Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have to agree with what most of the reviewers have said about this book: It's very entertaining and informative and gives you some nice info about the movies, actors, and directors that you might not otherwise have heard. HOWEVER, there are errors in the book, significant ones. One which I just caught is they credit actress Natalie Wood with being in the James Bond movie "Diamonds Are Forever." However, as any Bond fan knows (especially if they also like Natalie Wood) she absolutely is not in the movie...her SISTER is! So I only give this book three stars because now, every time I read some interesting bit of trivia in there, I can't be sure it's even correct.

I like this book. I really do. And I appreciate that everyone's preferences are different and this list of the "greatest movies" is simply these authors' opinions. I read every word and liked some of the arguments about why this or that film was included, not that I absolutely agreed point for point. What gets me is how difficult it is to enjoy the book when practically every page or two there is a glaring fact error, layout mistake or embarrassing typo. I noticed the same thing in the authors' "Oscars" book too, but not to this extent. I wish I were exaggerating about this, but I'm not. Overall the design and photographs are quite engaging. Some of the background info was very interesting too. After a little time passes, I think I'll re-read it and flag every error I see. I suspect doing so will take a couple of stacks of Post-Its, but it should be entertaining. Maybe then I will enjoy the book more than I did the first time. I would have rated it (as a whole) much higher were it not for all the mistakes, which really did detract from my enjoyment. I wonder if many/most of them were spotted and corrected if the book was released in a revised edition. It would be very interesting to compare and see.

While I was browsing in our local bookstore, I was pleasantly surprised to find this book. For some reason I am fascinated by lists of the greatest movies whether the list made by American Film Institute, Roger Ebert or the different publications and magazines who made their own "definitive" lists.

The packaging as well as the design and format of the book were impressive. It was simple but organized and nicely printed. Too bad just like some of the reviewers already pointed out, there were quite a number of misinformation and typographical error in the book. I find it really unacceptable for a book to have misspelled words, how about a little proofreading next time? And there were also quite a number of wrong information that ranges from the description of a particular scene, wrong entries regarding Academy Award nominations, as well as the section the book had on the different rankings of other "greatest movie lists". That was a major turnoff!

Regarding the list, they made some interesting choices. Some of the usual suspects like The Silence of the Lambs, High Noon, To Kill a Mockingbird, West Side Story, The Philadelphia Story, Rebel Without a Cause, and Mister Smith Goes to Washington were left out. There were some pleasant not so obvious entries like Thelma and Louise, American Beauty, LA Confidential, and Strangers on a Train. But they also had some unconventional entries that I don't necessarily agree with like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Saving Private Ryan, Airplane, and Spartacus to name a few. If they were going for some unconventional choices, I hope they had included Twelve Angry Men, The Age of Innocence, Seven, The Color Purple, Mister Roberts etc.

Even though I made some rants regarding the accuracy of the information, I still think this is a great read. Just don't use it as a resource book.

Grade: B

it had a good selection i mean it had 6 or 7 of my favorite movies. I just can't believe it did'ny feature the french connection. Other than that it was great.

Narrow the film world to the top 101 choices of all times, pack in the color shots from these recommended films, and include cast and credits and critical quotes about the movie and you have a pictorial representation of the greats in Gail Kinn and Jim Piazza's Four-Star Movies which will serve as both a film guide and a handsome coffee table addition. Four-Star Movies is quite simply as fine a reference as it is a visual ad for quality classic films.