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Rating: Summary: Gotta have it! Review: Ever since the demise of the wonderful Cinebooks library with its yearly annuals, I've had to rely on the Videohound. While it doesn't begin to offer the wealth of detail that Cinebooks did, it is none the less a very comprehensive listing of available films--both for TV and for general release. The reviews are intelligent and fair and it does have an extremely useful series of indexes at the back: the performer index--in case you remember the name of someone in the cast but not the name of the film; the director index and an awards index.If you absolutely must know the details about a film, or what roles a particular actor has played, here's your book. Other sources, like Leonard Maltin's guide just don't cut it. Highly recommended.
Rating: Summary: Best of Breed Review: I've purchased the Hound for each of the last 5 years and although it's not perfect, I've never come across a guide that's even close to being as comprehensive, informative and amusing. Unlike one of the reviews below, I can't claim to know what all "viewers" will or won't like, but assuming you have a sense of humor, the bone scale won't annoy you too much, and chances are you'll find that you agree with most the ratings. Although I've certainly disagreed with several of the reviews, it's not at all off-putting if you take into account the extremely subjective nature of the film viewing experience. A couple of the sections in the back are fairly useless, but in terms of cross-indexing cast crew and films, there's no other book that provides as exhaustive a listing. I'm a big fan of the Hound, and if you're a film buff, trivia buff or simply like to add to your film knowledge, I'm guessing you will be too, once you've used it.
Rating: Summary: The Movie Buff Bible Review: The most information in one book since Webster's. From Army of Darkness to The Godfather Epic to Xtro part 3, this book gives you a great overview of the plot, cast, film makers, and usually agreeable reviews. Not to mention a truck load of extras including categories, awards, actor's film bios, and even some websites. This book is laid out beautifully and makes it easy if you need to quickly look up to see who played Francis in "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." Why, Mark Holton, of course. For page 552 tells me so. And I can also find what other masterpieces he's played in by checking out his name in the cast section. I normally agree with the reviews and with the number of bones, but I have to say "Class of Nuke 'em High" should be at least 3 bones just for humor sake. Make your own judgment but 90% of the time steer clear of less than 1 1/2. But nonetheless, this book is great if you want to find similar flicks to the ones you've enjoyed in the past. It's like having the internet movie database on paper. Leonard Maltin's guides leaves out so many flicks. The Videohound is complete with documentaries, foreign, and made-for-TV movies. I have never found a movie not in the Videohound. Don't be scared by it's hugeness. Maltin probably feels inadequate next to this beast.
Rating: Summary: The Movie Buff Bible Review: The most information in one book since Webster's. From Army of Darkness to The Godfather Epic to Xtro part 3, this book gives you a great overview of the plot, cast, film makers, and usually agreeable reviews. Not to mention a truck load of extras including categories, awards, actor's film bios, and even some websites. This book is laid out beautifully and makes it easy if you need to quickly look up to see who played Francis in "Pee-wee's Big Adventure." Why, Mark Holton, of course. For page 552 tells me so. And I can also find what other masterpieces he's played in by checking out his name in the cast section. I normally agree with the reviews and with the number of bones, but I have to say "Class of Nuke 'em High" should be at least 3 bones just for humor sake. Make your own judgment but 90% of the time steer clear of less than 1 1/2. But nonetheless, this book is great if you want to find similar flicks to the ones you've enjoyed in the past. It's like having the internet movie database on paper. Leonard Maltin's guides leaves out so many flicks. The Videohound is complete with documentaries, foreign, and made-for-TV movies. I have never found a movie not in the Videohound. Don't be scared by it's hugeness. Maltin probably feels inadequate next to this beast.
Rating: Summary: A real great rrrrrrrrrreview for a great rrrrrrrreview book Review: This book is so much better than the Leonard Maltin paperbacks that I have purchased in the past. It is full of more information, it is bigger and easier to read and it certainly can not get lost. It is a valuable part of our living room. I love having it right there to help in choosing our viewing selections. I like to highlight the movies that we have seen and compare notes with the review after!
Rating: Summary: A real great rrrrrrrrrreview for a great rrrrrrrreview book Review: This book is so much better than the Leonard Maltin paperbacks that I have purchased in the past. It is full of more information, it is bigger and easier to read and it certainly can not get lost. It is a valuable part of our living room. I love having it right there to help in choosing our viewing selections. I like to highlight the movies that we have seen and compare notes with the review after!
Rating: Summary: Videohound Review: This is a very comprehensive video guide. It lists both big screen and television movies. The book is divided into sections. The first are the reviews (from woof! to four bones). The next section divides the movies based on catagories. Some movies can fit more than one catagory. There is a section on awards won, as well as some nominees (the book also includes the Goden Rasberry awards for the worst in Hollywood. There is also a cast index that list their movies. The reviews list information such as running time, cast and awards won. Because of all of the information the book is quite large and more [spendy] then other video guides.
Rating: Summary: A howling great guide Review: This is the by far BEST movie guide I have found. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would. It has real honest reviews from the perspective of a moviegoer that just wants to be entertained , not that overly intellectual stuff you read sometimes and say, "Did this reviewer see the same movie as I did"? The reviews are fun to read and very funny at times. But don't kid yourself, it is all here. Foreign films, samurai, westerns, 50's sci-fi, art films, you name it. And it has a categories index so you can quickly locate all the films in your personal favorite type of film. This book is huge! No other guide I have seen tries to include every film ever made, the other review books snobbily skip the movies they decide are not important. Not this book, it has over 25,000 films!!! This is very comprehensive, which makes this book much bigger than the other guys guides. But that is OK, I hate the other reviewers guides since they do not have all the movies this one does. Very easy to use and locate a film quickly. You can cross reference anything with the great index and layout of this guide. Indexes to look up films by director, writer, composer, cinematographer, or actor, awards, series, as well as title or alternate titles. Even has an internet guide. I have bought quite a few movie guides, but if I could only have one, this is it.
Rating: Summary: Bigger is not always better Review: This video guide is about the size of a NYC phone book, definitely not suited to carry around in your glove compartment or purse. It also gives irratic review ratings for films you KNOW to be either excellent or lousy. Viewers tend to be put off by "smarty pants reviewers" who totally disagree with their own ratings of a film. The "stars" in this guide are replaced by "doggie bones". So if a film receives only "1 1/2 doggie bones", you might wanna forget about it and save yourself 2 hours of life that you wouldn't get back. There is also a huge section in the back with trivial information about the films. Summarizing: Too big, often disagree with ratings, doggie bones cute, extra info in back. Still: Leonard Maltin's annual movie guide is the better deal!
Rating: Summary: Unfortunately, too big for the wrong purpose Review: Very interesting book in it's first half: a bit more than 800 pages of about 1600. The reviews are well presented and easier to read than the competition in the pocket book format. Interesting style of writing. Unfortunately, after the reviews, they spend much too many pages in making all kinds of subcategories: let's say there is bear in a movie they'll list all the movies with bears and so on... for hundreds of spoiled pages. So the book ends up being huge like a phone directory, but much more expensive, and as awkward to have around in the living room. A leaner version, with a lower price, would be a winner!
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