Jackson Murphy: 13 Year Old Film Critic

http://www.ebertpresents.com/episodes/episode-125/videos/230


It's wrong to want to hurt a child.




Right?

Why do I want to plant my foot in his as*?

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He's from my area and I ultimately feel some level responsibility/guilt over this kid's inexplicable fame, exposure, accolades (you read that right, he has a local Emmy), etc. All I can say is his father worked as an sports anchor/radio host for years in the area but he lost his job as his local station phased out its sports division and his radio show flopped. But he still had connections (and on his part he may still have that job doing "pre-game" for the local station affiliate that does one or two Yankee games a week) and has essentially used it to get his son a dream job. It is like Upstate NY's version of Jeffrey and Ben Lyons.

I still don't get what YNN (the station who has given this kid a platform) is doing here making him the go-to critic and not just a 'kid critic for kid movies'. He cannot see R movies (and I doubt his very super-religious parents would take him to one) and he is barely old enough to appreciate a lot of PG-13 films, like teen, coming-of-age films or just adult-minded movies. I can understand having a kid critic but it is an absolute insult to my area that once upon a time had some very respectable film critics to have to claim this kid as theirs, no matter how 'cute' Roger Ebert thinks this kid is (He also thought Benji and Cop and a Half were cute once). The only thing he seems to like are animated films and Christan movies./rant over

Updated On: 7/10/11 at 01:58 AM

I can't believe I'd never heard of this kid before the other day!

Here's the thing. Growing up, I was a huge film buff. My parents never put a restriction on what I could watch. I remember my Mother telling me when I was a kid that the only thing I couldn't watch is porn. (I guess I'm rebelling now) I was 6 when NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET came out in 1984 and begged to see it which I was allowed to do and that was the day my love of horror began. In 1988 when I was 10, I told the 3rd grade class that Jodie Foster would hands down win the Oscar for THE ACCUSED. There's even a 30 minute video of me that year in my local video store (R.I.P.) giving movie reviews. Off the top of my head I "reviewed" the following films

Back to the Future
The Accused
Peggy Sue Got Married (Still one of my favorite films of all time and one of the most under rated)
Clue
The Goonies
Taxi Driver
Nightmare on Elm Street (1-3. And even at the age of 10 I knew part 2 had nothing to do with the series whatsoever)
Ruthless People
The Breakfast Club


I grew up in this video store and others. My father was friends with the owner and I would be lucky enough to rent whatever I wanted for free and I watched everything. I still do. But watching that video of me, I can say it was really a cute thing. Not annoying and pretentious and there's nothing on it that would really make anyone want to punch my in the face after 10 seconds of listening to me. But there was also nobody feeding me the information I was saying unlike what I believe is going on with this Jackson kid. Watching me talk about movies and watching him it's obvious that one of us is a real film lover and the other is just a little douche bag with a rich mommy and daddy who want their little angel to be famous.

This kid has really got the annoying phony TV personality persona down - he seems quite professional in that sense, in fact he's probably less stilted than some on national TV - but yes, quite annoying. Who exactly is he supposed to appeal to?

Ha Jordan, a ten year old watching The Accused...!

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The local paper from the area in which I grew up had a tween critic. God, I loathed his reviews.

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He's completely annoying, which is fairly typical of most movie critics. But he is either being scripted by an adult, or is Asperger's. There is nothing real about anything that comes out of his mouth. He says nothing that a typical kid would express. Who is his target audience?

They should show his videos to pedophiles to cure them.

There may be well an "on" Jackson and a regular kid somewhere in there as well. I saw him at a local Target a while back with his mom and he was as mellow and normal as can be.

I do agree, though, that whoever coached him into becoming this perky, precocious and throughly annoying little media brat should be taken behind the barn.

It's his accent an his inflections that make my skin crawl more than anything else. It really seems like he went on YouTube and watched tv movie reviewers from the 80s and is copying their over the top style to make him seem more like a big boy. I would very much like to see him sent to a Lord of the Flies type reality show and watch him try to survive.
Now THAT'S entertainment!

Here's a 16 year old critic I actually do like. (Though I imagine not everyone will!)


Review of Midnight In Paris

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Updated On: 7/12/11 at 11:22 AM

God, I want to hot him with a sledge hammer!

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I love how he has consistently made his top pick for best film very reasonable (Midnight in Paris for first-half and Toy Story 3 last year) while down his list gets more and more questionable. I was waiting for Kung Fu Panda 2 at the top but oh that Jackson chose a Woody Allen film.

Oh Roger Ebert, this is your biggest mistake since your review of Blue Velvet.