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Web Video / Bad Movie Beatdown

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SYMBOLISM!!

"Hello and welcome to Bad Movie Beatdown!"

A snarky young Brit, Mathew "Film Brain" Buck hosts "Bad Movie Beatdown", formerly on Channel Awesome. By his own admission, Buck is following the Nostalgia Critic's example, but there's nothing nostalgic about the crap he reviews. Before he became a video contributor, Buck wrote articles for the site and was a moderator on the forums.

Compare and contrast with Buck's other series; Projector.

See his YouTube page, his Dailymotion page, his tumblr and his Twitter.

On April 3, 2018, Buck announced his departure from Channel Awesome after ten years with the company. His departure ultimately marked the end of this show, with the final episode — a review of Stormbreaker — being released on May 12, 2018, though Buck did not confirm the show's discontinuation until four years later.

Provides examples of (including tropes he has pointed out in the movies he reviews):

    open/close all folders 

    Tropes A-D 

    Tropes E-K 
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first season, Film Brain would sometimes include out-of-place scenes paralleling similar subplots or stupid moments in the movies, such as getting into a confusing chase with a homicide detective and losing his day job as a salesman. Now the show is just Strictly Formula reviewing.
    • He was a lot jokier in his early episodes. While he still maintained a sense of humour, he took things a bit more seriously.
  • Easter Egg: In his The Happening video a freeze frame reveals the film poster for Diary of the Dead, the following week's video on Diary of the Dead has a freeze frame shot of the DVD case of Dead Set.
  • Enemy Mine: He and Braeden stop in mid-battle to punch out the room service at their hotel and drag him into their room during Haunted Mansion.
  • Equal-Opportunity Evil: He notes the gang in While She Was Out is implausibly diverse.
  • Esoteric Happy Ending: Invoked In the Live Wire review, he points out that while Pierce Brosnan has defeated the bad guys and gotten back with his ex-wife, all the people he was assigned to protect died.
    What a success.
  • Even Caustic Critics Love Their Parents: Calls out the narrator of Diary of the Dead when she implies that most people resent their parents, stating that he has a good relationship with his folks.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep":
    • During Seagal Month, he doesn't even bother learning the names of Steven Seagal's characters, reasoning that he plays basically the same role in every movie he's in, instead just referring to each of them as Seagal. Their actual names are, in the order Mathew reviewed the films, William Lansing from Out of Reach, John Seeger from Mercenary for Justice, Jack "The Shadow Man" Foster from Shadow Man, and Tao from Against the Dark. While in the earlier On Deadly Ground review he refers to Seagal by his character's name, Forrest Taft, it has an example of its own in The Dragon Magruder, played by John C. McGinley, whom Mathew only refers to as "Dr. Cox."
    • Even before that, in the Seraphim Falls review, he refers to Pierce Brosnan's and Liam Neeson's characters as "Pierce" and "Liam". In the film, their names are Morsman Carver (Neeson) and Gideon (Brosnan).
    • In the direct-to-video Wesley Snipes vehicle The Marksman, Snipes' character doesn't have a name, referred to only as "The Painter". FB refuses to call him that so he sticks to Snipes.
    • In the The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning review, Film Brain and Welshy declare the names of the four deadmeat young people (Eric, Dean, Bailey, and Chrissie) aren't worth learning and refer to them as Deadmeat 1, Deadmeat 2, etc., through the entire review.
  • Everyone Has Standards: In his Blade Trinity review, when he mentions that Wesley Snipes didn't do any ADR for the movie, he claims that while it's "Seagal-level bad", Seagal had the decency to never pull something like that in his theatrical released movies.
  • Evil Brit: For obvious reasons, this is something of a Pet-Peeve Trope with him.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Complained about this in regards to how Project X would have the student with the camcorder filming people in compromising positions (like when they were various stages of nude in the boy's locker room), yet somehow no one noticed him doing it.
