Brian's School of Cinema!

There have been many blessings that happened with my homecoming. To me the biggest blessing is being able to have dinner with my family. The one thing I missed the most when I was away at school was sitting around the dinner table and sharing a meal with my family. With these meals come discussions, stories, laughter, and so much more... Apparently, my cinematic experiences have been lacking and my brother Brian has had me enroll in Brian's School of Cinema to help my become a more enlightened moviegoer. Mostly, it is his mission to have me watch a lot of Tom Cruise films and other movies that I know of but have never watched. This all started when over dinner it came out that I have never seen The Firm, and everyone's jaws dropped in complete shock and dismay. Since my enrollment I have watch the following films.

1. The Firm

Tom Cruise plays a hot shot new lawyer right out of Harvard Law that agrees to move to Memphis and work for prestigious law firm. A law firm that has a dark side that could end his career or worse, his life.  

With my family's praise for this film, I think I set the bar too high when I was watching. I agree with them that Tom Cruise was excellent and the storyline was very clever. However, I found fault in a few things but the biggest being Tom Cruise's wife's character. I didn't enjoy her performance and it actually has nothing to do with the actress Jeanne Tripplehorn, but had everything to do with the character's attitude and the choices she made when times got hard. Maybe its just the feminist in me that thinks a woman shouldn't back down from a fight to have a man handle it.  Overall, I found The Firm to be a good film!

2. Minority Report

This movie is set in the future where the special crimes division can arrest murderers before they commit their crimes. An officer from that unit is accused of a future murder and tries to change his fate.

This action, mystery, sci-fi, film is out-of-the-box from something I would pick for myself to watch. Mostly due to the sci-fi, but I went into the living room with an open mind and I am glad I did! It was a really cool film, and the whole concept was really intriguing. I was glued to the screen, and couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next!

3. Jerry Maguire

Tom Cruise plays a sports agent that has an epiphany and gets fired for voicing it. He goes off on his own as an independent with the only client that stayed with him. This film had 5 Academy Award Nominations and Won for Best Supporting Actor- Cuba Gooding Jr. 

Brian thought for sure that this would be my favorite of the Tom Cruise films he had me watch because it is a Romantic Comedy and he knows I can't resist a RomCom. I really did enjoy this film and I found it to be a good sports comedy. I didn't think the romance aspect was developed enough to be considered a RomCom. I found the chemistry to be lacking between Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger. Overall, I enjoyed this film and loved Regina King's and Bonnie Hunt's supporting performances.

What do you think of these films!?