Rating: 
Summary: Nice idea, annoying book.
Review: Being the film nut I am, I bought this book thinking that it looked like a really fun read. And it was: for about eighty pages. After that, I realized that I had gotten stuck in the quicksand of one man's midlife crisis. Kevin Murphy sounds more bitter than my great-aunt,and believe me, that is a hard thing to do. If you're excruciatingly bitter and don't mind 52 chapters of kvetching, go on ahead: this book may just be for you.
Rating: 
Summary: great read
Review: Fans of MST3K will enjoy this book, actually i think everybody who likes movies will enjoy it, a fun read and an interesting concept, Kevin watches at least one movie everyday of the year, in every way imaginable, its tongue in cheek, sometimes a tad too snarky, but who cares, anyone who would sneak an entire Thanksgiving day meal into a movie theatre and proceed to munch it down in the front row, gets my undying respect...
Rating:
Summary: A Year's Worth of the Movie Sign
Review: For those of you who don't know, Kevin "Tom Servo" Murphy took it upon himself to "go to the movies" at least once a day for the entirety of 2001, and to put that experience down on paper. Given the amount of garbage that was passing for entertainment that year, this may seem like a fearsome challenge. But Murphy appears to have relished the opportunity to get paid for what most of us consider a relaxing leisure-time activity. And even acknowledging the aspects of movie-going that he disliked, one gets the impression that he at least enjoyed complaining about them.A YEAR AT THE MOVIES is a collection of essays written during that year-long adventure. Fifty-two chapters, one per week, detail everything that he felt worth mentioning. Murphy engages in several gimmicks during the course of his book. He attempts to find the smallest theatre in the world (apparently it's squeezed into some guy's house, and is an actual licensed and legal cinema). He brings six different women to the same date movie on consecutive days (his wife is described on the back cover as "long-suffering"). He smuggles in an entire turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day (the man fits a table under his coat - if there was an Academy Award for table-sneaking, he'd deserve it). He attempts spending a week eating nothing but concession stand food (again, his wife is described as "long-suffering"). However, as entertaining as these exploits are, I was more interested in the day-to-day things that Murphy picked up on during the year. He contrasts the service and attention to detail present at mom-n-pop, independent theatres to the impersonal, uncaring experience one might expect to see at the nearest massive movie multiplex (which Murphy humorously refers to as "googolplexes"). He looks at the reactions and discussions created by the small independent films, and counterpoints those thoughts with the ennui that seems to sweep over the audiences of the summer blockbusters, who become so uninvolved and distanced that they go merely to observe, to be vaguely distracted, and then to leave, never to think of the film again. That said, I was definitely amused by some of his goofier antics. Getting into multiplexes without paying, and pretentious folks who haunt his local movie theatre on Hong Kong Cinema Morning are just two of the subjects that meet with his brand of comedy. Murphy was a writer on the ever-witty television show, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, and a lot of those clever one-liners and quick humor are on display here. There's even a cameo by former MST3K host Michael J. Nelson, who gets dragged along to a viewing of Corky "Y'guys want some cookies?" Romano. Pity them. Or laugh at them. I did both. The only really negative thing I have to say is that there was no table of contents, and no index. So, when I look back, I have to randomly flip my way around the fifty-two essays to find exactly what it is that I want to reread. Unless I managed to remember the date, I'm simply lost. The book is written in chronological order of his cinema-going year, but the vast majority of the essays aren't time or season specific. It's a minor quibble to be sure, yet it would be handy to have a quick way to find his essay on, say, why movies about rich people are usually lousy, or on the best way to sneak into the Cannes film festival, or on what it's like to see films in the land of the midnight sun. I found A YEAR AT THE MOVIES to be a fun and occasionally thoughtful travelogue that maintains a good balance between being amusing and reflective. Murphy is definitely a fan of the movies, so his comments come from a love of the craft, and a sense of frustration when it doesn't live up to its potential. He comes across as a faintly snobbish curmudgeon in parts, but a very likeable guy all the same. He's definitely an aficionado of most aspects involved with movie watching, and I found his enthusiasm contagious.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting? Yes. Hilarious? No.
