[ t h e   a g o n y   b o o t h ]

The Agony Booth Staff!

Get to know the people that make this website possible!

Albert Walker Albert  Walker
Email:
Forum Handle: Albert
Forums Moderated: News & Announcements, Movie & TV Recaps, The Agonizer [Mini-Recaps and Articles], TV Talk, Can't Stop the Music.
Latest Recaps: Enterprise - "A Night in Sickbay", Road House, Deafula, Shanghai Surprise, Casino Royale (3 segments).
Favorite Movies: Pulp Fiction, Metropolis, Fight Club, Superman: The Movie, Swingers, Friday, Body Heat.
Favorite TV Shows: Star Trek (the original series), Degrassi Junior High, The Shield, Star Trek (the animated series).
Favorite CDs: Close to the Edge by Yes, Live in Europe by Otis Redding, Homebrew by Neneh Cherry, Red by King Crimson.
Favorite Books: Communion by Whitley Strieber, White Noise by Don DeLillo, Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy.
Bio: Albert saw Exorcist II: The Heretic at the tender age of 6, and it scarred him for life. When not recapping bad movies and bad TV shows, Albert spends his time playing guitar (currently trying to get the hang of his fourth chord), developing software in an undisclosed location, and devising new ways for this website to consume his time and money.
Amanda Wells Amanda  Wells
Email:
Forum Handle: Amanda
Latest Recaps: The Skydivers, Casino Royale (1 segment), When Time Ran Out..., Armageddon (2 segments).
Favorite Movies: Casablanca, Laura, The Odd Couple, The Thin Man Collection, Rio Grande.
Favorite TV Shows: The Office, Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rockford Files, Magnum PI, Gunsmoke.
Favorite CDs: Merle Haggard Box Set, The Cream of Clapton, Cowboy Junkies Studio.
Favorite Books: The Island at the Center of the World, Down the Great Unknown, The River of Doubt, Murder on the Orient Express, The Millionaires, As Time Goes By, The Big Four.
Bio:

If I was a bad movie, I'd find it much easier to write about myself than I do at present. My main interests outside of really bad movies is playing music. I've played guitar for 15 years, performed before far more people than I'm really comfortable with and am currently having fun listening to my 5 year old son bang away on his new starter drum set. Yes, drummers are so hard to find, I had to resort to making my own.

When not playing music, I also like to work in my yard and many gardens, try new recipes (never would have thought that would happen), research my genealogy (I get to be related to the beheaded king and queen of France!) and read history books primarily about natural disasters and personal tales. And when I'm not doing any of that, then I'm spending time with my great family.

The first movie I remember going to the theater to see was The Black Stallion which we were late to the beginning of and as we were waiting for it to begin again and rewatch it (is that even legal?) we got dragged away by my dad and sister who insisted we come watch Airplane! with them in the other theater. Oh, and I cried so hard at the end of Oh, Heavenly Dog! that my sister had to call my mom to come pick me up. As a kid, I never had a Big Wheel. I still want one.


Amber Meadows Amber  Meadows
Email:
Forum Handle: Speedy Delivery Chick
Forums Moderated: News & Announcements, Celebrity News, Games and Anime, Books and Comics.
Favorite Movies: Paranoia Agent, Shaun of the Dead.
Favorite Books: Watership Down.
Bio:

Bear Bear
Email:
Website: This Bear's Lair
Forum Handle: Bear1701
Latest Recaps: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (1 segment).
Favorite Movies: Aliens, Field of Dreams.
Favorite TV Shows: Battlestar Galactica.
Bio: Born in NYC, but saw "The Fog" when I was in High School and the California Coast looked so cool in that movie that I headed west when I was 17 and have been out here ever since. I have three passions, hiking (mainly in Yosemite but anywhere interesting), four wheeling in my trusty Jeep and movies, both good and bad.
David Bowgett David  Bowgett
Email:
Website: The Cave of Caerbannog (on hiatus, but returning soon...)
Forum Handle: DaveJB
Latest Recaps: The Fantastic Four (1 segment), Gigli (1 segment).
Bio:

While my website may have fallen off this Earth due to a negligent host and my own time constraints, rest assured I still keep my eyes on what the world of horrid films has to offer, and am still yet to have my say on a few of them!