  • Fan Disservice: Tim Allen in a speedo.
  • Faux Symbolism: Whenever an instance of this occurs in a film he's reviewing, Film Brain gleefully points it out with his "SYMBOLISM!" catchphrase, as seen in the page image above. invoked
  • Fight-Scene Failure: invoked Film Brain describes one of Mega Piranha's fight scenes as being "choreographed by a blind man".
  • Foregone Conclusion: Film Brain points out that this is the biggest problem of the opening of Seven Pounds.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Loves to call out the really obvious ones. (Final Destination 3 being the most blatant)
    • At the end of his On Deadly Ground review, Buck alludes that he will review another Steven Seagal movie, "Shadow Man", in the future. Two years later, and he finally has reviewed it.
    • After reviewing Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, he replaces his poster of the first Transformers and puts up a poster for the maligned film Gamer, which he then later reviews.
    • During his crossover review of Big Momma's House: Like Father, Like Son with The Rap Critic, Buck makes a comment about saving the Alvin and the Chipmunks sequel for Todd in the Shadows. Three months later, he and Todd do just that.
    • Pointed out that the dad's list of "do not do that" actions in Project X were essentially a laundry list of what was going to happen.
  • Fourth-Date Marriage: When characters are rushing into marriage (Christmas with the Kranks, When in Rome), Mathew will tell them to slow down a bit.
  • Freudian Slip: In the Van Helsing review: "…and get confronted by the last of Dracula's breasts— I mean, brides. Heh heh, seriously. With cleavage like that, you can't blame me for the odd nip slip — slip — SHIT!"
  • Fun with Acronyms: From Doom:
    Sarge: Big fucking gun.
    Film Brain (imitating Sarge): Big Friendly Giant.
  • Gambit Roulette: Points out in the Scissors review that the Big Bad's plan to murder the man who cuckolded him and frame the heroine for it depended entirely on the victim coincidentally being a dead ringer for the heroine's abusive father.
  • Gag Censor: In addition to text on the Censor Box, in Project X he puts plastic cups in front of bare breasts.
  • George Lucas Altered Version: His YouTube re-uploads of old reviews: they are often trimmed down to remove unnecessary footage, have upgraded video quality, and in a few cases are re-dubbed as Matthew Buck dislikes the overly-energetic delivery he used to have in some reviews.
  • Gratuitous German: Prof. Celluloid again.
  • Gratuitous Rape: This, above all else, truly pissed him off when reviewing The Condemned. He especially hated The Cavern for doing this. Conversely, he also gave props to The Purge for not taking that route.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: He was intensely disappointed when they cut away from a girl-on-girl kissing scene in Transmorphers, saying that the lesbianism was the only interesting part of the film.
  • Groin Attack: Points out how often Steven Seagal does it in On Deadly Ground.
  • Ham and Cheese:invoked
  • Harsher in Hindsight: invoked Noting the opening of the movie Live Wire pointing out that terrorism hadn't come to America "Until Now".
  • He Panned It, Now He Sucks!: invoked Has fully acknowledged the negative reaction to his review of Equilibrium, and admits he would not have done it that way now.
  • Herr Doktor: Prof. Celluloid, a Mad Scientist with a ridiculous German accent. He's understandably offended by Die Hard (Matthew's favorite movie) for its depiction of Germans.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:invoked
    The day I put a To Catch a Predator reference in a video and this happens. Oh, the irony.
  • Hostile Show Takeover: Professor Celluloid attempts this at the beginning of the Ratatoing review, by doing a scathing review of Die Hard (because the terrorists are German, and Alan Rickman is British). When this is cut off, he responds by convincingly disguising his copy of "Ratatoing" as one of "Ratatouille."
  • Hypocrite: He calls out Gamer for railing against glorifying violence, but the film itself glorifies it with no sense of irony. The Condemned got the same reaction.
