Rating: 
Summary: MAYBE two-and-a-half stars, tops
Review: .Pretty disappointing, IMO.
I read this on a couple of back-to-back plane-flights, and... it just really LACKED something.
One thing the potential buyer should know before buying is that this book, while all about the theatrical EXPERIENCE, doesn't actually talk about the viewed films much at all. Oh, there is the occasional complaint about 'modern cinema', etc etc etc, but there are no real reviews of the films in the book.
Which would be fine, if the book was entertaining. Sadly, it just isn't. Oh, there is the odd interesting anecdote, and a funny moment or two. But it just doesn't hold the attention from chapter to chapter. In the end, the reader feels like s/he has been nagged-at for a few hundred pages.
Given Murphy's role in MST3k, I'd expected more. Too much, perhaps.
Rating: 
Summary: less entertaining and more annoying
Review: A Year at the Movies wasn't nearly as interesting as I'd expected to be, and in fact it's the first book in a long time I feel like I wasted money on. I didn't buy this book expecting a serious dissertation of movie culture or anything, but I was looking to be entertained, and entertained I was not. I was looking forward to an interesting and humorous look at movies, theatres, and the bizarre moviegoing experiences the reviews promised (like bringing an entire Thanksgiving dinner into a movie, sneaking into Cannes, and visiting the world's smallest theater), and what I got was a poorly-written rush job of a book in which the overly-smug writer spends entirely too much time complaining that Quentin Tarantino has no soul and voicing his bitter resentment towards rich people, telling us that we shouldn't go see movies about them and if we do we're pathetic. There are a few genuinely funny bits scattered thoughout, and one or two intelligent observations, but mostly it's either boring detailed accounts of A Day in the Life of Someone Getting Paid to See Movies Everyday or annoying, reader-insulting rants. He spent an entire chapter insinuating that any reader who'd go see the first Harry Potter movie and enjoy it was an idiot! There are plenty of other books I can read if I want to be insulted, and most of them are much more enjoyable than this one. If you're a Kevin Murphy fan, stick to MST3K.
Rating: 
Summary: Falling In Love With the Movies.
Review: A YEAR AT THE MOVIES: ONE MAN'S FILMGOING ODYSSEY is not a movie review book. Maybe 1/5th of the +300 pages could be called a review of movies. The majority of the book is devoted to Kevin's essays/travelogue as he traveled around the world watching one movie a day for one whole year. The book is not meant to be a comical parody or a knee-slapping joke book (unlike some of the works of Murphy's friend Mike Nelson). Instead, it is basically what the title says "a filmgoing odyssey". It's a collection of tales about Murphy and the adventures and misadventures he had circumnavigating the globe in an attempt to rediscover why he like movies so much.The book is divided into roughly fifty-two chapters (there's also an introduction and epilogue) dedicated to each of the fifty-two weeks spent on his quest. Murphy traveled to the smallest movie theatre in the world (located in New Zealand) to a movie theatre made from ice. Finland to Australia and LA to Minneapolis. Several of the chapters have a theme: horror films (during Halloween week), Christmas movies, date movies, etc. My three favortie chapters in the book were: 3. The week he talked about September 11 and how the events of that day affected him and made him rethink his journey. 2. The chapter devoted to fanboys; talking about seeing the premier of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. And my favorite chapter in the whole book came near the end,
1. The chapter about Santa Claus and Christmas. As enjoyable as I found this book, it definitely is not for everyone. I would only recommend this book for someone who is a MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000 fan, someone who has a passion for film, or someone who just has a variety of quirky interests and likes to read.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and interesting, but not tremendously funny.
Review: After reading Mike Nelson's Movie Cheese, I had to read this. I was expecting the same kind of humor, but the laughs were few and far between in Kevin Murphy's book. Don't get me wrong, there are still laugh out loud moments, but I went for several chapters at a time without much more than a wan smile, as Murphy endlessly bashes the multiplex and the typical Hollywood fare. One has to wonder why he goes to the movies any more, when the experience seems overwhelmingly negative most of the time. Overall, I enjoyed reading this. I thought the descriptions of the exotic localles and the more obscure movies was interesting and it is an easy read. To put a fine point on it, this is a travel journal with humor, rather than a work of comedy. I do have one rant I must share, so stop reading unless you want to see me on the soap box. Murphy describes, in one chapter, his dislike and outright contempt for the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the floor shows that cropped up in the years following its release. I wouldn't go as far to say that MST3K owes its existence to RHPS, but the MST3K cast and crew at least owe their respect to RHPS as being an influence. After all, I can fondly remember the early days (before Kevin Murphy) when the jokes were much more similar to the lines shouted out by the RHPS audience. For instance, there was a time when MST3K would call out commands to the onscreen characters ("Hit him!") and that would predict the action onscreen. This is exactly the kind of thing that runs rife through Rocky.