Ed Harris Ed  Harris
Email:
Forum Handle: Ed
Latest Recaps: Star Trek: Insurrection, Casino Royale (1 segment), Submerged, Hudson Hawk (1 segment), The Wild World of Batwoman.
Favorite Movies: The Godfather, Caddyshack, Lethal Weapon, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Darkman.
Favorite TV Shows: Cheers, Whose Line is it Anyway?, Reno: 911, Tales From the Crypt.
Favorite CDs: The Long Road Home: The Ultimate John Fogerty/Creedence Collection, George Carlin: What am I Doing in New Jersey?, Jeff Foxworthy: You Might be A Redneck If...., Steve Martin: Let's Get Small.
Bio:

A fan of less than great cinema since childhood, Ed divides his time between writing scripts, working an actual paying job and subjecting himself willingly to some of the worst films society has produced.


Ivan Druzhkov Ivan Druzhkov
Email:
Forum Handle: Ivan Druzhkov
Latest Recaps: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (1 segment).
Bio:
Jack Spencer, Jr. Jack  Spencer, Jr.
Email:
Forum Handle: Jack Spencer Jr
Latest Recaps: I Know Who Killed Me.
Favorite Movies: Jaws, Die Hard, Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, My Dinner With Andre, Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn, Phantasm, Casablanca, Tremors, Citizen Kane, Alien, Aliens, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
Favorite CDs: Led Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by Black Sabbath, Tapestry by Carol King, Jim Croce Photographs & Memories: His Greatest Hits, Let It Be by the Beatles.
Favorite Books: Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton, Beast by Peter Benchley, The Shining by Stephen King, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J. D. Salinger, Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
Bio: Jack Spencer Jr has lived in New York State his entire life at various points along the Thruway like an incontinent who has to stop at every rest area. He spent much of his youth reading books, watching television shows and movies. After high school, he became more aware of films on the extreme ends of the cinematic bell curve, both the excellent, such as Jaws, Citizen Kane and Casablanca, and the turgid, like Plan 9 From Outer Space, Robot Monster, and Jaws: the Revenge. When not writing recaps or posting on the forums with all the je ne sais quoi of a monkey flinging chocolate-frosted marshmallows at people, he's staring at the ceiling where he's tacked up a helpful note: "Get back to WORK."

Jake Cremins Jake  Cremins
Email:
Forum Handle: krylonman
Forums Moderated: News & Announcements, Movies: General.
Latest Recaps: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (1 segment).
Favorite Movies: Notorious, Klute, Solaris (1972), Mulholland Dr., House of Games, Game of Death II, Playtime, The Ninth Configuration.
Favorite TV Shows: Strangers With Candy, Mission: Impossible, The Golden Girls.
Favorite CDs: Post (Björk), Sonic Seasonings (Wendy Carlos), second toughest in the infants (Underworld), Horses (Patti Smith), Hungry for Stink (L7).
Favorite Books: The Crying of Lot 49, Red Dragon, The Essential Ellison, Jude the Obscure, Every Night, Josephine!, Less Than Zero, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, The Sheep Look Up, Ballroom of the Skies.
Bio:

In ninth grade, Jake devoted a website to Exorcist II: The Heretic. Believe it or not, years later this actually helped him get an unimaginably glamorous job on the bottom rung of post-production for a show airing on ESPN. Dreams do come true!

In between organizing tape libraries and labeling things, Jake also works as an editor for the occasional zero-budget independent production. He was also a film critic for the now-defunct Movie Gurus website.


Jason Sartin Jason  Sartin
Email:
Website: Primary Error
Forum Handle: posthumanbeing
Latest Recaps: Casino Royale (1 segment), The Fantastic Four (1 segment), Gigli (1 segment).
Bio:

Unlike many other recappers, Jason wasn't introduced to the fold by seeing Exorcist 2 or anything. He's just a random internet cynical humor guy or something. (Wow, we don't have many of those.)