  • Hypocrisy Nod:
    • Knocked the usage of shaky camera in one of his reviews, then quickly lampshades that his early videos were annoying because of it.
    • On Twitter, Buck asked if reviewing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on Bad Movie Beatdown would make him a hypocrite, since he gave the film a decent review when it came out in 2009.
  • Hypocritical Humor: In the review of Scissors, he says that the main character's broken doll collection is much more than just a hobby, it's an obsession. He then turns around to look at his own massive DVD collection while a scare chord plays.
  • I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: During Steven Seagal movies, FB doesn't refer to the lead by character name, just as Seagal.
  • I Am Not Spock: invoked
  • Idiot Plot: He has a catchphrase to describe this trope: "Why don't they just (insert smarter course of action here)? Oh right, because we wouldn't have a movie!/Oh right, because the plot says so!" invoked
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: After reviewing Seven Pounds, he signs off saying that he needs a stiff drink.
  • Inferred Holocaust:invoked
    • Film Brain points out that Forrest blowing up an oil rig in On Deadly Ground will cause more environmental damage than letting it run normally.
    • In his review of Stealth, Film Brain points out that the character's actions in the filmnote  would eventually lead to World War III.
  • Innocent Awkward Question: When Matthew Buck reviews Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel with Todd In The Shadows, we're shown the scene of Theodore deciding to sleep with Teddy, who farts while Theodore is under the covers. Theodore shouts, "Dutch oven!" and starts scampering about, looking for the exit, leading to this exchange.
    Todd In The Shadows: Oh, good. The obligatory fart joke.
    Film Brain: (in a high-pitched child voice) Daddy, what's a Dutch oven?
    Todd In The Shadows: 'Cause Dave never farted in bed. Colon like daisies, that man.
  • Insult to Rocks: To call Breaking Wind juvenile "is an insult to horny teenagers"
  • Invincible Hero:
    • Film Brain considers On Deadly Ground's Forrest Taft this.
    • In his review of Ultraviolet (2006) Film Brain calls both Violet and Preston from Equilibrium this.
    • He also points out that Jackson Curtis of 2012 is this, actually comparing him to Jesus later on in the review.
    • In John Cena's The Marine, he repeatedly lampshades Cena's ability to shrug off explosions at point blank range. During the cameo from Critical Marine, he asks at what point during the marine training he acquired superpowers, to Critical Marine's obvious disdain.
    • A Good Day to Die Hard leads to him concluding that John McClane had superpowers to explain how he managed to survive so many long-distance falls into painful things.
  • It's Been Done: According to the Breaking Wind review, this is why he refuses to review any of the Twilight films.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:invoked Large portions of the review of The Hangover Part II are dedicated to pointing out how much it re-treads the original.
  • Jitter Cam: Mocked more than a couple of times, though his early episodes also tried (and failed) at a guerilla-style shoot.
  • Karma Houdini: Points out in the Killers review that Tom Selleck's character gets off ridiculously light for repeatedly trying to have his son-in-law killed, being forgiven essentially because he's the heroine's father and because he does a Heel–Face Turn once his assassins go rogue and start trying to kill his daughter too. The most he gets is a tongue-lashing from his daughter, which is Played for Laughs.
  • Keet: Many people thought Buck was acting out of character in Kickassia because of what he's like during "Bad Movie Beatdown", but he has said himself that his real-life personality is usually closer to the Kickassia persona, and that Kickassia had enough Deadpan Snarker characters already, and another would have been redundant. This turns into Red Oni, Blue Oni when he reviews on enthusiastic mode along with someone a little more ill-tempered, such as The Cinema Snob or JesuOtaku.
  • Kubrick Stare: His Mega Piranah review opens with one.

