Four-Star Movies: The 101 Greatest Films of All Time

by Jim Piazza and Gail Kinn

A lavishly illustrated, fact-filled celebration of the 101 movies that have changed our lives.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579123155
• ISBN13: 9781579123154
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 5.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 11.1" x 13.1"

Customer Reviews

Both a film guide and a handsome coffee table addition

Narrow the film world to the top 101 choices of all times, pack in the color shots from these recommended films, and include cast and credits and critical quotes about the movie and you have a pictorial representation of the greats in Gail Kinn and Jim Piazza's Four-Star Movies which will serve as both a film guide and a handsome coffee table addition. Four-Star Movies is quite simply as fine a reference as it is a visual ad for quality classic films.

Varied selection, but informative and a good starting point.

I noticed this book in Barnes & Noble the other day and being a movie buff and obsessed with "Top 100" lists. I will first of all say that I pay attention to the American Film Institute's list of Top 100 movies and kind of compared the selections here with thos that the AFI came up with. While about 35 of the selections are the same, Kinn and Piazza came up with some rather interesting choices as to their Top 101 movies of all time.First of all, the book needs to be error-checked. I found several errors, though not glaring, they were ther. Maybe the fact that I know a lot about movies made them more obvious, as I'm sure other books/magazines, etc. have had errors and I have passed over them. All that aside, the movies (and there are indeed 101 of them) are all good. In fact, there's some I haven't seen and after reading the book, I'm going out to check the films out, after all; that's what this is, a starting point to see some of the greatest movies out there.I can't say I agreed with all of their choices, but all of the films have had some sort of critical acclaim. Each movie gets three pages of pictures, information about the cast and crew and even what the prominent critics have said about the movie (one featured moreso than others is the very negative Paulene Kael, what a sad life she leads if she can't get any pleasure out of these films). Some information about the background of the movie is printed as well and what the authors say about the movie (in little cartooish bubbles, no less).I didn't have any major problems with the book, I don't feel it's any sort of definitive guide, per se as they didn't pick any Charlie Chaplin movies, no Buster Keaton movies and some are on the list that I don't think should be there (even as happy as I was to see "Airplane!" as #101, I can think of plenty others that should be in that spot). If you're into film and movies and, most importantly, ranking of them, then this is for you. What the authors are trying to accomplish by this book, is for the films to be seen. Granted, we know that The Godfather is good (yet they combined The Godfather and The Godfather Part II as one movie for their #1 pick), but I might just have to go check out "Funny Face" as they picked it as one of their favorites. Still, notable classics like "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" aren't on there!In any case, it's a good book and very attractive looking. Heck, if people see it at your coffee table at a party, you can make them think you're a film critic! I'd recommend this book to any film buff.

pretty good selection

it had a good selection i mean it had 6 or 7 of my favorite movies. I just can't believe it did'ny feature the french connection. Other than that it was great.