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The Mac The Movieguy Story

There was never a time when film and television were not a huge part of John’s life. Growing up, even before the memories he has now, his mother used to keep all the movie tickets from all the children’s films he saw in theaters tucked into the family photo albums. His earliest memories involve seeing a packed opening night screening of The Flintstones, falling asleep during Tim Burton’s Batman, dragging a friend to an animated Tom and Jerry movie he wanted absolutely nothing to see, and making his dad sit through the third Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. He wore out his Aladdin VHS tape, spent Saturday mornings watching some of the greatest cartoons ever made, looked forward to SNICK every weekend, and always dreamed of competing on Double Dare. The closest he ever got was touring Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Orlando.

As John grew up, so did his taste in movies and television. That same friend who reluctantly sat through Tom and Jerry also introduced him to his first R-rated movie, Terminator 2: Judgment Day. While he never stopped loving the films and shows from his childhood, his library card opened the door to classics like The Bridge on the River Kwai and Psycho, worlds away from the Disney animation he grew up with. Around this time, John also got his first taste of film criticism. While still in middle school, he filled a vacancy at his hometown newspaper as a freelance movie critic. That eventually led to writing his own entertainment newsletter for family and friends before moving online, where anyone could become a critic.

John later joined several screenwriting communities, and that is where Mac The Movieguy was born. His first email address, courtesy of that same longtime friend, was MacDaddyNLS, with “NLS” standing for No Limit Soldier. Deciding that probably wasn’t the nickname he wanted following him forever, he adapted it into Mac The Movieguy, a name that has now followed him for decades.

Before he had even graduated high school, John had already been published as a print film critic while learning the craft of screenwriting. He continued watching as many movies as possible, aided by both a library card and memberships at multiple video rental stores. When his hometown of Neosho, Missouri opened its first six-screen movie theater, John joined the opening staff. He volunteered to become the theater’s first projectionist, spending countless nights building and breaking down 35mm prints while screening films before they were shown to audiences.

After high school, John took a second job at a brand-new Movie Gallery, giving him free movies both in theaters and at home. Eventually he moved from Neosho to Orlando, Florida, where his experience landed him jobs at both another movie theater chain and another Movie Gallery while attending college. Alongside screenwriting, he continued reviewing movies online for websites that have long since disappeared into internet history.

John continued watching, reading, writing, and absorbing everything he could about film and television. His DVD collection eventually surpassed his VHS collection. He went on to work for five different movie theaters across multiple theater chains while eventually managing his own Movie Gallery location.

All of that led to earning a Bachelor of Arts in Cinema Studies from the University of Central Florida, along with freelance work for several entertainment websites, including House of Geekery, StarPulse, and MJsBigBlog.

In 2013, John officially launched MacTheMovieguy.com as a permanent home for his reviews after watching too many websites disappear over the years. Things were going well as he balanced the website with working at a local college and later spending several years with the Orlando International Fringe Festival.

Everything changed in 2017. John began experiencing serious vision problems and was diagnosed with closed-angle glaucoma at just 34 years old. Despite multiple surgeries and the efforts of his doctors, he lost the ability to drive, navigate a computer screen visually, and eventually became legally blind. MacTheMovieguy.com went on hiatus while his life shifted from movie theaters to doctor’s offices in an effort to save what vision remained.

Today, after multiple surgeries and an ongoing regimen of medications, his eye pressure is under control, but there are currently no corrective procedures capable of restoring the vision that was lost. As someone whose life revolved around movies, adapting to screen readers, learning programs like JAWS, using a white cane, giving up driving, and losing many of his favorite hobbies proved incredibly difficult.

But John never gave up on movies.

Instead, he discovered the incredible world of audio description and quickly realized just how much entertainment remained inaccessible to blind audiences. That realization changed not only how he watched movies, but also what kind of critic he wanted to become.

At the beginning of 2022, John returned to reviewing films and television with a new mission: providing reviews from the perspective of a blind film lover. While most critics focus on cinematography, visual effects, or production design, John’s work explores accessibility, audio description, and whether blind audiences can truly experience the stories everyone else is talking about.

While John will always remember watching moments like the T. rex chasing the Jeep in Jurassic Park or Simba being lifted into the air during “Circle of Life” in The Lion King, he has since built an entirely new list of favorite films and television shows enjoyed without seeing a single frame, thanks to the power of audio description.

Today, John is proud to be a Rotten Tomatoes Certified Critic and a member of the Critics Association of Central Florida, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, the Hollywood Creative Alliance, the Indie Film Critics of America, the Online Film and Television Association, the Blind Film Critics Society, and Film Independent. His mission remains simple: helping the blind community discover what has audio description, whether that audio description is any good, and whether a title is worth watching.

If you wish to contact John, you may reach him at macthemovieguy AT aol.com (written this way to discourage spambots).

You can also subscribe to his reviews on the official Mac The Movieguy YouTube channel at YouTube.com/MacTheMovieguy.

He can also be followed on X @macthemovieguy.

Some of John’s favorite films will always light up his life. He will forever be a fan of Pixar, Marvel, Disney, Laika, Studio Ghibli, DreamWorks Animation, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino. Alfred Hitchcock will always be the GOAT, The Wizard of Oz remains a comfort film, and Walter Matthau continues to top John’s list of favorite actors.

While John’s primary focus is promoting accessibility and reviewing entertainment from the blind perspective, he is also a proud member of the LGBTQ community… and yes, he still has a crush on Brian Cox. Logan Roy himself.

John Stark currently serves on the Media Advisory Committee for the Audio Description Project of the American Council of the Blind and the Advisory Board for Descriptive Video Works. He has appeared on numerous podcasts, including The ADNA Presents, The Dark Room, Access Fuckery, Outlook Radio, The Mod Squad Network, and many others, where he discusses film criticism, accessibility, and audio description. He regularly consults with members of the audio description community and continues advocating for greater accessibility throughout the entertainment industry.