    Tropes L-R 
  • Lame Pun Reaction
    Linkara: Holy crap, Frank Miller makes worse puns than you, Film Brain!
    Film Brain: I never thought such a thing could be accomplished.
    • Not that Linkara is blameless there either:
    Film Brain: Did he just break the fourth wall?
    Linkara: Don't worry - we're atop it!
    Audience: [Collective Groan]
    Caption: Channel Awesome would like to apologise for that pun. The writer has been flogged for his sins.
    Remember, Sly always gets a lot of pussy. [Audience Groan]
  • Large Ham: Whenever Matthew isn't doing regular snark, he gets really enthusiastic.
    • And sometimes he gets really, uncomfortably enthusiastic to the point of looking downright demented.
  • Let Me Get This Straight...: Film Brain recapping the ludicrous plan to stab a man-eating piranha in the eyes.
    Good luck with that!
  • Lightbulb Joke: When it takes the characters in Bear until nightfall to change a flat tire on their car, Film Brain makes a joke about it.
    Film Brain: How many horror movie characters does it take to change a light bulb? None; they're all eviscerated.
  • Love It or Hate It: He describes Hudson Hawk as this in the review.
  • Malicious Misnaming: He doesn't even bother mentioning the names of the characters of Bear, who he calls through the review Whiny, Prick, Bland, and Slut.
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Invoked by name in his review of I Love You, Beth Cooper.
  • Medal of Dishonor: When he reviewed Fat Slags, he named it as the absolute worst film he had ever featured on the show, with The Cavern being the only one to seriously challenge it for that title in the years since. Additionally, he named The Art of War III: Retribution as the worst action film he had ever watched, and also found it to contain both the worst opening sequence and the worst gunfight he had ever seen (though at least found the latter to be hilariously bad).
  • Medium Awareness: In his review of The Specialist, he acts in shock at a subtitle revealing an unsubtle foreshadowing.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender: Noting a Kick the Dog moment in his Equilibrium review:
    They can kill as many men as they like. But women, children, and puppies? Those motherf[beep]ers.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: Lampshaded in 10,000 B.C.
    I am a mentor. I'm supposed to die. For reals this time.
  • Milking the Giant Cow: Such moments are highlighted by the text "ACTINGASM!" over the clip.
  • Mis-blamed: invoked In response to fan complaints, Film Brain and Lordhebe said in an interview that the first review with Professor Celluloid was filmed the week before Spoony unveiled Dr Insano, but not released until the week after, making this inevitable. Coincidentally, they also filmed the review for Transmorphers the same week Spoony reviewed its sequel on a whim.
  • Modern Minstrelsy: In the I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry review, he likens Rob Schneider's performance as an Asian minister who speaks in You No Take Candle-ese to this, and expresses disgust with Schneider for using his own Asian heritage to justify the portrayal.
  • Mood Whiplash: Points this out in the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End review, contrasting the dark subject matter with the amount of slapstick aimed at kids.
  • Motif Merger: It crossovers at times mix images of the guest reviewer in the intro, as well as a Portmantitle ("Brows Beat Down", "Shameful Sequels Beatdown", "Bad Movie Beatdown Presents").
  • Name McAdjective: He refers to the extremely obvious villain from Money Train as "Weaselly McEvil".
  • Narm: invoked
    • In the remake of The Time Machine, the protagonist saves his original love interest from dying in the first timeline but then she gets killed anyway, proving that You Can't Fight Fate. Unfortunately, the way it happened makes Film Brain burst out laughing over how silly he thought it was.
    • Film Brain laughs at the ridiculous CG fish in Mega Piranha twice.
    • He finds Awake to be full of this, mostly because of the acting of Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba, and the sheer failure of portraying medical procedures accurately.
    • 2012 features a scene regarding an earthquake Mathew finds hilarious for displaying the characters' stupidity (as a family is somehow ignorant of the destruction all around the world before being killed).
