Four-Star Movies: The 101 Greatest Films of All Time [Hardcover]

Gail Kinn (Author), Jim Piazza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 20, 2003

A lavishly illustrated, fact-filled celebration of the 101 movies that have changed our lives.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-The introduction lists the authors' criteria in considering movies to include in this book. The selections include a wide variety of films from "art" to "popular," providing coverage of just about any type. Each entry begins with a ranking beside the title. Remarks about the movie and its special qualities come just beneath the title, with a photograph of a memorable scene at the bottom. A plot synopsis, information on the major actors, awards, gossipy tidbits, what the critics say, and more are included. Outstanding posters appear with the ranking and title of each film. Cross-references are provided. The index contains movies, performers, and other important persons, such as film critic Roger Ebert or an association important to moviemaking. Those who enjoy a good movie will be delighted to immerse themselves in this outstanding volume.-Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Gail Kinn has conceived and edited a wide range of film books including Screwball: The Great Romantic Comedies, Hollywood at Home: The Photographs of Sid Avery, and The Scorsese Picture.   She is the coauthor of The Academy Awards.


Jim Piazza is an essayist, screenwriter, and playwright whose personal essays and writings about the media have appeared in The Village Voice and Out Magazine. He has been a script analyst for Columbia, Fox, and Paramount Pictures. He is also the author of the lavish tribute to Elvis, The King and co-author of The Academy Awards  (Black Dog & Leventhal).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 324 pages
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (October 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579123155
• ISBN-13: 978-1579123154
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 10.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #580,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Varied selection, but informative and a good starting point., January 8, 2004

By 

Matt Brighton (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four-Star Movies: The 101 Greatest Films of All Time (Hardcover)

I noticed this book in Barnes & Noble the other day and being a movie buff and obsessed with "Top 100" lists. I will first of all say that I pay attention to the American Film Institute's list of Top 100 movies and kind of compared the selections here with thos that the AFI came up with. While about 35 of the selections are the same, Kinn and Piazza came up with some rather interesting choices as to their Top 101 movies of all time.

First of all, the book needs to be error-checked. I found several errors, though not glaring, they were ther. Maybe the fact that I know a lot about movies made them more obvious, as I'm sure other books/magazines, etc. have had errors and I have passed over them. All that aside, the movies (and there are indeed 101 of them) are all good. In fact, there's some I haven't seen and after reading the book, I'm going out to check the films out, after all; that's what this is, a starting point to see some of the greatest movies out there.

I can't say I agreed with all of their choices, but all of the films have had some sort of critical acclaim. Each movie gets three pages of pictures, information about the cast and crew and even what the prominent critics have said about the movie (one featured moreso than others is the very negative Paulene Kael, what a sad life she leads if she can't get any pleasure out of these films). Some information about the background of the movie is printed as well and what the authors say about the movie (in little cartooish bubbles, no less).

I didn't have any major problems with the book, I don't feel it's any sort of definitive guide, per se as they didn't pick any Charlie Chaplin movies, no Buster Keaton movies and some are on the list that I don't think should be there (even as happy as I was to see "Airplane!" as #101, I can think of plenty others that should be in that spot). If you're into film and movies and, most importantly, ranking of them, then this is for you. What the authors are trying to accomplish by this book, is for the films to be seen. Granted, we know that The Godfather is good (yet they combined The Godfather and The Godfather Part II as one movie for their #1 pick), but I might just have to go check out "Funny Face" as they picked it as one of their favorites. Still, notable classics like "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" aren't on there!

In any case, it's a good book and very attractive looking. Heck, if people see it at your coffee table at a party, you can make them think you're a film critic! I'd recommend this book to any film buff.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Has some head-shakingly bad errors, December 13, 2003

By 

Miami Nights (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four-Star Movies: The 101 Greatest Films of All Time (Hardcover)

Was at a store earlier, and the book looked interesting, so I picked, first thinking I would see the typical "best-of" list of all-too-familiar film titles, and there were a lot of those, but I also saw that it had some of my favorites -- "Seven Samurai," "Do the Right Thing" and "Saving Private Ryan -- so I picked it up. But my interest in it was soon lost. It has some just plain bad errors in describing some pivotal scenes. (spoilers ahead)
In "Seven Samurai," it describes briefly how one of the samurai falls in love with a farm girl (which is true), but then it goes on to say this young samurai is one of the dead at the end. Utterly false. This young samurai is one of the three to survive.
And then in its description of "Saving Private Ryan," it talks about the scene in which the American soldiers let a Nazi soldier go, blindfolding him, and telling him to walk and be picked up by Allied forces (which is correct). But then it says that he runs away, and he is shot in the back! (what films exactly were the authors watching?)
Seems they rushed this out without fact-checking, or didn't pay much attention to these films, or mistook one for another, or all three of these possibilities. Just after reading those two glaring errors alone, I laughingly put the book done, and thought "That's one book I won't be buying." So, if you like your movie books to have such glaring errors, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, skip it, and buy the numerous other "best-of" books out there.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but error ridden, October 25, 2004

By 

Ned (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Four-Star Movies: The 101 Greatest Films of All Time (Hardcover)

One mistake comes when they review the theatrical film MASH. Thet credit Larry Gelbart with writing it. Wrong! Talented Gelbart wrote the first four seasons of the tv show MASH. Not the movie MASH! Other mistakes too. But giantly written and nicely illustrated.