Goodbye, Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by lbangs, Aug 19, 2014.

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  1. Mirrorblade.1

    Mirrorblade.1 Forum Resident

    I have Video Hounds 2001 movie guide every year after it got smaller.
     
  2. Rachael Bee

    Rachael Bee Miembra muy loca

    I just bought a book about fishing knots. Instructional is my gig at this point.

    Book burning may come back in style...? Maybe we'll burn them to spin turbines this time? ;)
     
  3. Seederman

    Seederman Forum Resident

    All-Music, All-Film, All-Whatever, is kind of becoming a threat, in a way... I wonder if they've had an IPO?

    In my idle teendom, I spent hours pouring through Maltin's guides (along with other kinds of guides, I was into guides). The trick with his guides was to read between the lines. There were certain films that got *1/2 that you knew would be solid *** films, just based on the rating, genre, and description. It got easy to predict what would get **** (some surprise omissions), and one could triangulate from the reviews which ones were really ** snorefests...
     
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  4. lbangs

    lbangs Senior Member Thread Starter

    Only if that island has a decent cinema...

    Shalom, y'all!

    L. Bangs
     
  5. Rachael Bee

    Rachael Bee Miembra muy loca

    Couldn't he just take one with him? When I pick out my island, that's what I'm gonna do. ;)
     
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  6. Uther

    Uther Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicagoland
    For the most part, I didn't agree with Maltin. After all, he gave Laserblast two and a half stars!
     
    Michael likes this.
  7. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    5 stars just for Cheryl!
     
  8. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I only used his guide for movies that were on DVD back then...reviews? not a chance.
     
  9. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    there are instructional vids on U-Tube.
     
  10. Rachael Bee

    Rachael Bee Miembra muy loca

    Is there one about how to make a turbine and live on your own grid...? ;)
     
  11. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    probably is!
     
  12. John54

    John54 Senior Member

    Location:
    Burlington, ON
    What, is Mecha-Streisand on the loose again and he's lost Robert Smith's phone number?
     
  13. Rupe33

    Rupe33 Senior Member

    Location:
    Maryland
    IronWaffle likes this.
  14. htom

    htom Senior Member

    Location:
    Montreal, Canada
    The other loss that really hurt was the Time Out Film Guide, and that one stopped with the 2011 edition. Reviews aside, it filled in the gaps for foreign language film the other guides left open, and actually featured primary production credits (scenarist, music composer, DOP, etc) as well.
     
    lbangs likes this.
  15. lbangs

    lbangs Senior Member Thread Starter

    Plus, I savored Geoff Andrew's writing.

    Shalom, y'all!

    L. Bangs
     
  16. What, it only took him 35 years!

    Once I've found a critic who's tastes and (generally) opinions reflect mine, I stick to them simply because I know whether or not I'll enjoy a film based on their review. I will miss Roger Ebert more than Maltin's guide myself (Maltin's value to me has always been as a film historian rather than a film critic). I didn't always agree with Ebert (something I do miss about Ebert and Gene Siskel--they balanced each other out. I also found that even if I disagree with Siskel, he always brought intelligent conversation to the table and challenged Ebert. They may have popularized film criticism and brought it to the masses in an easy to digest format with their thumbs up/down approach but that didn't mean that they dumbed down the conversation in the process).

    For example when Ebert attacked David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" I thought he missed the entire point of the film because he was so offended by Lynch's material at the time. Of course Roger eventually came back and recanted (I think it was within the same year) eventually admitting that, while it was unpleasant to view, he had missed the point and condemned it out of hand.



    This is more, perhaps, for a thread on "Blue Velvet" but I think that Siskel hits it on the head when he points out that "Blue Velvet", like Hitchcock's "Psycho", is about making us uncomfortable with the film and even the choices as viewer of choosing to watch the film as well as the contrast between the Disney world that we are told exists as children (or at least some of us) and the brutal reality. It's also about the various traps that we allow ourselves to be drawn into either by choice or because we are forced to do so.


    There are very few critics that I've established a bond with today like this. If I want an opinion of a film that I'm bound to disagree with (although it's always an intelligent and informed opinion) locally, I find that Mick LaSalle of the SF Chronicle is an interesting guy to read. I almost ALWAYS disagree with his take on the merit of a film but, even when I do, it's always enlightening.

    The problem isn't with criticism per se but the trend to dumb it down for readers. You can make something fairly easy to understand and STILL make it challenging.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2014
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  17. tonyc

    tonyc Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I have an old guide from years ago that I still use occasionally to check on something that may be airing on TCM. Good for a synopsis more than his opinion.
     
  18. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    yes, I always just go by the synopsis as well...I do not need a critic to make a decision for me either way...it's a personal decision...
     
  19. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    That was certainly a grievous mistake. Alien is a great film, very influential, very successful, very well-done. I think it suffers from the "stupid character" plot problem -- where everybody splits up and searches the deepest, darkest parts of the spaceship for the alien all by themselves -- but other than that, it's a smart, funny, scary film. And also very beautiful to look at.
     
    lbangs likes this.
  20. aussievinyl

    aussievinyl Appreciator Of Creative Expression

    It is a shame - I have the 2009 but haven't really looked at it since. I think some people took a look at Leonard and got an idea of what his tastes were. Film critics tend to be very idiosyncratic - you love or hate them. Recently, I've been buying old copies of THE TIME OUT FILM GUIDE, which others have mentioned. I don't mind that it was the 2000 edition - funnily, I felt that not too many classics had been made since then. The tone of some of the reviews is quite sniffy, but hey, at least we can hopefully see the film for ourselves, if it sounds interesting enough. I mean who wouldn't want to see the original THE WICKER MAN, the first Scottish pagan mystery thriller musical?
     
  21. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    I've owned several additions of it...

    Sad to see it go but with the internet not much use for one anymore....
     
  22. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    My favorite scenes of Alien are them just hanging out together...
     
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