    • Another from 2012: he finds the scene in which animals are airlifted to the arks so stupid, he states that he would have walked out of it if he had seen the movie while it still was in the theaters.
  • Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize:invoked
    • Lampshaded in the review of The Riddle, where he calls it the Murder, She Wrote principle.
    • Also points out that it's extremely obvious that the killer in Scissors is the psychiatrist played by Ronny Cox, simply because Cox always plays the Big Bad.
  • Nepotism: Takes Paul W.S. Anderson to task for repeatedly showing off Milla Jovovich in his movies, always in positions where she can provide gratuitous fanservice.
    Film Brain: We get it, you have a hot wife and you are very proud of that fact! Grow up!
  • No Accounting for Taste: His reaction to the women Kevin James' characters are married to in Paul Blart: Mall Cop and Grown Ups, claiming this would never happen in real life. Then he sees who James is married to and says "nevermind".
  • No Bisexuals: In his review of I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, he noted that the plot point of Chuck "cheating" on Larry with women could have easily been covered up if Chuck claimed to be a bisexual and to have an open relationship with Larry.
  • No OSHA Compliance:
  • Not Allowed to Grow Up:
    People are freaking out because I have stubble in [The ''Projector'' episode on the film "Mother's Day"]. It's almost like I went through puberty or something!
  • "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer:
    • He states that he's not making up that Urkel from Family Matters (Jaleel White) starred in an Asylum movie while he was in the middle of editing a review of another movie starring 80s pop star Tiffany.
    • He also didn't make up the teacup and saucer explosives from The Specialist.
    • In the crossover with Obscurus Lupa, he states that Arnold Schwarzenegger choking a bear sounds like a joke, but really happens.
    • During the review of "Bear", he explains the ludicrous twist the bear is sentient and aware of the character's various misdeeds and arranged the entire scenario to punish them and bring it all into the open, in a dramatic fashion as if he was joking, the groans and tells the audience he wished he was making it up.
  • Oh, Crap!: At the end of his Evan Almighty review:
    Morgan Freeman: I now issue a new commandment.
    Film Brain: Wait, what the...
    Morgan Freeman: Thou Shalt Do the Dance.
    Film Brain: OH GOD NO!
    *commence dance montage*
  • Offscreen Teleportation: He alludes to this in the While She Was Out and Mega Piranha reviews. Notably, in Mega Piranha, the hero did this.
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten:
    • In a couple of skits, Film Brain wrote The Nostalgia Critic addressing him as "Equilibrium douchebag".
    • Lampshaded in his 50th episode (The Riddle), where he expresses surprise at having made it past the Equilibrium episode.
    • The whole point of Spoony's guest appearance in his video review of Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is to berate him for giving it a 3.5/5 in his written review.
  • The Oner: Criticized in a scene in One Night Stand where Wesley Snipes's character walks down a street and exposits to the camera. He states that doing this serves no real purpose as the scene only serves as blatant (clumsy) exposition, and it (along with addressing the audience) just seems awkward and out of place with the rest of the film. He even notes that the movie couldn't even pull of a oner as it's noticeably cut in the middle, presumably because Wesley Snipes couldn’t get through the whole thing in one take.
  • Oop North: Sarcastically mentioned by name in Fat Slags.
  • Orbital Shot: One egregious use of these in Mega Piranha makes Film Brain queasy.
  • Our Lawyers Advised This Trope:
    • Film Brain will often start the show with a text screen voluntarily advising viewers with a warning of Epileptic Flashing Lights and other possibly sickening visual effects within a film if it contains them.
    • The review of the Get Carter remake starts with a warning that the video contains major spoilers for the original 1971 film.
  • Out of Focus: Prof. Celluloid has largely been absent since season one and has even disappeared from the opening sequence as of the post-Suburban Knights version of the season three opening. This only made it more surprising when he shows up to give Film Brain 3D glasses in the Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over review.
