The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations

Rating:
Summary: A FUN BOOK, BUT WITH THE SLANT TILTED THE WRONG WAY
Review: I would imagine that this book was written primarily for movie
lovers who love a movie so much that they would like to see the
place where it was filmed and walk the streets that the stars
had walked. At least, the indexing would indicate this.
The entries are listed by movie, rather than by location.

However, I am a traveller. And the information that I seek is
to find a movie that will show the scenery of a place that I have
been or will be going to soon or to which I take a fantasy
journey. This book does a pretty good job of relating,
indirectly, how much of the landscape you can expect to see, by
telling just what locations are used. Some of them are really
very sparse.

What I am still waiting for is a book which will rate the movie
by use of landscape, along with other things such as culture
and cuisine,things that might really give you a feel for the country
or the region or the state or the city that is being
filmed. One that I expect would fit the bill is "Frida"
but this book was written before the release of the movie, so I
am trying to get feedback elsewhere. One of my favorite travelogue
movies (it hits nearly every major tourist spot in Rome)is
"Three Coins in the Fountain" But if the movie is mentioned in this book,
I could not find it. Also missing - "Tea with
Mousellini." I am passionate about Italy. I resent absences
in this category.

So, I gave this book 4 stars because I think that it has
accomplished quite well what it set out to do. However, for
my own personal usage, I would give it only 3.

Rating:
Summary: Nice
Review: If you want to know where a movie was shot, you will find it's location in this book. Mostly b/w on the inside (with a few exeptions), bit of a shame.
It lists a movie, followed by the locations (much like a dictionary).
Some big movies are missing (like Rambo: first blood).
This might all sound negative, but it is a very nice book.

Rating:
Summary: Superb, More Please
Review: This book combines two of my main interests: travel and classic movies. British journalist Tony Reeves shares these interests to an extreme. He has personally visited and photographed an amazing number of movie locations. There is information provided here that I have not seen anywhere else. The book is organized encyclopedia-style with brief entries alphabetically ordered by film title. Important sites for each film are highlighted in bold type. There are several one or two page colour sections dealing with a topic or movie in greater-than-normal detail. Most movies are given only a few sentences or a paragraph at most; there are tiny black and white picture illustrating the more important listings. There is a very helpful section at the end organizing the movie listings by country. I would have liked to see more, some films could easily have been given pages of information and the most important classics such as Lawrence of Arabia, entire chapters. The author has a website movie-locations.com with some of the highlights of this book.

Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly in depth and excellently researched
Review: This book is excellently researched, and goes into enourmous depth (even if he has forgotten Rambo, there are hundreds of other films in here which are included!).
Emphasis is more on the US and the UK, but there is also an impressive range of pictures and details from some very exotic corners of the world.
A must read for any movie buff, and guaranteed to get you veering off the beaten track in your travels.

Rating:
Summary: Unrivalled resource for anyone fascinated by movie locations
Review: To me there is something almost magical about movie locations. Knowing that a place you may have revisited several times in your favourite film actually exists somewhere out there in the real world is a wonderful thought -- for me at least. And if you share my fascination, this is a book for you.

It is inevitable that everyone will be able to find omissions and oversights. Reasonably speaking, however, we could not expect Reeves to accommodate all we expect of such a book without running to several volumes (perhaps a sequel is in order, Tony?), and readers will all have films that hold a special place in their affections that there simply wasn't space to include. In fact, even though there are things I would have appreciated more of myself (my birthplace of Vancouver doesn't get enough mentions, despite being the "Hollywood of the North"), I found myself frequently amazed at the detail Reeves did go into. The book is positively bursting with photographs. Each entry is packed with bits of trivia, pertinent observations and all the details you'll need to go out and find the locations for yourself.

I haven't yet thrown my backpack over my shoulder to trek around the world in search of all these places -- but I will, someday. And Tony Reeves's guide will be right there in my pack along with my map, my can-opener and my change of underwear.