Rating: 
Summary: Another Acidic Collection from Queenan
Review: Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler is a collection of previously released essays by Joe Queenan. They are all in the typical Queenan fashion of mean spirited humor that Mr. Queenan has perfected. You will find yourself laughing out loud at his skewering of the self-important film industry. His essay on Irish films and their Blarney quotient is absolutely brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Another Acidic Collection from Queenan
Review: Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler is a collection of previously released essays by Joe Queenan. They are all in the typical Queenan fashion of mean spirited humor that Mr. Queenan has perfected. You will find yourself laughing out loud at his skewering of the self-important film industry. His essay on Irish films and their Blarney quotient is absolutely brilliant.
Rating: 
Summary: A Bit Dated, but Still Hilarious
Review: Humorist and film critic Joe Queenan has one of the most biting sense of humors around. Reading along as he skewers Hollywood, a pompus institution that sorely needs it, is sheer pleasure. The book is mostly a series of essays in which Quennan takes on one aspect or another of Hollywood filmmaking and works it over with his lethal prose. Anyone who loves Queenan's writing, or who is dedicated film buff should love "Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler."That said, the book is a bit dated. Most of the individual chapters were articles Queenan wrote for "Movieland" magazine between ten and five years ago. Though I had seen many of the movies he makes reference to, I occasionally had to strain my memory to recall exactly what he was talking about. That one caveat aside, however, I give "Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler" an enthusiastic "Thumbs Up!"
Rating:
Summary: A Bit Dated, but Still Hilarious
Review: Humorist and film critic Joe Queenan has one of the most biting sense of humors around. Reading along as he skewers Hollywood, a pompus institution that sorely needs it, is sheer pleasure. The book is mostly a series of essays in which Quennan takes on one aspect or another of Hollywood filmmaking and works it over with his lethal prose. Anyone who loves Queenan's writing, or who is dedicated film buff should love "Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler." That said, the book is a bit dated. Most of the individual chapters were articles Queenan wrote for "Movieland" magazine between ten and five years ago. Though I had seen many of the movies he makes reference to, I occasionally had to strain my memory to recall exactly what he was talking about. That one caveat aside, however, I give "Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler" an enthusiastic "Thumbs Up!"
Rating:
Summary: I disagreed quite often, but he was still very funny
Review: I disagreed with many of Queenan's comments on various films. But, knowing that everyone is entitled to his own opinion, I found myself laughing quite often. I even found myself laughing at his rips on my favorite movies. Because he is right. Last Action Hero is an awful movie, but it is still one of my favorites. His movie heckling essay was very funny from the outside, and I found myself wishing more people would be "Bad Movie Angels" and refund my money after seeing the horrid stuff that passes itself off as film these days (Merchant and Ivory being a big one).
Rating: 
Summary: Spare me
Review: I love books on movie criticism. I love movies period. And if I can find a book by a distinguished writer on what he thinks about movies, then I'll buy Harlan Ellison's Watching or any of the other wonderful bits of literary light out there. But, I will never again even pause in the Q section. This is how profoundly Queenan has affected me. There are parts of this book that are funny, but this in and of itself doesn't speak too highly of the book. Watching a drunken redneck throw beer bottles at the television is also funny, and it is this kind of humor that I can most closely equivocate to Queenan's "wit". The style seems so in love with itself that the reader can get easily lost amidst the author's frequent back-patting. Not since Melville do I think I have seen such an inaccesible writing style. For people who like to sit in the company of those who suppose themselves to be your cultural and intellectual betters, this book is definitely for you. If nothing else, it will teach you exactly the right timing, poise, and inflection to use when shouting out off-color jokes in the middle of a movie theater that only you and Roger Ebert will understand. And if you can avoid the flying soda and angry hisses from the people who would just like to watch the damn movie, all the better for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Joe Queenan's best work
Review: I loved Joe Queenan's "If You Are Talking to Me your Career Must be in Trouble" and have sought out everything else he has written since reading that hilarious book several years ago. This book is a disappointment. Part of the problem is that when put together, you realize that a lot of his essays consist either of: (a) the juxtaposition of movies with similar story lines to illustrate the point that Hollywood movies are formulaic (shocking revelation; its amusing the first time he does it, but wears thin after a while); or (b) attempting to do replicate feats in movies in real life to illustrate the concept that Hollywood movies are unrealistic (another shocking revleation; this wasn't funny to me even the first time). The essay which involved him acting like a jerk in movie theatres just didn't work for me either. Still has a few chuckles in it and good observations on movies. The piece about nun movies is quite amusing.
