If Pauline Kael is the patron saint of film criticism, then Rick Ferguson, aka "The Film Geek" was our favorite local preacher of the gospel. Keep in mind we are not speaking about the current impostor who claims to be "The Film Geek." We consider any other use of the Film Geek moniker to be blasphemy committed in the church of movies. Rick was just a modem-owning opinion barfer like us, but over the three years we got to know him on the web, we felt a spirit and intelligence from him that few critics of any art are capable. Many of my favorite literature critics are now dead and have been replaced by pretentious, self-pious hacks, and film critics have become complacent and shilly--see our Jay Sherman Award for our opinion on the only film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. The new vanguard of criticism is online, we're convinced, and Rick Ferguson carried our torch.

It's unfair to call him and Pauline "film" critics, because they loved the "movies," and considered all movies, be they art films or pop culture blockbusters, with the same zeal. We know that Rick had some personal problems that probably led to his absence from the web, but we hope that a little of him lives on here at Filmsnobs. He wrote with high intelligence and wit, but his reviews were not solely vehicles of humor; they found the center of a film and bore their way out. We could go on about Rick and the old Film Geek site and not do it justice, so let's just run down our favorite ten Film Geek moments. Actually, it's quite amazing that we've committed these to memory two to three years after the fact, considering that Rick Ferguson's brilliant body of work no longer exists. We know we got the exact quotations wrong, but you'll get enough of the idea.

1. In a review of Gone In 60 Seconds, Rick declared about Jerry Bruckheimer that "For years I planned his horrible death, but now I'm resigned to a begrudging admiration for his ability to draw a crowd." Rick went on to talk about Nic Cage's feminizing of the cars, and by breaking into them, by snipping their wires, he is symbolically raping them. "And we're made to cheer for this!" he said. Rick also referred to Nicolas Cage as "Former Actor Nicolas Cage."

2. Rick theorized that with End of Days you could cast Adam Sandler in the Schwarzeneggar role, Rob Schneider in the Kevin Pollack role, David Spade in the Gabriel Byrne role, Leslie Nielson in the Rod Steiger role, film it as a comedy without changing a word of the script, and win Golden Globes.

3. Rick gave Martin Scorcese's Bringing Out the Dead a tentative three-star review, qualifying it by saying, "If Martin Scorcese made a Dukes of Hazzard movie starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, I'd still be tempted to give it four stars."

4. Occasionally Rick would jump off the board without checking for water, like when he defended Battlefield Earth, the book, versus Battlefield Earth, the movie. He pleaded with us that "This is not L. Ron's fault. In the book, the Psychlos are ten-foot viruses. Here they look like the overgrown children of George Clinton and Dusty Springfield. That defeats the whole point."

5. Even when we thought he was wrong, he was great. In his review of Erin Brockovich, he praised Julia Roberts, but offered the following: "If the real Erin Brockovich were this tough, smart, sassy, and beautiful, she wouldn't be Erin Brockovich at all--she'd be Julia Roberts."

6. Rick really hated Oliver Stone. And he hated Any Given Sunday, about which he said, "Why would Oliver Stone have the discipline it takes to make a great movie when he can just recut the same footage a dozen times and then drink some screwdrivers and drive around in the Porsche?"

7. When waxing eloquently about For Love of the Game, he said, "Baseball movies transcend our emotions about the American pastime and create a shrine to the American spirit, or at least that's what Leonard Maltin told me."

8. Though he didn't like South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, he granted that "In one of the most bizarre subplots in cinematic history, Saddam Hussein and Satan are entwined in a romantic relationship that has more depth and truth than almost all Hollywood movie relationships I've seen in the last year."

9. Rick championed Kevin Smith's Dogma, which "fulfilled the four functions of art: it entertains, it teaches, it questions, and it provokes debate." He also defended Kevin Smith's use of Alannis Morrisette: "His vision of God may be insulting to some, but it's deeply personal, and that's something you don't much find in the movies anymore."

10. He found this subtext in The Wild Wild West: "The giant tarantula is a good metaphor for this movie: a giant corporate behemoth that cuts a path and leaves a wake of destruction in its path. The extras all seemed to stand around looking at this thing with the same disbelief those of us in the audience did."

There are many more brilliant Film Geek moments, like his essay on the Patrick Swayze Muscle-Bound, Pseudo-Zen Spouting Anti-Hero, but these are the best of what we could remember. The mark of a great critic is not one who shares your opinion, but one who matches the passion of the artist they critique. Rick was an artist himself with the most unique voice in criticism. He wrote to be read, to express his world view through the prism of the movies. The Film Geek has been sorely missed, but the Filmsnobs hope to someday match the quality of our spiritual leader. Rick, if you're out there, we hope you're well, we hope we've done you proud, and we hope you someday make a triumphant return to the world of movies.