Reviews of the Review Book
Patrick Sauriol of Corona Coming Attractions liked it, and here's some of what he wrote: "Miller dredges up skeletons from the closet of stars, casting back to their earliest acting jobs, as well from future Oscar-winning directors like Peter Jackson. I quite liked Chapter 8, "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time", since it seems the most appropriate way to quantify Catwoman, Batman and Robin, The Love Guru and Steven Speilberg's 1941." Click here to read the entire review.
Tom at Motion Picture Gems liked it, and among the nice things that he wrote was: "If you are familiar with any of Steve's blogs, then you can rest assured that this new guide to the "worst of the worst" is written by none other than a movie buff who has seen thousands of movies over the course of a lifetime. Mean-spirited this book is not; in the opening acknowledgements, Steve tips his hat to all of the filmmakers involved who have provided many hours of enjoyment." Click here to read the entire review.
Horror Bob at The Horror Review pretty much liked it, and he wrote: "While we may agree to disagree with some of the films that Miller considers to be the worst of the worst, with the the other 90%, I agree. It is actually a great reference book, one that I wish I had had ten years ago so I wouldn’t have wasted weeks of my life watching and reviewing bad films, but all in all, it’s a great book to keep by your bedside at night for reference." Click here to read the full review.
Brian Bankston at Cool Ass Cinema (www.coolasscinema.com) mostly liked it, and he wrote: "It's quite a fun read peppered with various funny movie lines and trivial annotations. It's all written in brevity briskly moving the reader from one review to the next." He also wrote that: "The one part of the book I took issue with (and it's one of the more apt reasons to read critical notices on films with differing opinions) was the inclusion of certain titles that, at least to me, were anything but bad movies." Click here to read the full review.
Luke Bonnano at www.dvdizzy.com liked it, and he writes: "A book beating up on bad movies could easily come across as mean-spirited or pretentious. Miller's is neither of these things, as he displays a clear taste for trash and says as much as in his introduction. I enjoyed this and if you've gotten kicks out of bad movies on more than one occasion, you probably will too. It's a quick read and also fun to just page through." Click here to read the full review.
Steve Simels at www.boxofficemagazine.com didn't like it, and he states that he was annoyed enough to write: "To give Miller his due, he includes enough background info on the films being dissed that I suppose 150 Movies is not without some small value as a reference work. Mostly, though, the book kind of seesaws between WTF? wrongheadedness and a really annoying philistinism (the latter a pitfall that's perhaps built into the bad movie book genre, as anybody who's ever actually read the Medved Brothers' various Golden Turkey tomes can attest.)" Click here to read the full review.
Melissa Hansen at www.dvdverdict.com had this to say on her blog: "Let's face it: some movies are just made to be made fun of." Click here to read the full post.
"150 Movies You Should (Die Before You) See" is currently on sale at in all good and proper book stores and online book and media retailers. (And if they don't have the book, then they're NOT good and proper book stores or online retailers. So there.)
If you've read it, please feel free to offer your opinion on it in the comments section, or ask me about it/any entries in the book. And if you've posted a review to your blog, email me about it. I may include a link to it on this blog.
Posts
Simels' comments about "Why Heaven's Gate Really Failed" would be more believable if the film hadn't premiered only two weeks or so after Reagan's election.
ReplyDeleteI've just ordered the book, Steve. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteMatthew: My reading has led me to believe that "Heaven's Gate" failed because the critics were ticked at the director not for politics but because of his attitude. They panned it unfairly, to some degree, for that reason. Oh... and it failed because it was too damn long and self-indulgent on its initial release. (In retrospect, I focused too much on the film's financials in my write-up in the book... but then again, that WAS the focus of the chapter it's featured in.)
ReplyDeleteVenom: Thank you! I hope you enjoy it.
Anyone with the least knowledge of the kind of things Cimino wasted UI's money on during the making of Heaven's Gate will be mightly amused by Simels's claim that every dollar's on the screen. Down the drain more like.
ReplyDeleteMatthew: I agree. While reading up on the production of the movie, I was amazed at how he wasted time and money through bad planning, egoism, and irresponsibility.
ReplyDeleteSteve, I love the book, but I thought for sure that Halloween III: Season of the Witch would make the chapter entitled Happy Holidays.
ReplyDeleteTom: Happy Holidays to you, too! And "Season of the Witch" WAS under consideration, but it ended up not making the cut.
ReplyDelete(And a belated "thanks" to Venom5... I coulda sworn I posted a reply, but it's not here, so I must not have hit 'post comment.')
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone who has been kind enough to buy my book!
You did, Steve. You told me you hoped I enjoyed it, which I did. The comment looks to have been deleted accidentally, lol.
ReplyDeleteI just looked back over the comments... and I see that I DID apparently address the vanishing post in another reply (where (I repeated my thanks).
ReplyDeleteI think gremlins are getting into the comments section or something. :)