Rating:
Summary: Not Joe Queenan's best work
Review: I loved Joe Queenan's "If You Are Talking to Me your Career Must be in Trouble" and have sought out everything else he has written since reading that hilarious book several years ago. This book is a disappointment. Part of the problem is that when put together, you realize that a lot of his essays consist either of: (a) the juxtaposition of movies with similar story lines to illustrate the point that Hollywood movies are formulaic (shocking revelation; its amusing the first time he does it, but wears thin after a while); or (b) attempting to do replicate feats in movies in real life to illustrate the concept that Hollywood movies are unrealistic (another shocking revleation; this wasn't funny to me even the first time). The essay which involved him acting like a jerk in movie theatres just didn't work for me either. Still has a few chuckles in it and good observations on movies. The piece about nun movies is quite amusing.
Rating:
Summary: Just not very funny, that's the blunt fact of the matter...
Review: I've got nothing against Joe Queenan's curmudgeon act--heck, that's been a staple among critics with attitude forever. But some indescrible something is lacking in his work. His jokes are all root and no tree, most of the time. I dunno, maybe it's something to do with his delivery. Mr. Cranky at mrcranky.com is good for a crude bellylaugh. P. J. O'Rourke, when he lampoons pop culture, usually puts a wicked twist in his observations. Queenan to me just seems more windy than pithy. You can add a star to this review if you are a knowledgeable movie lover, and you laugh when an actor's name serves as the punchline in a joke.
Rating:
Summary: Would you please shut up! I'm trying to watch a movie here!
Review: Joe Queenan is a cynical b*stard. No, that's not an insult, and he probably wouldn't take it as such. In fact, he'd probably revel in it and tell me to keep up the good work. Queenan used to write for Movieline magazine and, for me at least, was the only thing worth reading in there. Confessions of a Cineplex Heckler: Celluloid Tirades and Escapades is a collection of some of these articles. As long as you don't mind raw language and (usually) snarky comments about movies and movie stars, you won't find a funnier book of entertainment essays around. I had to read parts of this book out loud to my wife (who has already read it, but so long ago that she doesn't remember details) because I had to talk about them to somebody. This was my first exposure to Queenan (at my wife's urging) and I can definitely say I'm going to track down the rest of his books. He has a self-admittedly bad attitude which doesn't really suit every reader, but makes me laugh and giggle endlessly at what he says. The title article, where he goes to certain movies and heckles them loudly to see how long it will take before other movie-goers will do something other than say "shhhhhh!" works on two levels: it shows what a complete a** he can be, but it also shows how passive a society we have become. He went to ten films and shouted things at the screen or at audience members who politely asked him to be quiet (such as "The movie's in Greek, pal. Potato chips can't drown out subtitles") In only one of these movies was he thrown out, and most of the other time, people either just tried to ignore him or basically just said "shhhh!" Very rarely did anybody actually do anything about it. That's one of the great things about Queenan. Sometimes, behind all the cynicism and general bad behaviour, there's a point to his articles. There's a wonderful article on Spike Lee in here, where Queenan not only interviews him, but comments on the interview too. Queenan doesn't ask the soft, simple questions but instead asks Lee things about the craft of his movies, even criticizing a bit and asking him to respond (like asking him about the long, drawn out endings to his movies). He comments in the article about how good he thinks Lee is, despite some of the problems in his films. Some see the article as tearing down Lee, but I saw a lot of respect underneath the smart-a** questions, questions that say "I like your movies, but couldn't they be better if you do [fill in the blank]?" Of course, he does end the article with a note written since the article was published, saying that he would think that, after Lee heckled Reggie Miller of the Indiana Pacers in a playoff game, inspiring him to 50+ points and the win, that the New York Knicks would have "kicked his scrawny a**. No such luck." But again, I think that's his good-natured cynicism. There are plenty of other hilarious articles in this wonderful book, and only a couple of clunkers. Some of the great articles are: the first "Don't do this at home" where he tries to enact certain movie scenes to see if they are at all realistic, an article on Irish films and their cliches, an article about the suddenly common practice of ear mutilation in films, Antonio Banderas and why he keeps getting pushed down our throats as "the newest star" though his movies keep bombing, bad hair in films, and too many more to mention unless I just do a list, which would get boring really fast. There are a couple of skippable ones in this book, though. "For Members Only," an article about the mutilation of male genitalia in movies, is kind of boring. An article about how he became a crusader against sitting through bad films, and started reimbursing customers who went to see them falls a little flat. And the article on his foray into watching just foreign films and how he discovers they are the same horrible stuff that Hollywood is putting out, while mildly interesting, lacks some of the zing of his other articles. Unfortunately, the book ends on a lackluster note with another "Don't Try This at Home" article that's nowhere near as good as the first one in the book. Still, if you like cynical humour, can put up with foul language and wondering if there is a movie in the world that Queenan likes (he does compliment quite a few films, though some of those compliments are sort of back-handed), then you will love this book. Queenan has quite the way with words, and as long as his style doesn't turn you off, he's a great writer. Some of the articles talked about movies I'd never heard of, but I didn't care. His writing made the article worthwhile. Personally, I'm going to be tracking down all of his other books and giving them a try as well.
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