  • Papa Wolf: Wondered if the parents of the child actors in Good Luck Chuck even read the script and clearly showed discomfort in reviewing those scenes.
  • Polish the Turd: In his review of Wes Craven's Don't Look Down, he points out that the review blurb on the DVD comes from an anonymous five-star review on Amazon.
  • Politically Correct History: He lampshades this when the little black boys goes back to New York in The Time Machine.
  • P.O.V. Cam: In the Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over review, after Prof. Celluloid gives Film Brain his 3D glasses.
    Film Brain: Don't you need these to see?
    Prof. Celluloid: No, I see in 3D already.
    P.O.V. Cam shows Celluloid suddenly seeing everything with 3D-red-and-blue outlines
  • Precision F-Strike:
    • From All About Steve, Sandra Bullock was doing a monologue about curse words and the right time to use them. FB's response is a simple "Shut the fuck up".
    • Before that, and probably his most effective use of this trope, in his Seven Pounds review: "The movie is literally telling us that suicide is okay as long as you donate your organs. What the fuck kind of message is that?"
    • And again during his review of Ultraviolet, when reacting to the chasm-sized plot holes created by the reveal of Daxos being a hemophage.
    • And again in his 2012 review: "If Yellowstone erupted, we'd be fucked. Really, REALLY fucked."
  • Pretty Fly for a White Guy: He tries to use to urban slang at the start of his crossover review with The Rap Critic, who is just as impressed as one would expect an African-American rap music critic faced with a white English guy trying to be "street" would be.
  • Put on a Bus: The end of his The Jazz Singer review seems to be this way with him "going on a vacation". He came back a few months later when Real Life slowed down a bit for him.
  • Queer People Are Funny: One of his main complaints with I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry was that despite claiming to be a movie that promotes tolerance, all the gay characters are flamboyant stereotypes. He found Duncan an especially notable example of this because he started out as a homophobe in denial of his own sexuality, but as soon as he came out, his personality changed entirely.
  • Re-Cut: Once Blip went down and Film Brain was forced to re-upload his videos elsewhere, he did some minor cuts beforehand, mostly cutting dead air and at times adding a whole new voiceover. On Youtube, there's also fitting the policies on copyrighted material. (and the Beverly Hills Cop III review filled in an error through an extra clip from 'Mathew from the future' - "yes, I know I have less hair...")
  • Recycled IN SPACE!: Notes that the original The Fast and the Furious is Point Break (1991) With Street Racing!
  • Recycled Script: invoked Claims Mega Piranha is this to Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.
  • Retroactive Recognition:invoked
    • Points out in his Don't Look Down review that Mark is Bella's dad.
    • In many of his YouTube re-uploads, he adds 'Note from the Future' captions to point out any creator or actor who went on to have much greater success after the video originally came out.
  • Running Gag:
    • "SYMBOLISM!!!", which, in its original appearance in Equilibrium, reached Overused Running Gag.
    • Replaced with "FEMINISM!" in Sucker Punch.
    • "ACTINGGASM!"
    • "Exposition! Do your duty!"
    • Whenever the audio is poorly synced in a scene, he replies by saying "I'm a ventriloquist!" (or "[Actor name] is a ventriloquist!") - complete with deliberately out of sync lip movements (or none at all).
    • "Because when you need to add substance to your shitty movie, just add Nazis"
    • "BLEURGH! BLEURGH!"
    • "InnuENDO!"
    • Seagal Month gave us "Seagal Body Double Count" and "Seagal Voice Double Count"
    • "Get it? It's funny because he's fat" (particularly for Kevin James)
    • Whenever he runs across a movie that uses text to introduce characters, he does the same with a bit of Self-Deprecation.
    • He's compared Peter Weyland from Prometheus to Mr. Burns several times.
    • Any time we are introduced to a character who is obviously going to die within the next five minutes, Film Brain refers to them as "Dead Meat."
    • He always refers to Jordanna Brewster as "Jordanna what's-her-face".

