Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever 2005 (Videohounds Golden Movie Retriever, 2005)

Rating:
Summary: This is the Bible for all video fans...HALLELUJAH!!!
Review: I've tried a lot of video guides over the years--including Mr. Maltin's--but VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever is consistently the best (and biggest) of its breed. VideoHound has all the information any video fan could possibly want about any movie any video fan could possibly want to watch...and then some! The incredible indexing is also unmatched by any other guide: Look up a movie by title, actor, director, category, etc. This book makes finding the perfect video a breeze. It's also an incredible tool for answering trivia questions and settling bar bets. Believe me when I tell you that this book belongs in EVERY home that has a VCR, DVD player, or human beings residing within it's four walls. It's 1,655 pages worth of movie magic. Buy this book. NOW. You won't regret it!

Rating:
Summary: Still the best, despite some quibbles
Review: Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever has been around for a while now, and it has emerged as the most complete resource for looking up any movie available on VHS or DVD. It is practically indispensable for movie lovers. These days you can, of course, look up movies online, but there is no substitute to having a huge book on your desk that you can leaf through at any time.

Browsing through the 2005 edition, I looked up some notable films from the last few years (I missed buying the last few editions; they simply take up too much space to get one every year!) and found myself a little annoyed at some of the reviews. I don't know if this is a change from earlier editions, but I feel that the reviewers seem to be catering to a mass audience and overrating some popular but ordinary films while giving short shrift to some very good films that don't appeal to a wide audience. In the latter category I'd include the brilliant animated Waking Life ("might not appeal to many people except philosophy majors, computer geeks, or chemically altered college students"), Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas ("It's most definitely a one-of-a-kind trip, but not one that most people will be willing to make") and Luc Besson's The Professional ("a little too Lolita-ish for comfort"). These reviews to me display an almost patronizing tone, warning mall audiences away from potentially off-color material. This is, perhaps, one of the drawbacks of being too popular.

Despite my disagreement with some of Videohound's reviewers, I still have to rate the book highly. It's a superb and unmatched reference book. You can look up movies by title, cast, director, writer or category. It's also fun to browse through the many sub-categories they've identified; just turning to a page at random, I find "Red Scare," Reefer Madness," "Renegade Body Parts," "Repressed Men" and "Rescue Mission," and that's just a small sampling of the "R's." I recommend Videohound's to anyone who watches, writes, directs or reviews movies --just don't take their opinions as gospel.