Jessica Ritchey Jessica  Ritchey
Email:
Forum Handle: Juniper
Latest Recaps: Ghost, Casino Royale (2 segments), Hudson Hawk (1 segment), The Concorde... Airport '79, Gigli (1 segment).
Favorite Movies: Singin' in the Rain , The Red Shoes , Hatari! .
Favorite TV Shows: Mystery Science Theater 3000, Hill Street Blues , Karen Sisco .
Favorite Books: Sleazoid Express, The Time Out Film Guide , The New Biographical Dictionary of Film .
Bio:

Born in Western North Carolina, Juniper was discovered in a filthy shack in the lovely Blue Ridge Mountains, speaking a made up language to a tattered rag doll, her only companion. Her social skills have improved little in the intervening years. She is currently making flailing efforts at being a freelance writer. One of history's supreme procrastinators she plans on writing a book about it someday.


Jet Jet
Email:
Forum Handle: Jet
Latest Recaps: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (3 segments), Eragon, The Lord of the Rings.
Favorite Movies: King Kong, Willard, Dungeons & Dragons, Barbarian.
Favorite TV Shows: Firefly.
Favorite CDs: Jet - Get Born.
Favorite Books: A Game of Thrones.
Favorite Beverages: Vodka Cruiser.
Bio:

As the Booth's Resident Plague Rat, Jet adores cheese of all kinds and will devour anything put in front of her, no matter how mouldy or nasty-smelling it may be. Furry, snarky and hooked on terrible fantasy movies (and books), Jet claims to have a human alter-ego who writes actual bad fantasy novels for a living. She avoids any forums that mention cats, snakes or Ratsak.


Jonathon Pernisek Jonathon  Pernisek
Email:
Website: CineBomb
Forum Handle: CineBomb2
Latest Recaps: Hudson Hawk (1 segment), The Fantastic Four (1 segment).
Bio:

Jordon Davis Jordon  Davis
Email:
Forum Handle: Loss Leader
Latest Recaps: Epic Movie.
Favorite Movies: Powder.
Favorite CDs: White.
Favorite Books: Salt.
Bio: B.A. Political Science, SUNY Albany - 1991
Master of Public Administration, University of Georgia - 1993
Juris Doctorate, Emory University - 1996

Admitted:
State of Georgia - 1996
State of New York - 1997

Winner:
Fields Medal (with Laurent Lafforgue and Vladimir Voevodsky) - 1998

Kruhn Kruhn
Email:
Forum Handle: Kruhn
Latest Recaps: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (1 segment).
Bio:
Kyle Palkowski Kyle  Palkowski
Email:
Forum Handle: The Doctor
Latest Recaps: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (1 segment).
Favorite Movies: Hudson Hawk, Q: The Winged Serpent, Men at Work, They Live, Superman: The Movie, Somewhere in Time, Dawn of the Dead (1978), Jake Speed, Maximum Overdrive, The Stuff, Invasion U.S.A. (1985), Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Lethal Weapon Series, The It's Alive Trilogy.
Favorite Foods: Pizza, Buffalo Wings, French Fries, Olive Garden Breadsticks.
Favorite Beverages: Apple Juice, Coke.
Bio: An eccentirc, nerdy B-movie junkie and Goodwill store donation attendant who lives in Wisconsin, land of cheese,and fireworks. I deal with sweltering summers and winters that make Milwaukee look like the other, smaller Canada. Has been described by others as "a big kid." I have an interest in designing DVD covers, and have done a few for VHS-to-DVD transfers. Discovered the agony booth when looking for more on Mitchell, and became a memebr a couple days later. Single and looking, ladies!

