Welcome to Lyles Movie Files!

This tends to surprise a lot of folks, but my first name is Jeffrey. That throws off people who think the site is a nod to my last name. I tried Jeffrey Movie Files, but it didn’t have the same ring to it. So in short, it’s Jeffrey or Jeff, not Lyle or Lyles.

I’d always loved writing and loved movies, but kinda fell in to writing about them in college at Howard University (HU!). That eventually led to a writing gig at my local community paper, The Gazette, where I eventually became the movie critic for over a decade.

When the recession hit, my movie reviewing gig was one of the first to get reduced and ultimately cut. But writing movie reviews every week every year kind of became part of my DNA and I had no intention of stopping hence Lyles Movie Files, which I created in 2012 with The Grey and The Hunger Games as my first reviews.

I have no interest in playing the stuffy critic. I’m a regular movie viewer like everyone else — I just need to write to get my thoughts out. I try to keep the reviews spoiler-free and am always up for discussion even when folks disagree. You can find the movie reviews here and on Rotten Tomatoes.com. I’m also a member of the Washington Area Film Critics Association and the LAMB.

I knew less than nothing about website construction and layout — I just wanted to write so I did that and learned the rest along the way. After a long rant about Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding stirred up a lot of conversation with readers, I fell into TV recaps. Initially, I kept it to Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead before expanding to Arrow, Agents of Shield, The Flash and all many of the other seemingly endless comic book based TV shows.

When The Gazette folded in 2015, I was laid off and had a lot more time on my hands, which led me to try another of my passions — action figure reviews. That started small, but has now become one of the more popular segments on the site. I review Marvel Legends, WWE, Takara Transformers, Hot Toys, SH Figuarts, DC Collectibles and a little bit of everything else.

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Another hot section is the comic book reviews. Every week you can find reviews on the big releases from DC Comics and Image Comics. Marvel doesn’t provide review copies so those appear far less often. Occasionally, you’ll see me rant about wrestling as well and the random video game review when I squeeze in the time to finish them.

And if you need some more distractions, I do random special features like Top 10 lists, quizzes and cosplay features.

As the dream of every blogger who can’t strike it rich getting a million followers with bikini pics and makeup tips, I’d love to do this full time thus the ads and affiliate partners like Amazon, Sideshow Collectibles, Target, Entertainment Earth, etc. I try to keep them from being super obnoxious, but if you’re visiting already, I’d appreciate if you used any of those respective links while you’re doing your shopping.

I also do a TV show on Laurel’s public access TV station where you can watch me geek out over pop culture.

I keep finding new ways to explore the possibilities with the site and the latest is my Lyles Movie Files Podcast. There were some early growing pains like the website, but now I think I’ve got a nice handle on it and a consistent release schedule set with a new episode coming out once a week. Please check it out and subscribe on iTunes.

On social media you can follow me on Facebook at Lyles Movie Files LMF, on Twitter @lylesmoviefiles, Instagram at lylesmoviefiles. If you see something you like share it along and if you see something you hate, send that along to your pals too. And if you want to go the traditional route you can email me at [email protected].

Thanks for checking the site out. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it and stick around for a while.

Appreciation:

I’m never going to be too cool to not fully appreciate anytime creators shout out LMF. It really means a lot. Here’s a collection of quotes and mentions of LMF from people whose work I really liked and the occasional amazing times when my reviews are cited by other folks.

Mark Millar and his crew have been huge supporters of LMF and regularly spread the word about my reviews on the fantastic Magic Order series.

Prodigy marketing team. I liked this film and you can check it out now on Amazon.

Cat Staggs from Crosswind, one of the most original and entertaining concepts in a long time. Check out Crosswind for under $10 at Amazon.

I love a good zombie movie and Redcon-1 is full of some insane and crazy action.

The coolest mention so far was from Operation Red Sea, which actually has my quote on the box cover. That’s amazing for a critic like me whose name doesn’t appear on every movie because they’ve got a good brand and know how to speak in Blu-Ray quotable quotes.

Triple Threat came out this year and I got a fun mention on their Facebook page. Here’s the translation:

If you miss the (still!) Insider tip Triple Threat movie on Wednesday – blame yourself.
Most recently, I got a mention from Dete Meserve, the writer of the Good Sam novel and co-screenwriter of the Netflix adaptation.

Hope Daly, who stars in Good Sam, also shared the review and had some very nice comments on her IG page.