Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide

By Leonard Maltin

Book Overview

Featuring: More than 20,000 listings * 300 new entries * More than 14,000 video, 8,000 laser, and 1,000 DVD listings * Updated mail order listing for video sales and rentals * Updated index of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451201078
• ISBN13: 9780451201072
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Length: 1648 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.3" x 4.2" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

I bought the smaller version; there is a larger version available.

Each year, a newer version is available, so keep your old ones as you add to the collection. The first edition of Leonard Maltin's Video Guide was published in 1969, and the final edition came out in 2014. Title Changes: Over the years, the guide evolved through several names: TV Movies Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide Finally, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide I almost bought this smaller book as more than a useful book. Then, sitting next to it is the same book, word for word, that has twice the surface for twice the price. Of course, if you are economically conservative and have good eyesight, the smaller book works well. It is always fun to see how close one comes to Leonard’s conclusion, which is not always the same as yours. Yet, if you have not seen the film, you need some sort of guide. And to get a feel for how he thinks when making his judgments, there is an introduction covering how he rated some of the most popular films. Be sure to read the section “Key to This Book” as it tells the different media or lack of for each film. Some films are included because of their popularity, even if there are no recorded media, such as “John Goldfarb Please Come Home” (1965). Once again, in the version I purchased, many of my favorites have been left out, such as “Out There” (1995) and “Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death” (1989), based on “Heart of Darkness.” However, with 19,000+ entries, you will be kept busy trying to find out what else is missing.

Eternally handy

Leonard Maltin's Film Guide premiered in 1969, pre-dating the now crowded market of contemporary movie database books. It's still the best and most clearly organized of these types of references...essentially what people utilized back in ancient times before the Internet Movie Database. For in-depth film analysis one should look to Pauline Kael's 5001 Nights at The Movies, David Thomson's A Biographical Dictionary of Film or The Time Out Film Guide...this book is not film analysis and never was intended to serve this function. It's a comprehensive listing of all major films released worldwide including running time, date of release, film aspect ratio and other technical details. There is a brief one or at most two sentence review and then a star rating. This is not film analysis (which requires more than two sentences), it's simply the subjective rating system used by every other film guide on the market. Most of the time Leonard is on the mark although with over 20,000 entries there will inevitably be discrepencies. I recommend the larger format Plume paperback over the mass-market size as the typeface is more readable.

bible

i might not agree with LM's comments, but this is the complete guide to all movies and contains useful info (actors, when made etc) when you're trying to work out whether to watch a particular movie or not.

best review book ever

I have been purchasing this book for the past 12 years and have found each new one better than ever. This is the only book I seek come the holiday season. I look forward to reading this one cover-to-cover.

Don't Diss My Man Maltin!

Maltin rocks. He gives the best capsule reviews in the world. Pithy, brief, colorful. Time and again I've seen a movie and thought, "Wow, he hit the nail on the head."Merely because he points out a film's weaknesses as well as his strengths is no reason to hate him. I like a reviewer who is hard to impress; high praise SHOULD be reserved for greatness.Here's the meat of his commentary on FORREST GUMP: "Either you accept Hanks in this part and go with the movie's seriocomic sense of whimsy, or you don't (we didn't) -- but either way it's a long journey, filled with digitized imagery that puts Forrest Gump into a wide variety of backdrops and real-life events." That seems both thoughtful and accurate. And he's right: it's a 2.5 star movie, not a 4 star movie.Maltin is the best movie guide reviewer we have. Buy this book.