Review: Given how brilliant Mike Nelson's books are, you would think that Tom Servo would pull together a great book as well. Instead, he gives us an entertaining book that really, even at its best, is not as funny as the worst chapter of Movie Megacheese. Now, having said that, the book is not bad, just not that funny. Murphy seems to be trying to go the serious route, which is fine except the MSTies out there (such as I) were expecting more cow-town puppet humor. Instead we get 300+ pages of Murphy, an admitted film snob, trashing multiplexes and pre-movie advertising. He likes art films and spontaneous experiences--both of which are valid and intriguing viewpoints and worthy of your time, BUT not if you are expecting to laugh.
Rating:
Summary: Self-righteous and Indulgent
Review: Good God, is this book self-righteous. I bought it based on its compelling premise, and in return I received endless tirades on the inadequacies of movies, movie theatres, movie audiences, and every other topic that managed to crawl up Mr. Murphy's ... and opinions that Mr. Murphy has used to bore people at dinner parties for YEARS and now he's found an opportunity to share his "wisdom" and "perfect" taste to a wider audience. The one advantage we have is that we can stop reading (I did) whereas the friends and family of Mr. Murphy are still stuck listening to him complain, which is the #1 component of this book. The only thing that saves it from a one-star review is that there is some nice pro Laurel and Hardy propoganda, which means that Mr. Murphy got at least one thing right. Otherwise, it's a lot of self-satisfied griping.
Rating: 
Summary: Liked the Movie - Loved the Book!
Review: How often do you read a book that makes you laugh out loud? This one will. If you're in a waiting room, on a train,on a bus, riding in the carpool, people will want to know what you're reading because they'll hear you giggle, chortle and guffaw! I'm a big movie fan, but something has been missing lately. Kevin Murphy tells you what it is and how to get it back. I understand the author was a writer for Mystery Science Theater (a guilty pleasure for me). There's no guilt with the book, just fun, and the sense of recognition that happens when this author puts his finger on what you've felt but couldn't identify about the movie going experience!
Rating: 
Summary: Unfunny and disappointing
Review: I am MSTie, I loved the show and the writing. So, when a writer for the show wrote a book about watching movies, of all things i expected a great book. Sadly i was wrong. Murphy goes on long rants about things that bug him, and does not review films much at all. His complaints become annoying after awhile, and the book, save for a few ancedotes is unfunny. He hates Kevin Costner, commercials, the high price of food, and exclusion of independent films from mainstream movie theaters. Since, as I said these complaints seem to be repeated well, a lot, the book becomes smug and self-righteous. If you want to laugh watch an episode of MST, or read the amazig colossal episode guide, both of which will give you many more laughs than this book.
Rating:
Summary: Unfunny and disappointing
Review: I am MSTie, I loved the show and the writing. So, when a writer for the show wrote a book about watching movies, of all things i expected a great book. Sadly i was wrong. Murphy goes on long rants about things that bug him, and does not review films much at all. His complaints become annoying after awhile, and the book, save for a few ancedotes is unfunny. He hates Kevin Costner, commercials, the high price of food, and exclusion of independent films from mainstream movie theaters. Since, as I said these complaints seem to be repeated well, a lot, the book becomes smug and self-righteous. If you want to laugh watch an episode of MST, or read the amazig colossal episode guide, both of which will give you many more laughs than this book.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I had been looking forward to this book for a long time. As a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan, I hoped the idea of MST3K regular Kevin Murphy writing about the movie-going experience (he planned to see a movie every day) would be fun and entertaining. Murphy's book is neither. The major failure of the book is that Murphy's basic hook-- seeing a movie every day-- is unexplored. He breaks his movie going experience down week by week, starting with a list of the films he has seen duering the given week. However, he spends little time reviewing the films, instead, we get a week by week diary of how Murphy spent a (mostly)uninteresting 2001.
The other problem is Murphy's tone. He comes off smug and self-satisfied, a tone that unfortunatly crept into the later years of MST3K (as well as into MST3K regular Mike Nelson's second book). A major disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: A Year in the Theater, a week to read.
Review: I had been waiting to read this since I first got word that the project would take place. I was not disappointed, the book was mildly unentertaining to me in spots, but on the whole was very good. I imagined something different before I read it, perhaps a different movie everyday. I am not the type of person who can sit through the same bad movie several times, unlike Mr. Murphy and Bridget Jones's Diary. The different locations he traveled to were interesting. To me, this is 52 short essays on society (the audience) and how it relates to what we subject ourselves to in the cinema. Less movie reviews than I imagined, but the ones that were included were pretty much dead on (other than Rocky Horror, I like it!). This was a great way to check back in with one of my favorites from Mystery Science Theater 3000.
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