sold his soul to the Devil (somewhat similar to his character in The Devil’s Advocate), but Reeves is in some good (or at least fun) movies. No, I’m not talking about his ridiculous later films such as The Replacements or The Watcher. I’m talking about his heyday of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Let’s review…
Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
OK, so going back to Psycho in 1960, the slasher film has been around for quite some time. Hitchcock’s masterpiece about a maniac hacking up innocent victims was certainly what got the mill churning. The trend continued through the ‘70s with classics such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, When A Stranger Calls, and of course, the quintessential slasher movie (and perhaps horror film, period) John Carpenter’s Halloween.
Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
About a month ago, guest blogger Peter Eramo, Jr., posted something about his favorite celebrity crushes, and the response was overwhelming. I, for one, not only admired his forthrightness, but also thought it was just a plain good idea. So, being a regular contributor to this site, I’ve decided to weigh in. However, I’m going to do things a bit differently. Needless to say, there are scores of good-looking people in Hollywood, and narrowing down my favorites to a top-five like Peter did is just about impossible. Therefore, I’m going to break it down into old-school and new-school categories, with a few honorable mentions thrown in, just to give me some wiggle room. After all, I’m (kind of) not really into playing favorites. I’m an equal opportunity guy, but this is a fun exercise nonetheless, and besides, beauty (and talent??) is subjective, right?
Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
In a previous post, yours truly made the admission of being pretty unfamiliar with the work of legendary director and screenwriter Billy Wilder. Well, guess who’s starting to become a really big fan? I made a pledge to get more acquainted with Wilder’s films, and I’m certainly glad I did. After first getting my feet wet with the classic Double Indemnity (discussed in the aforementioned previous installment of this column), I decided to take what seemed like a natural next step and give The Lost Weekend a look. This film piqued my interest because while learning about DI, I became aware that the relationship between Wilder and his co-scripter Raymond Chandler was a tumultuous one. Supposedly, Chandler was a recovering alcoholic, and working on DI with Wilder caused him to fall off the wagon. This was part of the reason why Wilder decided to make The Lost Weekend. It was his attempt to try to explain Chandler to himself. One can only imagine what Chandler’s reaction to this production must have been, but regardless, TLW remains a film that was well ahead of its time in its stark portrayal of alcoholism, with strong performances from all players (especially lead Ray Milland as the drunk), and holds up relatively well, therefore making its four Academy Awards for Best Picture, Actor (which Wilder correctly prophesized), Director and Screenplay most likely well-deserved. However, after viewing the movie for the first time in 2010, it’s apparent that the effort does have some flaws even when taking the period of the 1940s into consideration.
Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
Sure, everyone loves the stunning and talented Diane Lane. What’s not to love? However, who really cares about movies such as Nights in Rodanthe, Must Love Dogs and Under the Tuscan Sun? (Though, I will say I kind of liked Unfaithful, which netted her an Oscar nomination. The snow globe scene was pretty hardcore, even though it had nothing to do with Lane). The Diane Lane that I know and love is the young and vibrant actress who set the screen ablaze during the ‘80s. Even though she was young, I was younger, and I fondly remember her as one of my first celebrity crushes. So, I figured I would pay tribute to the enduring Lane by focusing on the early days of her career with this humble entry.
Brian Sieck | First Viewing Experiences
Broads… They say that you can’t live with them and you can’t kill them… or can you? Anyway, so goes Billy Wilder’s supremely taut tale of murder and insurance fraud that has tritely (though, very appropriately) been called one of the earliest classic examples of film noir, with its dark style of filmmaking and even darker story tone. Yes, I must admit that I had never seen the film, until recently. There are always going to be “classics” that are missed with all the thousands of films available for consumption, and being a “slightly younger” gentleman, there was a time that getting my hands on—let alone making time for—movies from the ‘40s was a bit tough for me. So, that’s the excuse (as lame as it may be) that I’m going to go with for never viewing the moody thriller, Double Indemnity, until now. Furthermore, I’m not all that familiar with the work of Mr. Wilder (though, I love The Apartment), but that’s something soon to be remedied since I tend to gravitate towards films dealing with grim and controversial subject matter (even when they’re comedies), and Wilder thankfully didn’t seem to shy away from such topics. After all, James M. Cain’s novella of the same name from which the film is based is certainly rife with nasty business, making the project incredibly tough to greenlight due to the rigidity of the era. Wilder was definitely a brave man who deserves credit for thumbing his nose at authority and venturing to make one of the most daring films of the ‘40s (and possibly the best of its kind?) even in spite of stern and conservative opposition.
Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
OK, yours truly has covered sex and drugs in this column, so it’s only natural that I tackle rock ‘n’ roll movies to complete the triple play. Sure, there have been plenty of “rock” movies made throughout the course of film history, but what I’m really talking about are movies “about rock ‘n’ roll.” I’m not talking about musicals like The Who’s Tommy. Nor am I venturing to discuss concert films like Woodstock. I’m also not willing to include documentaries such as Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz. It would be much too easy to just throw the aforementioned movies on a list and call it a day. That’s just not fun. Besides, it has been done numerous times before. I’m talking about actual scripted movies about rock music and rock history that also include great music. When one uses such criteria to narrow down the best of the bunch, the options dwindle considerably. Furthermore, many of the fun films from the ‘50s and ‘60s dealing with the topic such as The Girl Can’t Help It simply aren’t available.
Brian Sieck | Staff Notes
There’s something I need to get off my chest. Recently, the late legend Bruce Lee’s Enter The Dragon was on AMC, and it got me to thinking that I couldn’t remember the last recent film I saw that featured a really intense and fantastic hand-to-hand combat scene. Now, I hate to be a guy who says, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to,” and in fairness I’ve yet to see films such as Fighting and Never Back Down, but honestly I don’t really have interest in them, as I’ve convinced myself that they can’t really be good. After all, they’re actually just cheap knockoffs of Rocky, The Karate Kid, etc. I know that doesn’t necessarily mean the fight sequences can’t be good, but I’m just not excited about Channing Tatum as an action star. In fact, it seems there are very few bona fide fight stars these days. I’ve never really been a Jackie Chan fan (After all, he’s an stuntman first, and a martial artist second), and while Liam Neeson had some great scenes in Taken, there wasn’t really anything extended in the way of fisticuffs. Anyway, my point is that I really had to reach back a little bit to come up with something decent.
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