The Manipulator: Virile Video & Two-Fisted Cinema

by Harold Schechter and David Everitt

Book Overview

Heads up, manly movie lovers! Put down those barbells, snap open a brewsky, and crack the cover of The Manly Movie Guide! You won't be sorry. David Everitt and Harold Schechter point out the best,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572973080
• ISBN13: 9781572973084
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 287 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

every red-blooded American man needs one

This book isa) an excellent movie reference book which will provide you with half a lifetime's worth of movie viewing suggestions in the various manly genresb) a hilarious satire of the macho mentalityc) one of the top ten funniest books I've ever read. If I had the money, I'd buy up every copy I could lay my hands on and simply GIVE them away to fellow manly film buffs at my local video store. It's a crime that it's out of print.

Should be an entry in the Harvard Film Studies guide!

For those who prefer big, fuzzy-bunny, feel-good movies, or "chick flicks," look elsewhere. This guide represents the epitome of the Real Man genres: westerns, gangster, action/adventure, tough renegade cop, sci-fi, splatter movies, and beyond. Contributors, David Everitt and Harold Schechter, deserve a Pulitzer for this unique collection of "Virile Videos" and "Two-Fisted Cinema" reviews. As the cover guarantees, there are "NO tears,"NO Smooching," and "NO Weddings!" Best of all, the authors deliver side-slapping, tongue-in-cheek self-satire that one rarely finds in any critical collection. This volume's "Manly Movie Hall of Fame" (including the likes of Lee Marvin, Ben Johnson -- NO! NOT the poet! --, the Duke -- naturally! --, and Steven Segal)is worth the price alone. Included also are hilarious "comparison charts," explaining the difference between guy movies and chick movies...as if we didn't know, and consistently excellent film criticism laced with comic irony and priceless throwaway lines.Incidentally, women of good taste, do not be put off by the title! Similar to me, you've hated films, such as *The Piano*, *How To Make an American Quilt*, and *Message In a Bottle*, while our female colleagues have gone unanimously gaga over them. So let me remind you: this book is NOT just for guys; it is for anyone who would rather gargle with broken glass than sit through another insipid Julia Roberts tearjerker.

The Duke would want you to buy it.

The Manly Movie Guide hit me like a fist full o' knuckle-punches. Today's "film experts" and "popular culture commentators" don't know Jacob Pschidtt when it comes to your important manly movies of manliness featuring he-men with abundant manlitude. But Everitt and Schechter know what movies matter most to the I-write-my-name-in-the-snow-standing-up crowd. MMG takes no prisoners. MMG shoots to kill, and kill hard. And like it. MMG dares to talk about the kind of movies today's on the go men of action and derring-do want to sit on a couch and watch. (And, yes, teacup, that is how you spell "derring-do"; you gotta problem with that?) When it comes to talking about "controversial" topics, other movie books shy away and whimper in the corner, crying for their mommies and wetting their puny little pantaloons . They make me wanna puke guts. But MMG takes on all the tough issue and vital movie categories. For example,in MMG you got your sections on: Movies That Celebrate The Wanton Destruction Of Endangered Species, Cops With Big Guns, Two Cops With Big Guns, Prison Movies That Afford Their Heroes The Opportunity To Show They Can Take It Like A Man. And there are pantloads of others. Of course there are also your sundry cross-referencings amongst, betwixt and between your varied topical references which have already been heretofore aforementioned. Now, personally speakin', this here Man-strosity's movies of choice are horror and science fiction. MMG is the only book around which has Who Bear A Surprising Resemblance to Really Hot Babes, and, Horror Films That Celebrate The Vital Contribution Women Have Made to Society As Devil-Worshipping Sluts, Homicidal Hookers, and The Helpless Victims of Insanely Sadistic Psycho-Killers. Plus, MMG is the only book you'll find which gives an erudite and nuanced treatment (long-overdue) of an important movie like Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers. Plus after reading MMG I knew sure as shootin' that I could not let another weekend roll by without finding Invasion of the Bee Girls. This is just one of the many valuable lessons this king of the castle learned while reading MMG on the throne. MMG also contains a Night with a Member of the Opposite Sex. This contains suggestions of shall we say, pinkie-finger-pointed-skyward type of movie, with non-stop blabbing about feelings and love and like that) then you propose....... (a red-blooded manly type of movie with copious punching and dying due to profuse bleeding ). For example, she wants a Jodie Foster movie, you propose Taxi Driver. If you're a man, woman or Alien with enough guy-ness to like movies with double shots of ballistic mayhem, bakini-listic babes with bulbous bazookas, and multiple breakings of assorted body parts starring lips, foreheads, and cheeks, then this is the book for you. Go out and buy Manly Movie Guide or I may have to come over to your house and do my Billy Jack "I just go BER-ZERRRRK!!!!!" impression all over your cute lil' manicured law