Customer Reviews

Movie Guide

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

 

 

This is hands down the single best reference for films from the 1930s on. Detailed reviews of works that are deserving of them, with sharp analysis that puts films in their proper historical context.

Many of the reviews in this book are actually from an earlier encyclopedia called the Motion Picture Guide, perhaps the most comprehensive and best written source for pre-1990's films ever published. TV Guide adopted the same database for their online film review database and updated editions of The Movie Guide have been published for years as The Virgin Film Guide (avail. from Amazon.uk) This guide favors quality over quantity and so you get long, detailed, informed reviews of Sunrise, Das Boot, Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, Blue Velvet, The Bicycle Thief, La Dolce Vita, etc. instead of thousands of thumbnail sketches of mediocre films you will have no interest in ever seeing. This is, as a previous review noted, along with Katz' Film Encyclopedia one of the few, truly essential books that every film lover should own.

This volume, along with Katz's, The Film Encyclopedia, are the foundation of celluloid information. The two will be sufficient for most viewers. Saw a movie and what to know more? Planning to rent a video and what to know more? Look here. Not all movies are reviewed, but almost every important film, some sleepers, some low-budget gems, and some you may hate but are important within film history. Our 1995 edition is worn out, and I wish we had a 'cover' for this one; that's how often we refer to this. We have also use it to build our own film library, now numbering over 500. Directors, actors, Academy Awards, obscure information and the source - whether book, play or original screenplay are all included. Now, if they had only included "The Reivers" and "Sometimes a Great Notion!"

I was watching the other night part of A SHOT IN THE DARK, one of the Inspector Clousot movies with Peter Sellers, turning it off after suffering 20 minutes of achingly bad nonsense. The Movie Guide gave it 4 stars, one of many examples of exceedingly poor judgment. A self-proclaimed guide to the most important films ever made? Utterly absurd. It is useful for its content summaries, but that's about it. Don't let yourself be guided towards which movies are important or essential.

Saw a movie and what to know more? Planning to rent a video and what to know more? Look here. Not all movies are reviewed, but almost every important film, some sleepers, some low-budget gems, and some you may hate but are important within film history. Our 1995 edition is worn out, and I wish we had a 'cover' for this one; that's how often we refer to this. We have also use it to build our own film library, now numbering over 500. Directors, actors, Academy Awards, obscure information and the source - whether book, play or original screenplay are all included. Now, if they had only included "The Reivers" and "Sometimes a Great Notion!"