About

Jack is a film critic based in the glorious city of Preston- a location blessed with four palaces of big screen entertainment. A First Class graduate of the University of Lancashire, when he’s not busy writing the Journal or making the journey to watch a certain rugby union team in Manchester, he’s usually glued to a cinema seat watching the week’s new releases, and getting an industry viewpoint from well beyond the floors of the foyer. His writing style has become well known over the last few years, with representatives of local production company Beyond the Bar and students of the UCLan Film Production undergraduate course praising his ‘condensed, succinct and extremely well written’ reviews.

Away from film work, Jack’s been banging the drum for rugby in the North of England, covering the top flight of the game on TikTok, and many appearances on the ITV4 Gallagher Prem Unleashed highlights programme as one of the show’s resident ‘fan in the stands’ contributors for Sale Sharks home matchdays.

The Blog

Since the blog was launched in June 2013, TheJackSmit.com has picked up a large following as a result of the wide variety of films that Jack has reviewed over the years. At the time of writing, over 500 films have been reviewed for the blog, and if his local cinema shows a certain film, it will probably receive a First Take review. In 2016, the Projection Room series of posts were launched, providing a more journalistic take on the world of film from production level right down to the exhibition sector, and with the addition of strands including First Take Classics, and the burgeoning multimedia wing headed up by the long-form video series The Journal, the blog covers every aspect of the film industry from the Hollywood blockbusters all the way to the low budget, unknown films.

In 2025 this was all supplemented with the launches of new formats like Front Row, our monthly preview show, and Rough Cut short-form reviews for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

 

Reviewing Films and Showcasing New Talent

In January 2017, this blog played host to the world’s first review of crowd-funded independent film The Renata Road as it began its journey into the sales circuit, with coverage of that year’s Manchester Film Festival following just weeks after. Later in the same year, Jack profiled how the industry is responding to declining admissions numbers by documenting his local cinema’s refurbishment in depth, following that up in 2018 and 2019 by working with UCLan film production students to document the making of their feature film, and gain first hand experience of life on a real production.

In August 2023, Jack partnered up with the Lytham International Film Festival, providing the traditional media coverage to an ever-growing market for independent cinema, and this partnership was enhanced in 2025 as he became a jury member for their sister festival CineWyre, and a founding partner of the Lancashire Film Network.

Jack’s insight has been featured in the Lancashire Post, on UCLan Pulse Media, where he advised the next generation of critics, and right here on TheJackSmit.com.