Rating: 
Summary: Serious humor!
Review: This is half review and half testimonial. First the testimonial.My enjoyment of movies had increased tenfold because of this book. Being primarily visual, I
love movies and TV as media, but after tasting the Classics (Shakespeare, Tolstoy, etc), I realize
how bad much of the visual media are in their story-telling. This book gives a name and a
definition to my disgust and oftentimes boredom with movies. In fact, when a movie gets
REALLY bad, I grab this book and try and find how many of the cliches are in the movie, a type
of "Roadside Travel Bingo." I can turn a bad movie around by laughing at its silly conventions. This book has become even more useful in the drought of decent films! Why do you think so
many cinemas are closing? It's not due to Cable or Dishes, they have been around since the
1970's; and it's not due to the VCR, which came out in the `80s, or due to DVDs, which is just a
disc form of a VHS-tape, but do to bad films. This book should be required reading in
Hollywood! It just might help them, and we would all benefit. * This book is a handy hand-held hand reference guide to "movie cliches, stereotypes, obligatory
scenes, hackneyed formulas, shopworn conventions, and outdated archetype." It is a spin-off of
Mr. Ebert's (you know--the short, fat one who is still alive) decades long career as a movie critic.
If you are a cinemaholic, in the back of you mind you wonder if the critics ever get bored of going
to movies. This book answers the question. It is a "glossary," so like a dictionary and an encyclopedia, it just contains entries and
explanations, so don't complain if this has no plot. The formart is alphabetical, so the trick is in
remembering the title of the observation. The illustrations are a hoot! They are old 18th Century engravings that illustrate selected entries.
Just the contrast of the engravings to the captions is hilarious. Old Fogies like me who remeber
"The Peter Principle," know where this idea came from! BONUS: There are four (4) appendices in this book: a hand-held list of cliche's that has floated
around the Internet for some time, O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion (ie Wile E. Coyote vs.
Roadrunner) , Matty's Creature Ferocity Index, and A Cynic's Guide to the Language in Film
Festival Catalogue Descriptions by Doug Sanders. (I think David Manning, the non-existent
movie critic for the Ridgefield Press used some of these!) The drawbacks to this book are: 1) Size. I want more! More! MORE! 2) The tiles of the various cliches are humorous gags, but sometimes it is difficult to fine a specific
cliche Examples: "Death is Wet: Every single morgue in a movie uses dripping or running water on the sound
track." (p. 48)" "Paint and Sufferink: Violent scenes in a G-rated animated feature which would have been
guaranteed the film at leat a PG if it had been shot in live-action." "Little Man Big Man Rule: Whenever one character is tall and the other short and plump, the
short one is always the brains and the tall one is the dummy. See Home Alone, etc." This is classic material, but it is hard to find a cliche because you have to remember the title! One
way to fix the problem would be to use the method in Roget's Thesaurus and assign every idea a
number and then crosse-reference the number. 3) There is no index, which would help with the above problem. 4) There is some repetition of jokes, such as the "Gentleman Villain" cliche (p.77) and "Roll
Over, Beethoven" (p. 167), and "Wash and Wax Rule" (p. 207). There may be a way to combine
all of these observations in to a Grand Unified Theory of Bad Movies. A PARTING THOUGHT: Any aspiring writers-be it fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, drama, neo-
Shakespeare, or what have you- should memorize this book. Several time I have thought myself
clever, but Ebert demolished me!
Rating:
Summary: Serious humor!
Review: This is half review and half testimonial. First the testimonial. My enjoyment of movies had increased tenfold because of this book. Being primarily visual, I
love movies and TV as media, but after tasting the Classics (Shakespeare, Tolstoy, etc), I realize
how bad much of the visual media are in their story-telling. This book gives a name and a
definition to my disgust and oftentimes boredom with movies. In fact, when a movie gets
REALLY bad, I grab this book and try and find how many of the cliches are in the movie, a type
of "Roadside Travel Bingo." I can turn a bad movie around by laughing at its silly conventions. This book has become even more useful in the drought of decent films! Why do you think so
many cinemas are closing? It's not due to Cable or Dishes, they have been around since the
1970's; and it's not due to the VCR, which came out in the '80s, or due to DVDs, which is just a
disc form of a VHS-tape, but do to bad films. This book should be required reading in
Hollywood! It just might help them, and we would all benefit. * This book is a handy hand-held hand reference guide to "movie cliches, stereotypes, obligatory
scenes, hackneyed formulas, shopworn conventions, and outdated archetype." It is a spin-off of
Mr. Ebert's (you know--the short, fat one who is still alive) decades long career as a movie critic.
If you are a cinemaholic, in the back of you mind you wonder if the critics ever get bored of going
to movies. This book answers the question. It is a "glossary," so like a dictionary and an encyclopedia, it just contains entries and
explanations, so don't complain if this has no plot. The formart is alphabetical, so the trick is in
remembering the title of the observation. The illustrations are a hoot! They are old 18th Century engravings that illustrate selected entries.
