Judge Dossier
Judge Dennis Prince
• Location: Rocklin, CA
• Member since: July 2004
• 197 full reviews
• 140 small claims
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Dennis Prince was born in Sunnyvale, CA in November 1962, the obvious result of his folks' post-Christmas doldrums and living proof that Dad didn't hold up his end of the New Year's resolution. He grew up in the heart of the now-fabled Silicon Valley until 1977 when his parents saw the need to get him out of the sprawling metropolis before his affinity with Super-Bell corduroy jeans afflicted him for life. Relocated to Cow Town, CA (aka Roseville), he learned to wear straight-legged button-fly jeans, build fences, fight off army ants, and sling horse manure with passion in his heart and straw in his teeth.
After a short stint in the Blue Light Mecca of a local K-Mart store, he found the work of dreams in 1982...waving a flashlight and greasing up the never-ending assembly line of Tub 'O Corn at Mann Theaters. He was on hand to usher in (literally) the likes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman II, and Personal Best (mmm...Mariel Hemingway with a lighted goose...). Hating to give up the glamour of his polyester uniform after three years while also walking away from the prestigious promotion to Assistant Manager (he was entrusted with a bigger flashlight and a key to the cashbox), he entered the high-paying realm of high-tech, winding up at a major computer manufacturer that, ironically enough, began in a small garage back near his own birthplace.
By chance, he stumbled across a local publisher in 1998 that sought out writers for specialized technical books. His first two tech-business books were published that same year but his writing really soared upon publication of his "Online Auctions @ eBay" (Prima-Tech, 1999). With ten additional Internet- and eBay-centric books now under his belt (with his newest release, "Unleashing the Power of eBay" due from McGraw-Hill in November 2004 and available online and at all major booksellers), he's tapped a market that allows him to indulge in his second love in life (next to film), that being collecting baby-boomer games, toys, and movie memorabilia. Ask him about his books if you like but he'll usually clam up for fear of becoming a tiresome, self-absorbed bore. He lives with his wife and two children just twenty minutes down the interstate from the Schwarzenegger Capitol building (the Ahhhnold epicenter).
Still, film is what ticks his clock ever since the Wolfman scared the dirt out of him at the tender age of seven. Having turned the tables on his fear of those scary creeps and creatures, he maintains a love for all sorts of horror, science-fiction, and crappy B-movies. Once relegated to whatever he could find on television (anyone remember KTVU-2's Creature Features with Bob Wilkins?), he has found his private Nirvana in the digital age of DVD. Among his favorite directors are Alfred Hitchcock (natch), William Friedkin, Brian DePalma, George Romero, and Inoshiro Honda. To properly broaden himself and his views, he also enjoys action-adventure films, some musical-comedies, and classic TV. His favorite films currently include Dial M for Murder, Werewolf of London, Phantom of the Paradise¸ and War of the Gargantuas. Since 2000, he's been actively screening discs and offering his views on the best, the worst, and the best of the worst available on DVD today.
