From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Berardinelli (born September 1967, New Brunswick, New Jersey) is an online film critic.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Film critic 3 References 4 External links

Berardinelli was born in New Jersey and his early childhood in the town of Morristown. At around 9 years old he moved to Cherry Hill. He attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 through 1990, obtaining both a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering. After graduating he worked at Bellcore, now Telcordia Technologies, and spent the next 15 years working "in a variety of fields, including fiber optics, video testing, and software systems"[1] . In 2004, he married one of his longtime readers.[2]

Berardinelli admits that as a child, he did not spend much time in theaters, and as a teenager saw only five or six movies a year. He did not get interested in film until he was at college. In 1991, the year before he started reviewing, he saw about 30 films. The number jumped up to 180 in 1992, when he wrote reviews for his own use. Starting in 1993, when he started publishing his reviews to Usenet he began seeing between 220 and 250 theatrical releases per year. In 1997 he became an accredited film critic and now estimates that he has seen over 7000 films in total.

Berardinelli has over 3,300 full-length movie reviews posted on his own ReelViews website, as well as being a prominent contributor to such sites as Rotten Tomatoes. While tapering off slightly of late, he has established an average of roughly 300 reviews a year since the site was inaugurated in January of 1996. According to Berardinelli, his website receives 70,000–80,000 hits per day.[3]

Berardinelli is noted for his lengthy and learned analysis of films and has kept an open mind in viewing films in all subjects. His reviews are frequently peppered with dry humor and offer extensive explanation pertaining to background information on a film. His articles often delve deeper than just the film itself, frequently offering background information or unusual educational tidbits. Fellow film critic Roger Ebert has written positive comments about Berardinelli,[4] even going so far as to write forewords for the ReelViews books.

Berardinelli also writes ReelThoughts, a blog in which he muses on issues of the day or whatever is on his mind. While there is no publication schedule per se, he usually finds time to write a few entries a week. Frequent topics of his columns include DVD technology, the film industry, film piracy, and censorship, but he doesn't shy away from such issues as politics and society. He frequently criticizes the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board and the inconsistency of the ratings system, deriding them for, among other things, affixing "R" ratings to films for arguably mild artistic nudity, while simultaneously deeming blood-soaked violence to be PG or PG-13 material.

Berardinelli's favorite directors include Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa and Alfred Hitchcock. His all-time favorite film is Patton.

• James Berardinelli (2003), "ReelViews : The Ultimate Guide to the Best 1,000 Modern Movies on DVD and Video" ISBN 1-932112-06-5
• James Berardinelli (2005), "ReelViews 2: The Ultimate Guide to the Best 1,000 Modern Movies on DVD and Video, 2005 Edition" ISBN 1-932112-40-5

• ReelViews: Movie Reviews and Criticism by James Berardinelli
• James Berardinelli's autobiography on Rotten Tomatoes