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So, You want to know more about Jef?
Ok, what
would people want to know about me…
Why did I start this web site?
Well, I have to admit it was not an original idea. I went to see "Men
In Black 2" and sitting in the back row was a guy wearing a MIB2
T-shirt, and he had a press kit. I asked how he got the press kit and
he said he was a movie critic. I asked him who he wrote for, and he said
"Myself, I have my own web site". So he gave me a business card,
and that was that. Later the next day, I was curious and checked out his
web site… It was horrible! Poorly designed, misspellings all over
the place, incorrect movie info, etc… I thought... Lyn and I can
do better than this! So… Thus was born www.film-critiques.com.
What qualifies you to be a movie critic?
Well, to be honest - nothing. What qualifies any other movie critic? They
get paid to watch a movie and write their opinions. Basically that’s
what it comes down to is opinions. So I have opinions, I have the knowledge
on how to build a web site, and I love movies! Both Lyn and I have a love
of movies. Ever since we started hanging out we saw all the new releases.
If there wasn’t a new release, we’d usually find a movie that
we may have passed over, and eventually we ended up seeing one movie per
week. Now, that’s not including illness, or in some cases we just
have other things going on, but for the most part, we’ve been pretty
good at seeing a movie once a week. In some cases when there’s several
new releases that open the same week, we’ll see two movies in one
night!
In a sense I feel our opinions on movies are more valid than the more
well known movie critics. We don’t get paid to see the movie, we
must spend our own cash for the movie and soda and popcorn. We’re
not forced to see movies we don’t want to see. I’m sure Roger
Ebert may be bitter in some sense in having to sit through some awful
movies because it was his job to do so. I on the other hand do it for
the love of sitting in a movie theatre, and being taken on a ride for
2 hours to some other place. We also have years of experience in seeing
movies. I would feel comfortable in saying that we’ve seen more
movies than the average person. So that also helps qualify us to be movie
critics.
I love stories. I usually have several books at one time that I’m
currently reading. (actually that’s one of my problems is that I
read several books at one time. It makes it a long time for me to finish
a book, but I’m getting better at that. Lately I’ve been sticking
to one book at a time. My general interests in film and books are; science,
technology, fantasy, biographies, comedies, and horror. For many years
I was hooked on fantasy books. Piers Anthony was my first introduction
to the fantasy genre. Then through-out high school and after I read authors
like Terry Brooks, and Tolkien, Some of the Dragonlance series, and many
of the Forgotten Realms Series. Then I moved away from Fantasy as it all
starts to sound the same. And I went on a science and philosophy kick.
I read things about quantum physics, Biology, and logic. My favorites were
topics concerning theoretical physics, light, and time. There really is
a lot of philosophy contained within the theoretical physics world. Books
that stick out are: Schrodinger’s Cat, The Orion Mystery, The Tao
of Physics, The Tao of Pooh (and piglet), The Zen Guide to Motorcycle
Repair, A Brief History in Time, etc… Around the mid 90’s
I found an author who dealt with a lot of these subjects in one twisted
book… The Illuminati Trilogy, by Robert Anton Wilson. This book
changed the way I think. Within the past year or two, I’ve come
back to Fantasy. When I heard they were making a movie based on Tolkien’s
"The Lord of the Rings", I recalled that I read several of the
books back in high school, but had forgotten most of them. So I wanted
to re-read them in time for the movie. Which I’m glad I did, I appreciate
those series of books much more, and have a better appreciation for the
movies by Peter Jacobs. This got me back to reading Fantasy again…
I’ve since finished all of Terry Goodkind’s books on his series
"The Sword of Truth". And I’m currently reading Brian
Jaques’ series on the "Redwall" adventures.
Now in relation to movies…
I will say that for the most part, I like most movies that I see. In fact
I believe there has only been two movies I’ve walked out on…
Wild, Wild West and Mr. Deeds. I wish I had walked out on A Thin Red Line.
Other than that, I like most of the movies I see. My favorite movie genres
are (in order) Sci-fi, Fantasy, Comedy, Adventure, Horror, and Drama.
Also somewhere in there would fit the broad category of "independent
films" – Not really a genre, but different than most Hollywood
blockbuster movies.
There’s just too many to pick my all time favorite or my top ten,
or some of the other lists that many people have. So in an attempt to
let you know what kinds of movies I do like I’ll list some of my
favorites in certain categories. (Note: these are in no particular order
and may change tomorrow).
Sci-fi
The Matrix (My Fav in this series)
Star Wars (the first one especially as I was in 6th or 7th grade)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
Aliens
The Terminator
Robot Carnival (a Japanese anime cartoon)
Fantasy
The Lord of the Rings (My Fav in this series)
Harry Potter 1
Willow
Red Sonia
Conan the Barbarian
Comedy
Bottlerocket (My Fav in this series)
Tommy Boy (a close second)
The Tao of Steve
Many of the old movies like Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, W.C.
Fields, etc…
Caddyshack
Animal House
Rushmore
Real Genius
Bandits
Weird Science
Roadside Prophets
And many more
Drama/Action
Sling Blade (My Fav in this series)
The Professional
Fight Club
Goodfellas
A Beautiful Mind
Roger and Me
Really just too many to list here…
Horror
The Hellraiser series (My Fav in this series)
The classics too like; Dracula, The Wolfman, Frakenstein, etc…
Jacobs Ladder
The Serpent and the Rainbow
Donnie Darko
The Blair Witch Project
Favorite Actors
Billy Bob Thorton
Robert De Niro
Al Pacino
Edward Norton
The Wilson brothers (Luke and Owen)
Brad Pitt
Giovanni Rabisi
Johnny Depp
Steven Buscemi
Favorite Actresses
Juliette Lewis
Gwyneth Paltrow
Helen Hunt
Winona Ryder
Cate Blanchett
From this above list you should be able to get a good feel from where
my movie reviews are coming from. The above list is by no means set in
stone. There are many more movies that I like that I’ve not listed,
and many that I’m sure I’m forgetting that if you said, "Didn’t
you like "so and so" a movie?" I’m sure I would have.
But due to space and memory this is my list as of 10/24/02
Bottom line
I go to the movies to enjoy a good story and to see something that in
my normal everyday life, I’d never get to see. The key things I
feel are most important to a movie is: the story (beginning, middle, and
end), a plot that makes sense, the acting, and to some degree the special
effects.