Rating: 
Summary: Ebert hilariously skewers movie conventions
Review: A very funny book, compiled by critic Ebert with the help of fans, this is the definitive list of movie cliches, everything from "Ali McGraw Disease" (the one where the actress is perfectly coifed and made up for her touching deathbed scene to the famous: "FRUIT CART!" -- an expletive used by knowledgeable film buffs during any chase scene involving a foreign or ethnic locale, reflecting their certainty that a fruit cart will be overturned during the chase, and an angry peddler will run into the middle of the street to shake his fist at the hero's departing vehicle. My favorite is the description of the inevitable scene where the bad guy stops in the middle of his elaborate plan to kill the good guy to explain helpfully his even more elaborate plans to rule the world. Lots of fun, and you'll never look at a movie -- or a fruit cart -- the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: Ebert hilariously skewers movie conventions
Review: A very funny book, compiled by critic Ebert with the help of fans, this is the definitive list of movie cliches, everything from "Ali McGraw Disease" (the one where the actress is perfectly coifed and made up for her touching deathbed scene to the famous: "FRUIT CART!" -- an expletive used by knowledgeable film buffs during any chase scene involving a foreign or ethnic locale, reflecting their certainty that a fruit cart will be overturned during the chase, and an angry peddler will run into the middle of the street to shake his fist at the hero's departing vehicle. My favorite is the description of the inevitable scene where the bad guy stops in the middle of his elaborate plan to kill the good guy to explain helpfully his even more elaborate plans to rule the world. Lots of fun, and you'll never look at a movie -- or a fruit cart -- the same way again.
Rating:
Summary: Amusing sidebar to the Ebert canon
Review: An enjoyable little book that catalogues many of filmdom's most tired or predictable cliches. The best entries are those by Ebert himself; some good (and some pedestrian) entries are by film fans who have written to or e-mailed Ebert's newspaper/website column. A funny book, but one that doesn't always reward repeat visits.
Rating: 
Summary: Contains More Fun Than Any Fruit Cart
Review: Ebert's "bigger little book" of movie cliches, stereotypes, obligatory scenes, etc. exposes the vast majority of movie directors/producers/studios as what they truly are: Dumb. But hey, learning just HOW dumb they can be has never been so much fun. You'll find yourself reading the book from cover to cover, nodding your head, saying, "I just saw that in a movie last week! Man, that was stupid." Ebert also gives credit to fans who have written in with their own entries. Loads of fun! 228 pages
Rating:
Summary: Contains More Fun Than Any Fruit Cart
Review: Ebert's "bigger little book" of movie cliches, stereotypes, obligatory scenes, etc. exposes the vast majority of movie directors/producers/studios as what they truly are: Dumb. But hey, learning just HOW dumb they can be has never been so much fun. You'll find yourself reading the book from cover to cover, nodding your head, saying, "I just saw that in a movie last week! Man, that was stupid." Ebert also gives credit to fans who have written in with their own entries. Loads of fun! 228 pages
Rating: 
Summary: Not really worth the price
Review: Granted, some of the ideas are funny, but most of the book is a waste. Only around a third of the entries cite more than one example. Some don't cite any. I would like to know where these particular cliches are found, especially if I don't recognize them. I felt as if the publishers were trying to fill up space. The font is rather large, and there is quite a bit of space between entries. Plus, some strange, irrelevant pictures scattered here and there. And (in more than a few cases), the EXACT SAME IDEA is repeated under different titles. It's almost as if the publishers downloaded their text from the Internet, didn't bother to edit for content, then slapped Roger Ebert's name on the cover. The whole thing has a very unprofessional feel to it. It reminded me very much of those glossy #3.50-type books one finds in supermarkets.
Rating:
Summary: You'll never look at movies the same way again!
Review: I am proud to say that I penned two of the entries that are included in this book. (Look for "The One-at-a-Time Attack Rule" and "The Object of Mysterious Antecedents Myth.") Roger Ebert used to solicit entries from devotees of his CompuServe section, as well as from his column readers, and all of them were hilarious. This book is a must read for any movie buff. You'll die laughing--honest!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, hysterical, invaluable.
Review: I recommend this book to ANYONE, especially writers, screenwriters, and those who play Role Playing Games. These aren't just traps to avoid --you can also use them to your advantage to set a mood or a style. If you're a fan of the Web's EVIL OVERLORD RULES, then you'll love this.
Rating:
Summary: Mindless fun, great gift book
Review: I've read the original hardcover version and loved it. Every time I pick up the book to read a few of the passages, it elicits a giggle. There are a few repetitive passages, but I don't mind seeing duplication. One drawback--there is a vast range of writing abilities. Once I found a contributor who I liked, I scanned for his/her submissions. There are a few lame contributions, too, but on a fun scale of 1 to 10, this amusing book ranks a 10.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most crucial books ever written for filmmakers
Review: If you work as a filmmaker or in television, whether as a hobby, your profession or your obssession, YOU NEED THIS BOOK. Screenwriters for both film and TV especially need this, since it deals largely with storytelling cliches, but it also lists visual ones in cinematography, in angles, in casting and in general mise-en-scene that it is absolutely crucial for the director to avoid. This book will make you a better filmmaker just on virtue of being aware of what's been done to death. It's also useful across the board. While it usually rips into the more standardized genres (like slasher flicks or action movies), it also chainsaws such common cliches as "The Pet Homosexual" ("he can talk endlessly about sex, provided he never has any himself", most recent offender: "The Next Best Thing" and "Will and Grace"), "Baked Potato People" (the gentle lunatics in the asylum that show the outside world is crazy; most recent offender: "K-PAX"), and more subtle ones like the Fat Guy rule; if a group of men are planning an escape, the fat one usually can't be trusted. This is a very funny book, but it's also very true, and if we made everybody currently making movies sit down and read the damn thing, we'd have better movies, or at least different cliches. Fun for the armchair film freak, but absolutely crucial for the filmmaker.
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