Customer Reviews

Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide (Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide (Mass Market))

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I ordered this book because I wanted to get Leonard Maltin's most recent listings. When it arrived, I found it completely unusable. Obviously, it has many more entries, but instead of being larger than my old one (from about 3 years ago), the book is of smaller size. As a result, the type is so small that, with my 76-year-old eyes, I could not read it. I was planning to pass the old one along to my grown children but, instead, I gave them this one and kept the old one for myself. With more and more listings being added each year, somebody has to give serious thought to developing a reasonable format to accommodate the ever-increasing volume. This review clearly does not address itself to the content, which I was not able to access. I've enjoyed Maltin's guide for many years, and I can't imagine that the quality of the content has suffered. By giving it only one star I am only trying to communicate that this new guide did not serve MY purpose. It may be totally satisfactory for someone else with better eyesight.

Leonard Maltin has been issuing this yearly movie reference guide for many years. A while back (not sure when exactly), Maltin decided to split up the movies in pre-and after 1960 movies. The pre-1960 movies now have their own book ("Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide").

"Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide" (a whopping 1,644 pages, this book should be sold "by the pound") brings the alphabetical listing of more than 17,000 movies and captures their essence in a single paragraph. The editions change little from year to year, bringing a batch of new movies. It's not exactly clear where the chronological cut-off point is: "Iron Man" is in here, but not "The Dark Knight". But it matters not.

The beauty of this book is that it remains the essential "hard copy" reference tool for us movie lovers. Yes, the minute this book is issued it becomes out-dated (see the "Dark Knight" reference), and I'm sure there are on-line reference sites that are more up to date, but if you, like me, like to have an actual book, this reference guide is for you. At that level, this book remains the best and essential.

For my money, this is the best of the movie guides. These concise, knowledgeable reviews written by Leonard Maltin and his team are indispensable when flipping through movie channels on TV or trying to decide on the next DVD rental. They also do a great job each year in correcting errors and adding the names of newly-prominent actors to the cast lists.

My only significant complaint is the the book is published way, way too early in the year. Why issue the "2009 Guide" in early August 2008? Obviously, the summer is the key time for releasing new movies, but because of its publication date this year's guide only includes movies released through early July. It's missing reviews of The Incredible Hulk, WALL-E, Sex and the City, Kitt Kittredge, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Kung Fu Panda, and -- the biggest hit of 2008 -- The Dark Knight, among many other summer and fall releases. Anyone who buys the book right after publication (like I did) probably realizes some of these reviews will not be there, but I would guess this book sells a lot of copies during the holiday season. Many of those people are going to be pretty disappointed to find out just how many films are not reviewed in this "2009 Guide." Seems like a very strange strategy by the publisher.

"2009 edition" Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 2.3 inches, 1664 pages

"2008 edition" Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 2.3 inches, 1648 pages

"2007 edition" Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 2.5 inches, 1600 pages

Notice the sudden and severe change in size with the same number of pages. Buy the '08. I am keeping my '07 and tossing the new '09 because the print is way too small. I cannot believe the stupidity of the publisher.

Leonard Maltin's reviews are excellent. Nevertheless, this product is essentially unusable. In an effort to keep the page count down, the publisher has used a very small type face that I have difficulty reading even though I have a full correction in my reading glasses.

The book is adequate if one wishes to look up a single item. Browsing? Forget about it!

I have a 1999 edition of the Leonard Maltin book and it is a delight to use and browse. I have browsed it so much that its paperback binding has begun to fall apart. I plan to have my old edition professionally rebound and to donate my new edition to the book drive of my local library.

Let someone else get the eyestrain!

I purchased this book so I could check up on movie descriptions from various satellite TV channels and get more info on some that are very briefly and inadequately described in the online guide. While the book is fairly big, the type is very small - requires good light and good eyes and still probably reading glasses! Aside from that, this book is a disappointment in several ways.

Largely redundant with Classic Guide - Lack of coverage of MANY 2008 movies - Lack of coverage of non-major movies.

Maltin has a Classic Movie Guide - I think it runs through 1960. It is pretty good and the type size is easily readable. The 2009 Guide covers many of the same classic movies, si it is redundant in amny ways - I guess to bulk up the number of entries to 17,000.

This book doesn't cover even many of the bigger name 2008 movies that are now on HBO, Showtime, etc. (as I write this it is January, 2009). So, even though it's the 2009 Guide, it doesn't cover all of 2008.

This book doesn't cover many, many of the movies on the various channels. If the movie is somewhat obscure or, apparently, not from a major studio, you probably won't find it here. I guess I expected to and therefor was disappointed.

All of Maltin's reviews need to be broken up into 3 distince volumes, in my opinion. Make the Classic guide (pre-1960 a trifle more complete and let it go at that. Break the other guides up into a 1960 - 1990 book that is comprehensive and then a third one ruinning from 1990 - Present (whatever year that may be) and, again, more comprehensive than this one is.

Better yet, someone could do a set of 3 books from the AllMovie.com website. Their reviews are every bit as good, though they don't have STAR Ratings, AND they are far more comprehensive - it is extremely rare to not find a movie title there - in all of its versions through the years.

The reviews this book has are good and it is extensive. But, if you're planning to use it to get more info on the movies on your satellite channels, you may be disappointed, too.

Every movie lover should have this compact, brick-sized guidebook. With more than 17,000 movie reviews -- including 300 new entries for this edition -- Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide is a valuable resource. My favorite movie critic has been and always will be Roger Ebert; I always buy his annual Movie Yearbook. This Leonard Maltin guide is also a must-buy.

I like it for the writing. Maltin is the king of the succinct review, with each movie capsule containing from one to five sentences. For example, here is his review of the 1995 movie Toy Story: "A boy's favorite toy, a cowboy doll named Woody, feels threatened (and rightly so) by the arrival of a new birthday present, a high-tech spaceman model advertised on TV. Clever, incredible-looking animated film, produced entirely on computer. A grownup story masquerading as a kid's film, this story of friendship, fickleness, and the need for acceptance features a colorful cast of characters led by Woody and his rival, Buzz Lightyear. The `acting' of the two leads -- their facial expressions and body language -- is as good as anything ever seen in a conventional animated cartoon." Only four sentences, but it sums up the plot and gives you enough information to choose whether to see the movie or not.

My only qualm is the quality of the presentation. The paper is a little see-through and grayish, like newsprint. The typeface is tiny. Instead of paying less for this quality level, I'd rather spend a few dollars more and get a book that's easy to read.

Other than the reviews, the book contains:

* A three-page introduction
* A key to the book, which explains the alphabetization format used to put the movie reviews in order, Maltin's rating system, symbols used and the MPAA ratings system.
* A list of 50 good to great movies that viewers may have missed. Included are a couple of my personal favorites, "The Man in the Moon" from 1991, and "Miss Potter" from 2006.
* A directory of mail-order and online sources for buying and renting DVDs and videos.
* A widescreen glossary, listing the aspect ratio of special widescreen processes such as CinemaScope and Technirama.
* An index of leading actors and directors with a list of their movies.

For roughly the same price you can have much better information from the Time Out guide.

Time Out Film Guide 2009

Its reviews are really well informed and reliable.

The book is good, however, I will have to get the Classics Book also because many movie titles are no longer included in one volume. I guess the book would become unwieldy. I had to look long and hard for the listing of directors. A Table of Contents would be helpful. I seem to remember our last volume having lists of Academy Award winners as well as perhaps the AFI list of the 100 Greatest Films. I miss those.

I bought this for my father, but he was unhappy with the small print. Next time I'm trying "Videohound."