In closing, Murphy's scorn for RHPS is kind of like Kingdom Come saying they really don't like Led Zepplin. The one would be far different without the other.
Rating: 
Summary: A surprisingly big book
Review: As Kevin Murphy recounts his movie-a-day filmgoing year, I was afraid the story might start to drag somewhat, or that he would feel the need to review every film he saw. Instead, I got drawn into a book that, while relatively long (about 350 pages), was still intelligible, and enjoyable both in small doses and in longer, more concentrated, readings. Murphy divides his epic, sensibly, into 52 week-long essays. The films he sees that week inform the topic of his essays, but seldom *are* the topic. Instead, we get interesting, and highly personal, looks at all different aspects of the filmgoing experience, ranging from travelogues to Italy, Finland, or Australia, to a few hours working at a multiplex theater, to meditations on genres like kung fu, fantasy, or horror films. There are also insightful and well-informed meditations on the state of American filmgoing, the impact of the multiplex and the near-demise of arthouse cinemas, and a useful chapter on the difference between film reviewers and film critics. There's an awful lot in this book, and it's nearly all good stuff. Kevin Murphy clearly knows and loves films, and he is a fine writer. A comparison with the two books by his former MST3K colleague Michael J. Nelson (who makes a brief cameo in this book) might be in order: I found both of Mike's books really funny, but frankly haven't found myself in a big hurry (yet?) to go back and re-read them. Kevin's, on the other hand, isn't intentionally funny "humor writing," but still has a lot of entertaining stories, asides, and turns of phrases. And I could see myself re-reading it a lot more easily. I waited impatiently to get a copy of this book (in part -- I'm obliged to say it -- because I loved Tom Servo), and it definitely paid off the wait. Film fans and MST fans both will, I think, come to the same conclusion.
Rating:
Summary: It Was A Very Good Year
Review: As they say in Hollywood, "What a concept!" Kevin Murphy decided to see a movie in a theater every day in 2001, and write a book about it. The result, _A Year at the Movies: One Man's Filmgoing Odyssey_ (HarperCollins) is, as you might expect from Murphy, a good deal of fun. He is, after all, the guy who tells us, "over the course of ten years on the TV series _Mystery Science Theater 3000_, I hefted a fifteen-pound plastic puppet over my head for an obscene amount of money." Murphy was not just puppeteer but a writer of the show, in which he (as robot Tom Servo) and his pals made wonderful jokes while really bad films played on the screen. The bad part of watching all those bad movies was that he started losing his taste for movies in general. Worse, he noticed that multiplexes were erupting everywhere, and lots of people (including himself) were exiting the movies less happy than when they went in. "Something had to be done, and I was the man to do it." To do it, he went all over the world, to metroplexes as well as film festivals and hole-in-the-wall theaters. He rode theme rides at a Hollywood movie park. He went to the same date movie six times, with six different women, one of whom was his wife, and another his mother-in-law. He worked at a multiplex. He ate nothing but movie theater food for a week. He even watched the wretched _Corky Romano_ (but he did call upon fellow MST3K buddy Michael J. Nelson, and beer, to help get him through that one.) He knows plenty about movies, but this isn't really a book about movies; it is a book about watching movies. If you want authoritative words on why movies these days can be wonderful sometimes but usually aren't, or how to sneak a full Thanksgiving dinner into a theater, or how to pick your seat, or the best theater in Hollywood, or how to creep unauthorized into Cannes Film Festival screenings, this is your book. Much of the book reads like a very quirky travelogue. Visit a theater made of snow and ice in Quebec, or the world's smallest commercial theater (22 seats, in Australia, and a moviegoer's paradise), go to the best film festival ever in Lapland, where movies are shown all day, and daylight is 24 hours. Plenty of the metroplex experiences were painful, mentally and physically (Murphy has many complaints about Hollywood), but much that happened to him in his moviegoing year was fun and even sweet. On 11 September 2001, he was at Raratonga in the Cook Islands, thinking about human suffering and in comparison "my silly little movie project," and worrying about how his friends in New York were. The proprietor of the Empire Cinema found the only two American flags and put them out on the street, to show they were mourning, too. "And the Empire Cinema was fuller than usual, with people looking for some togetherness and a little healing." Movies can do it, the good ones (the 11 September showing happened to be the lovely Irish film _Waking Ned Devine_). And it is pleasing to know that despite all its crankiness against Hollywood and the metroplex system, Murphy's book documents his return to a love for going to films; his epilogue begins, "Wait a minute. It's over? So soon? No, please, so many more things to see, places to see them!" Murphy's original and funny book is recommended if you love going to the movies, and want to read about someone who did it lots more than you ever will, and who can write with enthusiasm and joking breeziness about a full year of doing so.