LaShawn Wanak LaShawn  Wanak
Email:
Website: Cafe in the Woods
Forum Handle: LaShawn
Latest Recaps: Xanadu.
Favorite Movies: Lord of the Rings, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brazil, Daughters of the Dust.
Favorite CDs: Anything by XTC, Phil Keaggy or Over the Rhine.
Favorite Books: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, The Otherland Series by Tad Williams, Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart.
Favorite Beverages: Tea.
Bio: When not burying her face in a book or wiping snot off her preschooler, LaShawn can often be found hunched over her laptop, churning out short stories and cackling madly. She likens bad movies to fried twinkies--greasy, fattening, full of empty calories, and very, very addictive.
Mark M. Meysenburg Mark M. Meysenburg
Email:
Website: Mark's home page
Forum Handle: markm
Latest Recaps: Star Trek: Voyager - "The Fight".
Favorite Movies: The Ten Commandments, Star Wars (Ep. IV, V, and VI), The Lord of The Rings trilogy, Dead Alive.
Favorite TV Shows: Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Favorite CDs: Hoodoo Gurus, The Rainmakers.
Favorite Books: The Dark Night Returns, Science and Technology in World History, an Introduction.
Bio: Mark teaches at Doane College, a liberal arts college in Crete, Nebraska. Most of his teaching involves computer science, but Mark also occasionally teaches mathematics and the history of science; he has also been known to offer three week courses on the worst movies ever made.

Mark's bad movie obsession was kindled in the early 1980s by the Medved brothers, then fanned to full flame by late-night showings of Plan 9 from Outer Space. Who could have predicted the long term effects of satin-pajama-clad, mincing alien menace?

Mark's other interests include homebrew beer and wine, and practicing and teaching martial arts.

Mark "Scooter" Wilson Mark "Scooter" Wilson
Email:
Website: MarkBWilson.com
Forum Handle: scootermark
Latest Recaps: Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, Aquaman, Casino Royale (2 segments), Mister T in "Fortune Cookie Caper", Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!.
Favorite Movies: Superman, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat , Go, Il Mostro, The Fellowship of the Ring, Episode V, Bedrooms and Hallways, Spirited Away.
Favorite TV Shows: Doctor Who, Heroes, Bleach.
Favorite CDs: Home Made Kazoku, Santana, Third Eye Blind, Rob Thomas, Mika, Take That.
Favorite Books: Jumper, The Secret History, The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the Shadow, The Quincunx, Theodore Rex.
Favorite Foods: Meat.
Bio:

Mark is a history guy, a graphics guy, a guy for whom wryly cynical assessments of popular culture are the scallion cream cheese on the toasted everything bagel of life. He spends his time teaching modern history at Brooklyn College, pondering the ancient Romans at the CUNY Graduate Center, and conjuring maps and illustrations for ungrateful bankers at various Manhattan monoliths. Readers are welcome to guess at reasons why he's nicknamed Scooter, with the proviso that all such submissions are guaranteed to be rather more interesting than the truth. Mark lives in the Midwood section of Brooklyn with a happy-go-lucky, flop-eared dog named Chiyo who is probably, at this very moment, waiting patiently for her walkies.


Michael A. Novelli Michael A. Novelli
Email:
Forum Handle: Mendo Loves Lum
Latest Recaps: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (1 segment).
Favorite Movies: My Boyfriend Is Type B, Starchaser-Legend Of Orin, The Prince Of Egypt.
Favorite CDs: MM..FOOD.
Favorite Foods: Cheeseburgers.
Favorite Beverages: Soda, Grey Goose.
Bio: As perhaps the only man alive who thought Freddy Got Fingered was a good movie, Michael (alias Mendo) has long been able to withstand even the worst cinema around. A descendent of Edgar Allen Poe and author himself, Mendo spends most of his time rapping and romancing fellow Boother, Jet; that is, when he's not driving trucks for the United States Army! A devotee of "Badfilm", Mendo has only two goals in life: making it as a writer, and convincing people that Back to the Future was the trilogy...
Rebecca Nuñez Rebecca  Nuñez
Email:
Forum Handle: CrazyBeckthePsychoGirl
Latest Recaps: Armageddon (1 segment).
Bio:

