Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to Cult Movies

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

 

 

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO CULT MOVIES does, in its presentation, follow in the footsteps of what has been a successful formula for Rough Guide books. This guide is a thematic guide to movies in general. The book consists of over 80 categories of movies such as: animals, b-movies, cops, doctors, fantasy, horror, musicals, prison, serial killers, zombies, etc. Each category has a selection of movies which, for the most part, fit the subject. There are also various sidelights thrown into different categories which expand upon the actors, writers, directors, etc. Unforunately, although there is a spattering of cult movies included, most of the films covered are standard fare movies which fit the category. Additional mistakes, such as the wrong year for a movie, are to be found on occasion. The selection of movies for some categories appears almost random with gaping exclusions (the category for zombies lists CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD but excludes DAWN OF THE DEAD and Fulci's ZOMBIE; the category for 3-D lists JAWS 3-D but excludes COMIN' AT YA IN 3-D). Additionally, any information provided for a movie includes: title, director, abbreviated cast, and a short description, which in most cases is shorter than what you can find in a video review guide. If you are looking for a general introduction to popular films in a thematic presentation, that can be found in this book. If you are looking for a book about actual cult films and any kind of discussion about them or their particulars, it is not to be found here.

As a romantic comedy, Star Wars is a failure. As a science fiction film, the Annie Hall is a complete disappointment. Whatever other merits these movies might have, there are definitely areas that they are lacking. Which brings me to The Rough Guide to Cult Movies: as a reference book, it is highly suspect. What's notable is that Annie Hall fails as sci-fi because it doesn't try to be that genre; The Rough Guide fails at the very category it aspires to. Which is too bad, because it is often an interesting read.

The failure starts at the beginning of the book with a definition of cult movies that is so broad as to be meaningless. We then a series of chapters representing various "genres", some of which are valid (science fiction, westerns, horror), some of which are ridiculous (Animals, Food, Nuns) and some of which are not even true genres (dubbed, independent, straight-to-video). After this, we get various miscellaneous topics that are thrown in without rhyme or reason, such as a list of top movie grosses followed by presidential movie trivia.

The movie descriptions are often amusing, although there are numerous errors (such as misstating Geoffrey Rush's role in Pirates of the Caribbean), even more omissions (every reader will find his own; one example is that Unforgiven is missing from Westerns) and plenty of movies that are really miscategorized but seem only placed in a specific genre to fill it out.

What saves this book is, even though it fails as a reference book, it is nonetheless entertaining. I am therefore giving this two stars instead of one. It's a rather useless book, especially if you want to learn more about movies, but if you do pick it up, it is probably the most entertaining two-star book that you're ever likely to read.

"Rough guides" and "cult movies" should not necessarily be thematically unrelated, but in this instance the Rough Guide publishers have stumbled. The definition of "cult" should include "underground", "obscure" and "tribal", as "cult" movies exist as niche films appealing to a specialist audience: The Rough Guide to Cult Movies is concerned with popular, mostly American films which have continued to find an audience beyond their expected commercial life, be they big budget blockbusters or low budget independents. The book has lots of arbitrary categories such as "philosophy" and "vampires", but no discussion of what constitutes "cult". In almost every one of the myriad category chapters I could name at least one missing true cult film, and the "discussion" of each movie's contents leaves a lot to be desired. This book will not satisfy people with some knowledge of cult films, as your favourites will either be missing or cursorily addressed, and for newcomers it misrepresents what "cult" actually means.

I thought this book was going to be great fun; however, it seems to use a broad definition of "cult movie." What didn't they include? Worst of all, my credibility was lost when in the notes on Suddenly Last Summer they mentioned that Montgomery Clift played Sebastian. Anyone who puts this movie in his or personal cult collection knows that this is patently incorrect. It begs the question, "How many other movies in this lists have the authors NOT even seen?"
Terry Allen

I bought this book and read most of it in one night; I couldn't put it down because the subject is so fascinating. A huge number of films are given short reviews: some I knew, some I didn't. The tome's small size and attractive design helped me keep reading into the wee hours. But I became gradually more annoyed when I discovered how carelessly the book was written and edited (if there was an editor at all). Misspells and typos abound: Herzog's film on Kinski, "My Best Fiend" is shown as "My Best Friend," thus completely missing the point. Great character actor Theodore Bikel is cited as "Theodore Bickel" - and these are only two out of dozens of similar, inexcusable mistakes. If Rough Guide can't afford a decent proofreader, maybe they should stick to travel guides. If they had only been more careful, the book would deserve an enthusiastic five stars, rather than the grudging four stars I give it.

Even if you won't like most of the movies in this book, you'll like the book. It's very entertaining to read about some of this stuff, weird and far out as it is.

There are lots of little tidbits of info to be gleaned from this cool little book. Hundreds of cult films are included, though there are some I wouldn't have included (like APOLLO 13, THE PERFECT STORM, SEE SPOT RUN and TITANIC), and some they overlooked (THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY, GREASE, THE MATRIX, etc.), but overall this volume has a nice mixture of titles, broken down into many categories and a handy index. Recommended for movie buffs everywhere!