Movie Review:

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die: 5th Anniversary Edition
$35.00
I hate to ever give anything a 1 star rating but this book is useless based on the fact that IT GIVES AWAY THE ENDINGS TO MOVIES! What were they thinking? I think it is acceptable to give away movie endings if you are writing an in depth article or paper exploring cinematic technique, character studies or something along those lines. What the authors have done here is written two and three paragraph summations of films and tell you who dies, gets married, wins the fight etc... For example the page on the German/French film Funny Games tells the reader who dies and how it ends. It's a short half page description of the film and rather than tell us why we "must see it before we die" such as great acting or beautiful cinematography they just tell us what happens so we don"t have to watch the film at all! Read the page on the movie Scream and you will know who commits the murders. This book is full of beautiful movie pics on every page so it's a shame that you take your chances reading about any of the films you haven't seen because they may ruin the ending for you!

Roger Ebert's Four-Star Reviews 1967-2007
$24.99
as it says on the jacket to one of ROGER's annual film reference guides , it's like having a conversation with a good friend . when i was younger , i saw eye to eye with MR. EBERT the lion's share of the time . as i grew older , a greater dispairity of opinion between myself and ROG began to occur . i noticed he had a strong disposition in favor of film with a very liberal agenda . that's hardly the point though . not only would it be profoundly boring if we always agreed , i'd lose . i'd lose one of the very best sources of film appreciation to which i could avail myself . oh , many is the time i wondered who slipped him an envelope to grant a good review to a film i though haughty or pretentious or heavy handed or crumby or stupid . but at the end of the week or month or however long i would go without reading ROGER , i knew i was not utilizing my favorite film critic . hell , we seldom agree on horror or comedy movies . who cares . he's still the man . he's put himself out there for public consumption for 40 years now . when he's on (and it's often) he's simply a great author . and he writes to meet deadlines . amazing body of work really . enthralling as a matter of fact . ***** . oh , and he's not watchin' the DVD like we are .

City Secrets Movies: The Ultimate Insider's Guide to Cinema's Hidden Gems: A City Secrets Book
$19.95
This is an amazing little book on films and well worth the wait on Amazon. Not sure why it takes so long to get this book but either way it's great. Inside you will find an eclectic mix of films as listed by many film insiders. When I got the book I was happy to see favorites of mine like Nausicaa, It's A Gift, Buckaroo Banzi, Against All Odds, After Hours, Dead Man, Gattaca, Liquid Sky, Stardust Memories, and The Third Man. While no book like this can ever have everything I was hoping to see a listing for Never Cry Wolf, a personal favorite of mine, and a much overlooked film. Still, this book is great and there are dozens and dozens of films I have never seen so there is a lot to keep me busy. That is why I bought the book, to get introduced to others much lauded diamonds in the rough.

The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, Updated & Revised (Film Critics of the New York Times)
$24.95
If you want lists of the best films, I would suggest you do a search on google. You will find many good lists, including this list from New York Times's reviews. The NYT list is biased towards US films but that is obvious since it is an American newspaper. This book would have been very useful before the age of the Internet.