    Tropes S-Z 
  • Sarcasm Failure: The giant piranhas jumping like dolphins in Mega Piranha.
  • Self-Deprecation:
    • In the scene he wrote, in which he discusses his lack of success with the Powers-That-Be, he has Doug refer to him as "the Equilibrium Douchebag".
    • In a scene parodying the freeze-frame character descriptions in Mega Piranha, his description is "Mathew Buck: Whiny British Douchebag".
    • In Just Go with It, he points out that a character's fake German accent is worse than Professor Celluloid's.
    • In Awake, he says that Hayden Christensen has an "infamously whiny voice that makes mine look subtle by comparison".
    • The crossover review of Metal Man opens with Obscurus Lupa cheerily claiming she was voted the most annoying reviewer on the site. Film Brain checks and realizes that, worldwide, he is still the most annoying.
  • Shared Universe: The Reviewaverse.
  • Shout-Out: That sly dog! He caught him monologuing!
  • Shown Their Work: Film Brain clearly puts tons of research into the movies he reviews for his Bad Movie Beatdowns. In fact, when he was the guest for Transmission Awesome, he was asked a few questions about film trivia by the hosts and answered all of them correctly, save for a rather obscure question about the 2007 Transformers film.
  • Signing-Off Catchphrase: "I'm Mathew Buck, beating down bad movies everywhere."
  • Slasher Smile:
    • An incredibly psychotic looking expression in his Darkness Falls review when he says "I'm a ventriloquist too!".
    • And if possible, an even creepier one in his crossover with Nash and Linkara for the Wonder woman pilot.
    • He also does this in his Hudson Hawk review to point out how ridiculous all the mugging for the camera in the movie is.
    Film Brain: HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF I DID EVERY REVIEW LIKE THIS? HAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!
  • Slave to PR: Film Brain describes himself this way, complete with reference to this site.
  • Somewhere, a Mammalogist Is Crying: In his review of The Happening, Film Brain mistakes the lions who attack a man for tigers.
  • So Okay, It's Average: Discussed in an episode, where it's stated that people remember sky high or really low points, and then Paul Blart: Mall Cop in honor of mediocrity.invoked
  • Sound-Effect Bleep: As an homage to Screenwipe, only he's bleeped out, and the films themselves keep their colourful language.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance:
    • In his review of Parting Shots, Film Brain is incredibly unimpressed by the use of "quirky" music in a black comedy.
    • In The Condemned, he comments on a scene in which the villain is gunning down hostages:
    Film Brain: Well this is an ugly scene. Good thing they didn't set it to "Firestarter" like we're meant to find it entertaining. Oh that's right...
  • Special Effect Failure: Several examples pointed out in-universe:
  • Spin-Off: Projector. A neutral series covering new releases. Definitely not a replacement for BMB. But that became Mathew's priority.
  • Straw Character: Points out in his One Night Stand review that Thomas Haden Church's character turns out to be homophobic solely to make the philandering, drug-smoking protagonist look enlightened by comparison.
    • Also seen in The Ugly Truth, where an antagonist turns out to be a rape apologist because it's the only way the misogynist protagonist can look good.
  • Subverted Catchphrase: When four white crosses appear in While She Was Out, he does a confused, uncertain version of his "Symbolism" catchphrase, saying it slowly and in a normal voice. He even slowly raises his arms.
  • Suckiness Is Painful:The Adventures of Pluto Nash packs a right hook.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: He is not obsessed with Alvin and the Chipmunks.
  • Take That!:
    • 2 Fast 2 Furious feels less like street racing and more like a stupid episode of Miami Vice. Or your average episode of CSI: Miami.
    • From Gone Fishin:' "You know, it's scenes like this, where Joe Pesci repeatedly punches and kicks a clearly fake prop alligator in a scene that even kids would likely find stupid, that make me wish they could revoke Oscars. Well, that, and the entirety of Cuba Gooding Jr.'s career."
    • At the beginning of Jack and Jill, there's a slam against The Nostalgia Critic for taking The Master of Disguise when he knew Film Brain had been wanting to do it for months.
    • In his Bad Movie Beatdown review of 2018 (the year he left Channel Awesome):
      Personally speaking, 2018 was a bit of a turbulent year for me, especially given my departure from a certain website. What was that called again?
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:invoked
    • His opinion on X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Particularly storylines used throughout the first minutes (early life, fighting in several wars, joining and leaving Team X).
    • While reviewing Tekken with Spoony, they discuss how martial art tournaments influence political and corporate power.
    Film Brain:"If they took this idea just a few steps further. and had companies fight for control of each other, that would be very interesting, and bring new meaning to the term 'hostile takeover.'"
  • Torture Porn: Calls The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning this and considers it disgusting and perverse.
  • Trope Telegraphing: "I love being able to guess plot points before they happen! It reminds me of how creative we really are."
  • Unfortunate Implications:invoked