Just the contrast of the engravings to the captions is hilarious. Old Fogies like me who remeber
"The Peter Principle," know where this idea came from! BONUS: There are four (4) appendices in this book: a hand-held list of cliche's that has floated
around the Internet for some time, O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion (ie Wile E. Coyote vs.
Roadrunner) , Matty's Creature Ferocity Index, and A Cynic's Guide to the Language in Film
Festival Catalogue Descriptions by Doug Sanders. (I think David Manning, the non-existent
movie critic for the Ridgefield Press used some of these!) The drawbacks to this book are: 1) Size. I want more! More! MORE! 2) The tiles of the various cliches are humorous gags, but sometimes it is difficult to fine a specific
cliche Examples: "Death is Wet: Every single morgue in a movie uses dripping or running water on the sound
track." (p. 48)" "Paint and Sufferink: Violent scenes in a G-rated animated feature which would have been
guaranteed the film at leat a PG if it had been shot in live-action." "Little Man Big Man Rule: Whenever one character is tall and the other short and plump, the
short one is always the brains and the tall one is the dummy. See Home Alone, etc." This is classic material, but it is hard to find a cliche because you have to remember the title! One
way to fix the problem would be to use the method in Roget's Thesaurus and assign every idea a
number and then crosse-reference the number. 3) There is no index, which would help with the above problem. 4) There is some repetition of jokes, such as the "Gentleman Villain" cliche (p.77) and "Roll
Over, Beethoven" (p. 167), and "Wash and Wax Rule" (p. 207). There may be a way to combine
all of these observations in to a Grand Unified Theory of Bad Movies. A PARTING THOUGHT: Any aspiring writers-be it fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, drama, neo-
Shakespeare, or what have you- should memorize this book. Several time I have thought myself
clever, but Ebert demolished me!
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly funny; a must for movie-goers
Review: This is possibly the funniest book I have ever read (and I've read quite a few...). Don't try reading this secretly in church or at work; you'll be rolling on the floor.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it in one sitting!
Review: This was very funny and I couldn't put it down till I'd finshed. However, all entries were credited to the fans who submitted them, and about half way through I found I was glancing ahead for Roger Ebert's own contributions -- signed R.E. His were the best and often the "amateur" entries seemed like filler in comparison. I had the feeling Mr. Ebert doesn't like to reject anyone's offering . . . which actually made me think he must be a sweetheart. (Here's one: almost every time there's a scene in a big city police precinct, you can see in the background one or more colorfully dressed prostitutes being hauled in. Usually they're bickering loudly with the cops.)
Rating: 
Summary: Mindless fun, great gift book
Review: Yeah I think this serves the best as a bathroom book. A lot of the cliches are really obvious, such as the invisible wall rule where the hero doesn't die--who doesn't know that alreaday? Also the Surviving Thumb himself submitted quite a few entries, and as much as I love that guy (he's my hero, right next to Jesus) they're just not very funny. I really wish he was more ruthless as he was in his reviews. Props to David Stevens from Texas, who submitted at least a dozen entries concerning movie nudity-related cliches in this book. David, you the man. The man.
Rating:
Summary: bathroom book
Review: Yeah I think this serves the best as a bathroom book. A lot of the cliches are really obvious, such as the invisible wall rule where the hero doesn't die--who doesn't know that alreaday? Also the Surviving Thumb himself submitted quite a few entries, and as much as I love that guy (he's my hero, right next to Jesus) they're just not very funny. I really wish he was more ruthless as he was in his reviews. Props to David Stevens from Texas, who submitted at least a dozen entries concerning movie nudity-related cliches in this book. David, you the man. The man.
Rating:
Summary: AAAAHHHHHH!!!!! ANTIQUES OF DEATH!!!!!
Review: You will really appreciate this book after you've read through it two or three times. After that, you'll find yourself watching a movie and yelling out, "fruit cart!" or "antiques of death!" thereby cracking yourself up, and irritating those around you who haven't been blessed with this book. :) The best thing to do is this: buy it, make your friends buy it, and spend some time reading your favorites out loud to each other. Then the more movies you watch, the more cliches you'll start spotting, and even bad movies will be more entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: AAAAHHHHHH!!!!! ANTIQUES OF DEATH!!!!!
Review: You will really appreciate this book after you've read through it two or three times. After that, you'll find yourself watching a movie and yelling out, "fruit cart!" or "antiques of death!" thereby cracking yourself up, and irritating those around you who haven't been blessed with this book. :) The best thing to do is this: buy it, make your friends buy it, and spend some time reading your favorites out loud to each other. Then the more movies you watch, the more cliches you'll start spotting, and even bad movies will be more entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: AAAAHHHHHH!!!!! ANTIQUES OF DEATH!!!!!
Review: You will really appreciate this book after you've read through it two or three times. After that, you'll find yourself watching a movie and yelling out, "fruit cart!" or "antiques of death!" thereby cracking yourself up, and irritating those around you who haven't been blessed with this book. :) The best thing to do is this: buy it, make your friends buy it, and spend some time reading your favorites out loud to each other. Then the more movies you watch, the more cliches you'll start spotting, and even bad movies will be more entertaining.
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