Video Movie Guide 2001 (NULL) [Mass Market Paperback]

Mick Martin (Author), Marsha Porter (Author)

Book Description

Series: NULL | Publication Date: October 3, 2000

Wondering what video to rent tonight? This bestselling, fact-packed guide is the only sourcebook you and your family will ever need. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter steer you toward the winners and warn you about the losers. VIDEO MOVIE GUIDE 2001 covers it all--more films than any other guide, plus your favorite serials, B-Westerns, made-for-TV movies, and old television programs! Each video, conveniently alphabetized for easy access, includes a concise summary, fresh commentary, the director, major cast members, the year of release, and the MPAA rating, plus a reliable Martin and Porter rating--from Five Stars to Turkey--so you'll never get caught with a clunker again!

THE BEST IN THE FIELD FOR SIXTEEN YEARS!
Including
¸  DIRECTOR AND STAR INDEXES
¸  COMPLETE ACADEMY AWARD LISTINGS
¸  WHERE TO BUY THOSE HARD-TO-FIND VIDEOS
¸  BRAND NEW DVD LISTINGS

Editorial Reviews

Review

"THE BEST ALL-AROUND VOLUME."
--Newsday

From the Inside Flap

Wondering what video to rent tonight? This bestselling, fact-packed guide is the only sourcebook you and your family will ever need. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter steer you toward the winners and warn you about the losers. VIDEO MOVIE GUIDE 2001 covers it all--more films than any other guide, plus your favorite serials, B-Westerns, made-for-TV movies, and old television programs! Each video, conveniently alphabetized for easy access, includes a concise summary, fresh commentary, the director, major cast members, the year of release, and the MPAA rating, plus a reliable Martin and Porter rating--from Five Stars to Turkey--so you'll never get caught with a clunker again!

THE BEST IN THE FIELD FOR SIXTEEN YEARS!
Including
¸  DIRECTOR AND STAR INDEXES
¸  COMPLETE ACADEMY AWARD LISTINGS
¸  WHERE TO BUY THOSE HARD-TO-FIND VIDEOS
¸  BRAND NEW DVD LISTINGS

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 1600 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (October 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345420993
• ISBN-13: 978-0345420992
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,930,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Smaller and getting worse but not a bad guide., March 29, 2001

By 

John Nelson (North Fond du Lac, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Video Movie Guide 2001 (NULL) (Mass Market Paperback)

Video Movie Guide 2001 keeps on cramming more and more movies into a beefy little book. How do they keep adding more reviews to the book without making it grow any bigger? Simple, they trim reviews of past movies, and unless a movie is a huge hit or hot out of the theater success onto VHS or DVD, it will warrant bigger write ups over previous movies released at the same time which sometimes can get a rather paltry write up. Some bad movies get a one line or 8 word review with no good explanation as to why it is bad IE (Yeah Poice Academy 5 probably is bad but why? They don't explain it well.) Or as an example to how reviews get trimmed to accomodate room for the new additions, an earliar edition of the book compares the movie Mullholland Falls as being a later day Chinatown. Someone might be interested in that! Even with all of these flaws and gradual slag offs in quality, Video Movie Guide 2001 still remains an adequete guide to help in that rental/movie buying decision.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Video Movie Guide 2001, February 10, 2001

By 

Michael "Spike" Behn "Namaste" (CLIFTON, VA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Video Movie Guide 2001 (NULL) (Mass Market Paperback)

Won't say that I am God's gift to movie reviewers, but feel that I have a B+ (why not rate movies this way?) ability. I've owned several editions of this book, along with a few others. First, this book uses a (5) star rating system, which is appealing. With only (4) stars, and assuming (1) and (2) are probably not really worth viewing, this leaves only two categories. More categories gives a clearer rating. Think about it, schools grade on a (5) category system, A-F; why not movies? This book is a convenient size and is cross referenced very well. Not all reviews are perfect, but I never really disagree by more than one rating category. Other books seem to get very artsy in their commentary, which is fine, but I really only want to read a brief clever review with flim facts and a rating. That is what this book is about. See a title, find it quickly in the book and you will know pretty fast and accurately as to whether or not it is worth a view. As to the fact that it only covers films on video, yes, I would like it to cover all films; however, there are not really many films that are not on video that I will be able to view anyway, so not a big issue. So, anyway, being an above average viewer - not a university professor teaching video 101, and wanting simplisity and accuracy in review, I would highly recommend. A very good all around publication.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but less user-friendly than it used to be, December 3, 2001

By 

David Bolick (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Video Movie Guide 2001 (NULL) (Mass Market Paperback)

The Video Movie Guide is useful, but it should be more user-friendly. For example, past editions marked the actor and director indices clearly ON EVERY PAGE. Now if you want to find a director or actor you have to thumb around the back of the book with no way of knowing whether you're in the director or actor section. It's very frustrating. I'd also like to see them bring back the appendices listing four and five star movies. On the plus side, it's great that the authors have finally done away with the silly genre categories.