Rori Stevens Rori  Stevens
Email:
Forum Handle: Sapphire
Forums Moderated: News & Announcements, Reader Recaps.
Latest Recaps: Casino Royale (1 segment), Hudson Hawk (1 segment), Moonwalker.
Favorite Movies: Being There, Hoffman, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Edward Scissorhands, Beauty and the Beast, Labyrinth, Man on the Moon, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur.
Favorite TV Shows: Cirque du Soleil - Nouvelle Experience, Doctor Who, The Critic, SCTV.
Favorite CDs: Earth Wind & Fire: Greatest Hits, Dr. Demento's 30th Anniversary Collection.
Favorite Books: Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers.
Bio:

Miss Stevens came to the Agony Booth in the process of looking for reviews of Trail of the Pink Panther and has since established herself as (among other things) a notoriously devoted Peter Sellers fan, a Michael Jackson deconstructionist, and an all-round critiquer. She has delusions of success as a writer but has a day job just in case.

"Sapphire" credits whatever success she has as a Boother to her love of the whimsical, eccentric side of cinema - while others might blanche at the madness of the films she's helped recap, she dives in every time.


Ryan Lohner Ryan  Lohner
Email:
Forum Handle: ryan
Latest Recaps: Casino Royale (1 segment), The Hellcats, The Fantastic Four (1 segment), Die Another Day, Gigli (1 segment).
Favorite Movies: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Favorite TV Shows: Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Desperate Housewives, Prison Break.
Favorite Books: The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination, Three Kingdoms.
Bio: Ryan lives in Sparta, New Jersey, a quaint little burg without much for kids to do except go to the movies. Thus began a lifelong love affair, as even back then he grew to love examining why a film worked, or didn't. He is a member of the Sigma Tau Delta English Honor Society, and currently studying for a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science. His hobbies include running, piano, and annoying people with that damn lowercase forum user name.
Sillstaw Sillstaw
Email:
Forum Handle: Sillstaw
Latest Recaps: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (1 segment).
Favorite Movies: Singin' in the Rain, American Beauty, Manhattan, Run Lola Run, Back to the Future 1-3.
Favorite TV Shows: Arrested Development, Sports Night, The Twilight Zone (50s/60s), Whose Line is it Anyway?, Fawlty Towers, Breaking Bad.
Favorite CDs: Spiderland, Straight Outta Lynwood, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, New Sacred Cow, Jimmy Eat World, Dirty.
Favorite Books: Microserfs, Making Movies, In the Blink of an Eye, Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age at the American Film Institute, Perfume.
Bio: Sillstaw joined the Agony Booth after finding the recap for Trail of the Pink Panther. An aspiring filmmaker (aspiring in the sense of "occasionally shoots video"), he likes watching movies to learn about form, style and other film-school pretenses. He is currently in the Witness Protection Program for an incident involving flowers and industrial chemicals that would make for one hell of a movie.
Steve Pratte Steve  Pratte
Email:
Website: Army of Monkeys
Forum Handle: Alshain
Forums Moderated: News & Announcements, Movies: Now Playing and Upcoming, Everything Else.
Latest Recaps: Casino Royale (1 segment), Hudson Hawk (1 segment), The Fantastic Four (1 segment).
Favorite Movies: Star Wars series, Alien series, RoboCop, Lord of the Rings series.
Favorite TV Shows: Trailer Park Boys, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mythbusters, The Office (BBC), Home Movies, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist.
Bio:

An IT peon in the Midwest with potentially too much time on his hands and an affinity for Bollywood.

I was first exposed to the glories of Crap Cinema when I was in high school and saw Mystery Science Theater 3000 for the first time. I've never been the same since.

I happily serve The Booth as a moderator for a few forums and occasionally contribute material to the Mega Reviews.


The Fili The  Fili
Email:
Forum Handle: TheFili
Latest Recaps: Zoom: Academy for Superheroes, Alone in the Dark.
Favorite Movies: One, Two, Three, Sunset Boulevard, Blues Brothers, Cyrano de Bergerac, Harvey, Casablance, Memento.
Favorite TV Shows: Firefly, House M.D., Doctor Who, Lost, Battlestar Galactica.
Favorite CDs: Billy Joel Ultimate Collection, The Blues Brothers Complete, Wise Guys - Wo der Pfeffer wächst.
Favorite Books: City of Dreaming Books, Terry Pratchett's Discworld,