Jeffrey K. Lyles' Movie Files

About

Photo by: Ricardo Lyles
With two of my greatest critic mentors, no doubt offering some hilarious new ways to rip a terrible movie.

My earliest, clearest movie memory is watching “Empire Strikes Back” stretched out in the backseat of my parents’ car at the drive-thru thrilling to the continuing saga of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and Darth Vader. To this day, that experience (and some 50-odd subsequent viewings…) have made that my favorite movie, alongside “The Godfather.”

That little kid in me still comes out at the start of every movie – hoping for the best and being amazed when a filmmaker’s vision comes together to distract me from another crazy day at work, that pile of bills I’d rather look at later and all of the other responsibilities few bothered to tell me was ahead of me once I entered that magical place called adulthood. Whether it’s traveling through Middle Earth in “Lord of the Rings,” determining what’s a dream and what’s reality in “Inception” or re-imagining of a classic in a modern setting like “Romeo Juliet,” there’s few things as amazing as a well done movie to me.

On the other hand, there are those movies that make me question why anyone – from the stars, the director, screenwriter to the kid who’s grabbing donuts for the crew – thought their movie was worth making. We’re all busy with our lives and somehow, movie ticket prices haven’t gone down to accommodate those of us 99% who actually have to care how the majority of our money is being spent.

That’s the entire purpose of this blog (clearly it’s not to get rich – I’m in journalism). To let you know if a movie you’re curious about is worth your time, the effort to find a babysitter, parking garage fees and the $82.74 at the concession stand for two of you to see the latest film of your favorite star.

With HDTV’s some films are just as fine watching at home than worrying about if that teenager is gonna ever turn their cell phone off, but some are really worth that experience of watching on the big screen and those are the ones that hit the rare 9-10 on the scale. The 7-8s are the pretty good, but not quite great and tell everyone to go see it. Then the 4-6s are the easily forgettable, but not terrible/how much do you like said star films. The 2-3s are silly and stupid while the 0-1s are those that are a complete waste of time for everyone involved, including the viewer. That’s all for me. Hope these help and enjoy!