    • In his crossover review of Sunday School Musical with Todd in the Shadows, they point out that the film seems to indicate "the blacker you are, the better you sing". Case in point, the rival choir is all black and the Crossroads choir is all white and sucked before Zack (who is black) was forced to join them.
    • He rails quite hard on Michael Bay over Skids and Mudflap, claiming their portrayal to be tantamount to blackface.
    • Also calls this on how the "slutty" character in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning died; apparently for the crime of liking BDSM, she is tied up in the same way she tied up her boyfriend earlier in the film and raped by the Hewitt family's Creepy Uncle, then has all her teeth pulled out one by one and finally gets her throat slashed with scissors. This is easily the most torturous death in a film replete with chainsaw-murder, and it's very easy to interpret as the filmmakers feeling she deserved it just for being a bit kinkier than the other characters.
    • In Prometheus, it's revealed that the automated surgical unit is only calibrated for male patients. As Film Brain says in the review, WOMEN AREN'T AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SPECIES!!!!
    • Film Brain criticized what he saw as a Distinction Without a Difference approach to stereotypes in The Love Guru; the main character is an American raised in India, and as such the film treats it as okay for him to act like a ridiculous Indian stereotype.
  • Unusual Euphemism: "Jennifer Lopez's Giglis".
  • Values Dissonance:invoked Film Brain points out In-Universe in the remake of The Jazz Singer that Neil Diamond in blackface is incredibly racist in the 1980s film, as opposed to the 1920s original.
  • Verbal Tic: Mathew likes to extend the last words of his sentences, like thiiiiiis.
  • Video Review Show
  • Viewers Are Goldfish: In his Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus review, Film Brain gets annoyed that the film insists on reminding us that the naval base is a naval base almost every time we see it.
    Film Brain: WE KNOW!
  • Villain Ball: Film Brain's interpretation of the actions of the Colonel Diaz in Mega Piranha. And indeed it seems very odd that he'd follow them to the U.S. and shoot down a U.S. navy helicopter just so he can try to capture the heroes after they killed the piranhas.
  • Vocal Evolution: As of the 2013 episodes, he seemed to get a lot higher-pitched and animated, sometimes sounding rather whiny. His voice returned to its usual pitch in 2014, but the more upbeat delivery has stayed. According to his Twitter, he changed his delivery on purpose to counter complaints that he was too monotone, but feels that he overshot it a little.
  • The Watson: The rest of his cast, but usually forum moderator Lordhebe.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?:invoked
    • He points this out frequently in his Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End review, with the rampant amount of death and innuendo, especially the hanging of a child in the beginning of a film marketed towards children.
    • In the Jack and Jill review, Film Brain criticizes the film's usage of adult-oriented humor (i.e, jokes about religion and hookers) despite being targeted at a younger audience by being rated PG.
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: Kate Beckinsale's accent in Van Helsing is described as "attempting Eastern European, but ending up 'KGB with a hint of Borat'"
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: In League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, invokes this when M escapes in Nemo's exploration pod, despite the fact that everyone is armed and the Nautilus has just shown it has rockets on board!
    Film Brain and Oancitizen: Just fucking SHOOT HIM!
  • World of Weirdness: Since the show is one of the many original Channel Awesome review shows, the site that started the Reviewaverse, it automatically counts as part of the Reviewaverse. And of course, the Reviewaverse is really weird.
  • Worst. Whatever. Ever!: The remote from Click at the climax of Epic Movie.
    Biggest. Cop-out. Ever. It's not funny.
  • WTH, Casting Agency?: In-universe he notes every The Asylum movie has at least one weird casting choice.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math:
    • Adding up the years in Hudson Hawk put the movie ten years before it was supposed to take place.
    • Also in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, he takes note that while five Decepticons went down to the ocean floor to revive Megatron, one had to be torn apart for pieces and yet over the radio, a soldier claims that six Decepticons are at the bottom floor.
    • In his review for Texas Chainsaw 3D Film Brain nearly has a stroke when he points out that Heather was born in 1973 and the movie takes place in 2012, therefore she should be 39 years old and not the 20-something we see onscreen.
    Film Brain: "This isn't even a little thing, this is a fundamental plot hole that sinks the entire movie. They were two decades out! This movie had hundreds of people working on it. How do you miss a huge detail like this?"
  • You Put the "X" in "XY": Regarding the rival choir's decision in Sunday School Musical: "Way to put the deus in Deus ex Machina".
  • Your Head A-Splode: He was actually impressed by such an occurrence in Mega Piranha.
  • Your Mom: Twice in his review of The Fast and the Furious.
    Dom: I'm in your face.
    Film Brain: Yeah, and my face was in your mum last night. Ohhhh!

    Film Brain: What is with that crowd? (imitating Dom) Hey everyone, yo momma's so fat, she made love to a whale at SEA WORLD! Ohhh!
"I'm Mathew Buck, beating down bad movies everywhere!"

Alternative Title(s): Film Brain

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