Tampa Film Fan

Bio

Real Name: Lisa Ciurro (prior to that, it was Lisa Scherer)

Blogosphere Alias: tampafilmfan, tampabookbuzz

Day Job: corporate drone

Night Job: blogger, movie/TV viewer, reader, junk food enthusiast

Bio:

Finding it exhausting to be both beautiful and brilliant, Lisa (Scherer) Ciurro buried herself in books and movies at a young age. She attempted to reintegrate into society in the late 90s, but found that her social skills had withered from lack of use. She accepted her inner wallflower, bought a computer and devoted herself to the blogosphere. A corporate drone by day, Lisa reviews and writes about books and movies on her blogs TampaFilmFan.com and TampaBookBuzz.com. She also guest blogs at the popular local blog SticksOfFire.com and writes the FANGRRL column at CrazedFanBoy.com.

In addition to being named one of the best local bloggers of 2005 by tbt* (*tampa bay times), Lisa has served as a judge for several area film festivals (Independents’ Film Festival, 2006, 2007; Sunscreen Film Festival, 2007, 2008; Campus MovieFest, 2008). In September 2006, TampaBookBuzz.com was a runner-up for Best Local Blog in Creative Loafing’s Best of the Bay contest. In 2007, Lisa began writing “Reel People” movie reviews for the Tampa Tribune and served on The Artists and Writers Group’s festival planning committee. In between reading books and watching movies, Lisa visits her social networking pages, updates her Netflix queue, eats too much junk food and watches Law and Order reruns.

Why a movie blog?

What can I say?  I love movies, from art house films to zombie flicks.  I am neither film scholar nor movie critic, simply a film fan.  I’ll watch anything, no matter what I read or hear, because I don’t want to miss a great or special film just because someone else didn’t like it.  Movies are personal; what is silly or boring to one person might be magical or moving to another.  One person’s Dumb and Dumber is another person’s Out of Africa.

I have wonderful memories of my mother entertaining me with movie plots while cutting my hair when I was little; being excited when one of my mom’s favorite classic films was the Sunday morning movie pick on WTBS so my sister and I could skip church, stay home and watch the movie; and summer vacations where 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. were the critical times because that’s when WTBS played movies.

E.T. holds a special place in my heart because that’s where my junior-high boyfriend and I went on my first date.  The Revenge of the Nerds is the R-rated movie my cousin and I sneaked into one summer when my mom dropped us off at the theater to see something else.  I was in love with Christopher Reeve as Superman when I was 9, John Cusack in The Sure Thing when I was 12, and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing when I was 17.

I don’t like the ocean because of Jaws.  My parents were having a pool built in our backyard when I saw Poltergeist, so I found that movie especially creepy.  I found Carol Burnett’s skit Mildred Fierce hilarious because I loved Joan Crawford’s Mildred Pierce.  When I did poorly on a 7th grade algebra test, I went to see Terms of Endearment because I needed a good cry.  I slept in the bed with my mother after seeing The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was a teenager and had nightmares after watching The Dead Don’t Die with my grandmother when I was five.

I’ve seen a movie in a movie theater on most major holidays — Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve.  My sister and I once went to see that stupid Jerry Springer movie on Christmas Eve (and we were the only ones in the theater, no big surprise).  One time my right leg went numb — causing me to limp the next day — after sitting in a movie theater all day.  I’ve smuggled all sorts of snack food into theaters; once I brought in a Wendy’s cheeseburger and fries in my purse.

Movies have always been a huge part of my life and have helped mold me into the person I am today. TampaFilmFan.com is a celebration of movies and all things movie-related (with a little TV stuff thrown in for good measure). Talking about movies is almost as much fun as watching a good movie in the first place!

My favorite movies include: All This and Heaven Too, Aliens, All About Eve, The Aristocats, Ben-Hur, Braveheart, The Breakfast Club, The Butterfly Effect, Cold Mountain, The Color Purple, Cool Hand Luke, Dark Victory, Deep Impact, Dirty Dancing, Donnie Darko, Fargo, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Footloose, Forrest Gump, Giant, Gladiator, Gone With The Wind, The Good Earth, Grease, Grease 2, The Great Race, The Greatest Show on Earth, Groundhog Day, Hairspray (2007), Independence Day, Jaws, Jurassic Park, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Matrix, Moonlight and Valentino, Napoleon Dynamite, Now Voyager, The Patriot, The Princess Bride, Psycho, Pulp Fiction, Rebecca, Red Dawn, Reign of Fire, Resident Evil, Roadhouse, Schindler’s List, Se7en, Shadow of a Doubt, The Shawshank Redemption, Shirley Valentine, Silence of the Lambs, The Sound of Music, Starship Troopers, Steel Magnolias, A Sure Thing, The Thing (1982), To Kill A Mockingbird, When Harry Met Sally, and many more.

My favorite TV shows include:  Alias, Angel, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Carol Burnett Show, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Designing Women, Dirty Jobs, ER, Family Guy, Firefly, Frasier, House, The Incredible Hulk, The L Word, LA Law, Law and Order:SVU, Lil Bush, Little House on the Prairie, M*A*S*H, My Name Is Earl, Nip/Tuck, The Office, Psych, Rescue Me, Reno:911!, Robot Chicken, Scrubs, Seinfeld, Sex and the City, The Simpsons, Stargate:SG-1, Stargate:Atlantis, all of the Star Treks (TNG the least), Who’s The Boss, Whose Line Is It Anyway? and The X-Files.