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Rating: 
Summary: Movie Guide Martin & Porter
Review: I collect movies and as I enter them into my palm pilot I add some of the information on them from this book such as director, rating, grade (stars) and year. The main problem I have found is that the stars tend to go soley on the authors opinions of the movies. For instance the movie "Fight Club" with Brad Pitt got rated a turkey by them. The Internet Movie Database shows it with their rating of 8.3. I just recently bought the 2005 edition and found that it does not contain "Finding Nemo". Go figure. Overall I like their guide and I do use their stars (grading) as a guide. I bought it because:
1. I had the previous version and was concerned about changing formats
2. It was cheaper than Leonard Maltins.
Rating: 
Summary: MAYBE THE BEST VIDEO GUIDE, HOWEVER...
Review: I picked up my first copy of martin and Porters video guides probably close to 20 years ago when the video boom was really taking off. They never featured as many films in their guides as other people, Like Maltin for example, but they generally gave more comprehensive reviews and didn't disregard B movies as many other reviewers did. Through their guides I discovered many wonderful films over the years and generally bought their new guide at least every other year if not every year.
Their guides have always been well organized with thorough indexes to find films and stars. Over the years they've continued to add more and more films to an ever growing impressive list of films. The only problem is, and its with any film guide, but in this day and age where there are SO many websites with both amateur and professional film reviews, it's really made books almost obsolete. Even putting out a new guide every year they are still going to lag behind websites which have reviews posted upon release.
If you absolutely want a hard copy guide then this IS the one to buy.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book Ever Written
Review: Oh my gosh, I honestly don't know where I would be without this book. You have no idea how many movie buying/renting decisions have all been decided through this book. Their rating system is fun, although I don't rely on it completely. Some of my favorite movies have received the Turkey, and some I didn't think too highly of got rave reviews. Mostly I use the book just for informational purposes though. It tells who directed and starred, the year it was made, and even why it got the MPAA rating it did. This is the ultimate guide to movies, whether you're just looking for a movie to rent or wanting to know the year a movie was made, this has it ALL!
Rating:
Summary: Preferable to Maltin's squeamishness.
Review: What I found most telling about DVD Video Guide is that the reviews, for the most part give you the positives and negatives (if there are any)of a particular movie. In other words they will give the reader more of a chance to see the movie or not. Of course there are a lot of stinkers made and the guide will let you know. I'm not going to agree with every Martin/Porter review but there are just too many movies that main competitor Leonard Maltin completely trashes due to an extreme point of view, length of the movie or the amount of violence in a film. It seems like he's too easily disgusted or impatient and there is no margin. Like other amazon reviewers have noticed, Maltin's general preference is for the "classic film era". Nothing wrong with that. It's just that had I followed his opinions, I would of missed a ton of great movies. Most people are going to see a film if they are interested regardless of the review, but Martin & Porter are a little more open about it. A critic IS supposed to be critical(I know it's a cliche)but I respond to Martin & Porter's style better. Buy this guide & Videohound as an alternative opinion.
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