Now that the pesky business of The Oscars has concluded, we can get down to the real awards: The Brians.
For the eighth straight year, I will dole out awards based on the movies I saw in the theatre the previous year. This year, 11 films made the grade.
I take my film watching seriously. By that, I mean I want to have fun and laugh when I go to the theater. You almost never see any overlap between these awards and the gold statues passed out in Hollywood, but that’s what makes it so special.
With those niceties out of the way, the envelopes please:
Best Supporting Actress: Keri Russell, “Bedtime Stories.” I had a lot of trouble picking this one and considered giving it to no one as I did in 2006. Jamie Pressley did a good job in “I Love You, Man” and I liked some of the female performances in “Couples Retreat,” but Russell is cute (a key factor in this category) and fit perfectly in this charming movie.
Best Supporting Actor: Zack Galifianakis, “The Hangover.” This will go down with Sean Penn’s portrayal of Jeff Spicoli as one of the greatest casting and acting achievements of all time. Everything he did made the movie funnier. I can’t remember a secondary character single-handedly taking over a movie in so long.
Best Actress: Amy Adams, “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.” Adams wins for the second year in a row. She brought just enough spunk to the character of Amelia Ehrhart to make us believe that the famous pilot may have actually looked that good in that costume.
Best Actor: Paul Rudd, “I Love You, Man.” A two-time winner for Best Supporting Actor, Rudd narrowly edged out co-star Jason Segal. He now ties Will Ferell with three overall awards in the history of The Brians. He did it all by pretty much playing exactly who we think he really is. He’s just that funny.
The Bridget: “Bedtime Stories.” This award goes to a movie aimed at kids which I went to see with my daughter. We saw this inventive Adam Sandler film very early in 2009, but nothing else I saw in the kid’s realm knocked it down a peg. Not even the second Night at the Museum movie, which was cute, but predictable. Sandler managed to take the simplicity of his usual comedy and nuance it enough to fit the younger audience.
Best Picture: “The Hangover.” A friend called this award as soon as he heard I saw it. I pretty much knew at the same time that something tremendous would have to happen for this not to win. “I Love You, Man” was a very, very funny movie, but “The Hangover” simply put me in a totally different place. I haven’t enjoyed a movie from beginning to end this much since 203’s winner “Old School,” also a product of director Todd Phillips. I haven’t seen this one a second (or third or twentieth) time like I have the Will Ferrell classic, so I wonder how it will hold up.
Anything with Mike Tyson can’t go out of style though, right?