Rating:
Summary: A great idea, but...
Review: Author Kevin Murphy, of course, was a writer/performer on the cult TV hit, "Mystery Science Theater 3000." As such, you'd think he'd have the sort of insight and humor that would make this book a great read for movie fans.
Unfortunately, though, Murphy spends most of his Year whining about contemporary moviegoing. Okay, so we know that multiplexes suck. We know that theater food is both bad and overpriced. We know that most modern movies suck, too. Murphy is right to point these things out, but he dwells on them page after page with little of the wit one might expect. And in his eagerness to knock even the better aspects of American cinema (dissing both "Pulp Fiction" and Jerry Lewis, for instance) while singing the praises of the most obscure of foreign documentaries, Murphy comes off as more movie snob than movie fan. To top it all off, there's an air of political correctness in much of Murphy's writing that turns up the smug factor. This was a great idea for a book, but it's neither as funny as you want it to be nor as definitive a comment on the current state of cinema as Murphy may have wanted it to be. A disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, thought provoking, but, maybe, unexpected
Review: Based on Kevin's work with MST3K, some people would expect this to be a book of movie reviews, in which he would apply his sarcastic wit to tear apart a bad movie every day for a year. A few were evidently disappointed because the book is something different. It's a series of essays on the moviegoing experience in various locales. But it's very, very entertaining. He does go in for numerous sideswipes on certain films and actors (ex- Saturday Night Live performers get a special dose of his vitriol) and can be hilarious. He covers a broad range of topics and makes his various encounters very human. The sections on being far from home on 9/11 and playing Santa, for example are very touching.
Some of the posters here complain that Kevin is a bit of a movie snob. They don't point out that he doesn't spare himself and explores the inherent contradictions of being a movie snob and a movie fan. In the end, his love for the medium does come across, despite his continual frustations with the industry. You won't always agree with him (he takes a jab at my beloved progressive rock, for example, I don't see the virtues of continually watching downbeat documentaries). But, he'll make you think, and he'll make you laugh, all done in a very well written, informative, and accessible style. Well worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for any movielover
Review: Being a huge fan of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," I was quite interested in this book-length discussion of movies by Kevin Murphy. I was surprised to find that the book is actually several different books in one. The basic concept is that Murphy spent an entire year going to the movies every single day. The book that resulted from this experiment was sometimes a movie review (such as where he called "Dude, Where's My Car?" an "infected lump of pig offal"), sometimes a travelogue (such as the chapter where he visits the smallest movie theater in the world) and sometimes just a love letter to the art of film. For all the years Murphy has spent tearing apart terrible movies, he is clearly someone who loves movies, who wants to see them elevated to their highest form. This book is funny, entertaining and thought-provoking... well worth it for any movielover.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for any movielover
Review: Being a huge fan of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," I was quite interested in this book-length discussion of movies by Kevin Murphy. I was surprised to find that the book is actually several different books in one. The basic concept is that Murphy spent an entire year going to the movies every single day. The book that resulted from this experiment was sometimes a movie review (such as where he called "Dude, Where's My Car?" an "infected lump of pig offal"), sometimes a travelogue (such as the chapter where he visits the smallest movie theater in the world) and sometimes just a love letter to the art of film. For all the years Murphy has spent tearing apart terrible movies, he is clearly someone who loves movies, who wants to see them elevated to their highest form. This book is funny, entertaining and thought-provoking... well worth it for any movielover.
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