Customer Reviews

The Movie Mom's Guide to Family Movies, Second Edition

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The First Edition (found at a library) was the Holy Grail for intelligent families trying to figure out quickly what to watch with kids on "movie night": a comprehensive guide which lists crowd-pleasing, quality movies by AGE RANGES -- listed after each movie, even in the INDEX! -- and it describes their plots: very, very handy. It also included some sage advice on talking to kids about movies, with some questions for discussion (the book could be used almost as a home-schooling curriculum of sorts). I bought it immediately. But when it arrived, I was very disappointed to discover that the most valuable element -- the age-sorting is missing from the current edition!! Get an older copy, or make sure that they've put this feature back into it before you buy the most recent edition!!

Her radio show is great, but this book is even better. The Moviemom is smart and funny and not afraid to cross swords with Hollywood in the interests of common sense and good taste. This is a great book.

Decent up to a point. In discussing "The Hero Within," when the subject of autism arises, this author calls autism a disease which it most emphatically is NOT. Autism is a neurobiological condition that affects sensory input and processing and communication to varying degrees based on the individual. I also didn't like the R*** M** reference because the title character Dustin Hoffman played in that 1988 movie is not representative of people who have autism. Less than 10% of the autistic population are prodigious savants and the very term R*** M** is extremely offensive in autism circles and is always best avoided. I for one am quite sick and tired of that savant stereotype being so readily applied to people with autism.

All in all, this is a decent book that serves its intended purpose of providing synopses of movies that are suitable for family viewing, but that inaccurate definition of autism and the quick rush to the crutch of R*** M** cost it one star.

I used Yahoo to see about this book initially. Wow, out of 9 reviews two gave it 5 stars but oddly had the same 4 words "I liked this book" and nothing more. The rest were a single star with one 3 star. Lots of misspellings and incorrect grammer, or just plain jibberish (the three star one was just a joke, I take it). I looked here to see if I could get any more than just one person saying they liked this book. I liked getting her past reviews for free on Yahoo earlier in 2007, but now they are hoping for book sales and won't let you look at her opinions for anything that is not recently playing. Because of this I was tempted to buy, but at $30+, I'm waiting to hear a lot more positive feedback before I purchase this item.