Customer Reviews

VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Excellent and fun critique book of movies. Be aware this book only rates movies put in VHS and DVD, not all movies ever made, but it does cover most. Good coverage of the other movies actors are in, enjoyable for my spouse and I and we get a new one about every other year. My 90 YO father loves it and uses it everyday and this is his third as a gift. Great for TCM and old movie lovers, too. It makes a very nice gift. Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies is good for info about actors, those behind the scenes, and movie making, and Time-Out is good for all movies made. This is a very good reference; 5 stars. Highly recommend.

I have been getting Videohound Golden Movie Retriever: Complete Guide to Movies for many years. It offers a complete reference to movies, actors, directors, etc. It is always handy near the big screen TV and it is used almost on a daily basis. I do not throw the old versions away. I hand them down to other family members. I always have the most recent publication, but it is nice for the rest of my family to have an older version rather than none at all. Sometimes when you can't remember an actor's name or the name of a movie,., but you do remember what the movie was about, you are able to cross reference under the subject of the movie. Voila' ...there it is...in black and white...1954...submarine flick with ..Oh, yeah! The guy in Run Silent, Run Deep...
Yes. This book will always have a special place in our house!

While some of Videohound's specialized movie guides are fun and informative reads (by this I mean the books devoted to specific genres such as Sci-Fi, Horror, Martial Arts, etc.), their standard all-inclusive movie guides are really only useful for reference purposes regarding dates, actors, directors, years, etc. Many of the reviews are so short and generic that I have huge doubts that some of the movies were actually seen before reviewing. In complete contrast to the genre specific guides, the basic Hound seems to have a disdain for cult and/or exploitation films. Violence and nudity are considered especially offensive to the Hound in the basic Movie Guides, while they are revered in the genre specific ones. It's easy to tell that there are numerous reviewers penning the basic Hound and that they are often at odds with eachother. Not only that, but I find it extremely annoying when some 2 and a half star movies are given mostly positive descriptions while others with the same amount of stars are trashed (how can they both receive the same rating then?). If you are looking for a book that lists tons of mainstream movies (and lists some non-mainstream genre movies but is seriously lacking in that department - kung fu, blaxploitatin, foreign, silent, direct to video/DVD, and especially movies not released to video/DVD, etc.) and you want to look up certain actors or genres, or you want to just flip pages in a big movie book and see if your finger lands on any titles that sound good that you haven't seen, then this book is pretty good for those purposes. However, if you want detailed reviews with logical reasoning behind the opinions and are looking to distinguish the good from the bad, then you may want to avoid this and grab a more genre specific movie guide book instead. So far, Roger Ebert's general movie books seem to be the most detailed and personal, even though he hates some movies I love and vice/versa. Leonard Maltin and the Hound's basic books are just thumb guides and not really serious critical "review" books. (I didn't devote too much time to writing this, but I still feel I gave more time and reasoning that the Hound does.)

I have been purchasing and using the Moviehound Guides for over ten years now, and have always found them to be among the best movie guides. The selection, for the most part, simply cannot be beat. The book combines reviews of the old greats with the latest cinema of today, making it a ready reference for any movie fan.

The main weakness of the work is that its treatments of genre and direct to video fare can be lacking at times. For example, major direct to video releases such as Hatchet remain unreviewed. That said, the book is still a good source for little known genre fare, including reviews of some of the more well known Category III releases from Hong Kong. Those interested in the more obscure stuff would be better off going to more specialized guides.

Also, the reviews themselves are rather sparse, as is necessary in a book of this nature. Given the availability of reviews from prominent critics such as Roger Ebert online, this is not a particularly major flaw, and should not deter people from purchasing it.

As complete a reference as you are likely to find. Very comprehensive. But it is a very thick and heavy book loaded with info I could do without. Like lists of Writers, Directors, Cinematographers, Composers, etc. which comprise half the book's size and weight. All I want to do is look up a movie. But I like the book and think you will too.

I purchase this comprehensive movie/video guide approximately every other year. It is recommended highly as far as giving informative critiques of movies, etc. In addition, since it is a larger size than the other movie guides, it is much easier to read, since the type size is not tiny (as in the others) and a fairly long review is provided for each entry. Also included are lists of actors and actresses with their movie history. All in all, the best movie guide out there!

I decided to replace my 5 year old Video Hound's guide and the 2011 version arrived today. Here's a warning: You'd better have excellent eyesight, because the type is noticeably smaller than my previous version. It's small enough I decided to keep my old one and use this only for newer references.

Nearly every movie you'd ever want to know about, reviewed, rated and cross-referenced by Director, actors, writers, genre, and awards. If you can remember almost anything about the film you have in mind, you can find it here! Heavy and indispensable!

I was a theater major in school, supporting national theater in Britain and the Hollywood scene of John Ford, Howard Hawks, Frank Capra,Sam Pekinpah,Elmore Leonard, Dalton Trumbo, lately Oliver Stone (I was in the same infantry division as he profiled in Platoon, the Tropic Lightning 25th Inf Dv). These reviews are both complete and clever, and one can find just about anything by category or title if they search hard enough. It is its own Google in paper back.

I have been purchasing the updated versions of this guide since it was first published and find it
to be the best movie-related reference book around. I particularly like the way the various sections are laid out,
enabling one, quickly, to seek - and find - information