Empire; The greatest Movie Magazine in the empire! (Empire)

Member Name: ChrisandHolly

Product:	Empire
Date:	04/11/09 (105 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great writing. Excellent features. Good use of images. Great News

Disadvantages: None

This is my first magazine review so you'll have to bear with me! I'll do the best that I can!

Before writing this the 246th Issue has just been released an Empire Magazine has grown to be the "World's Biggest Movie Magazine"! (Their words not mine! So if you're from Total Film or another rival, please don't sue me, I haven't got anything anyway! Haha)

I have been getting Empire Magazine every month for about 2 years now and I make sure I never miss an issue.

If there is anything you need to know about the world of Movies and the Movie Industry, then this is the Magazine you must have! I'll try to break down the magazine into sections so that you can see what there is within the magazine.

CONTENTS & LETTERS
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After you've flicked through a few pages of adverts that all magazines seem to have now-a-days, you reach a well laid out Contents page where you can see what pages all the articles are on. This is really useful if you really want to find an article fast that you've seen on the front page! You'll know just where to turn to! These pages really show how much they've crammed in to each Issue!

The next page is full of letter that the public have wrote in, usually about the last issue.

NEWS ETC.
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The first look and the last word.

This section is full of all the latest news about new and upcoming films. Along the bottom of these pages there is a strip where there are short "News Bulletins" that often give interesting little facts and hints towards new films.

In this section there are also some great interviews with Actors/Actresses and a My Movie Mastermind quiz where each week they ask a celebrity 10 questions about films they are in/have directed. They are then scored out of 10. I really enjoy seeing their answers and it's really interesting to see how much they actually know about their films! Tarantino is currently top with 9/10, Michael Keaton is bottom with a pitiful 3/10!

IN CINEMAS
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This is the review section of the magazine and all the newest releases are reviewed are the next pages. Each movie is rated using the Empire 5 Star system...
5 Stars = Classic
4 Stars = Excellent
3 Stars = Good
2 Stars = Fair
1 Star = Tragic

I always find the reviews to be very fair and accurate and the writers never give too much of the plot away! If Empire gives a film 1 Star, it really is a film you should avoid! Although you still have to remember that it is just one person's opinion and some other critics may love the film! (Like this is just my opinion!)

They usually give the first pages to the biggest releases and the biggest films sometimes get as much as a four page review. The smaller films get less space but they are still worth a read.

On the last page of this section they have all the US & UK Box Office figures so you can see what films are doing well. I always find it interesting to see what films do well here compared to what does well 'Over the Pond'.

FEATURES
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The features are just the middle of the magazine. It is always different, and there are a lot of them. For example, in the latest December Issue there are 9 different features, looking in depth at different films that are coming out, Icons of the Decade, big interviews with the stars, Looking back at classic films.... the list can go on and on.

I love seeing what there is in every issue. It is always very varied so, as Forrest Gump once said, "You never know what y'gonna get"! It's not always to my tastes, but there is always at least 2 articles that I read every word of.

AT HOME
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This section reviews every DVD & Blu-ray that will be released in the month ahead. It gives the mark out of five for the film as well as a mark out of five for the additional features on the DVD/Blu-ray.

I find this section very useful as it gives all the release dates as well as R.R.P of each film so I can plan how much of my wage I'm going to spend on films!

They also have a small section on Video Games, Books and Soundtracks!

THE TOP 10
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I really like The Top 10 section as they look at different parts of cinema every month and it usually a very good read. This month (Dec) it is The Top 10 Bathroom Scenes, with the Eee! Eee! Eee! scene from Psycho taking the top spot. In the October Issue it was The Top 10 Creepy Kids where Miles & Flora from The Innocents claimed first place. I wonder what it will be next month!

CLASSIC SCENE
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The last page of Empire Magazine. This page looks back at a Classic Scene from cinema history. (The name of the section kind of gives that away!) It describes the famous scene and gives the script for it. This is a great section for film buffs and it can bring back memories of great films that you must watch again!

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& that's it, a cover to cover run down of my favourite magazine! If you love going to the cinema and watching DVD's as much I do then Empire Magazine is definitely the magazine for you!

I've tried many other movie magazines but I always prefer Empire as I just really love the style of the magazine and the layout of its features. The photographs that go with the articles are always great and they aren't too small.

I feel that a movie magazine need great pictures that are a decent size, as a movie is something you watch to visually you have to be enticed by the images!

The writers do a great job and they really know what they are talking about, which is what you'd expect really, but as with other magazines I've read, you don't always get!

It is only £3.99 per Issue and as it is only out once a month I don't think that it is a lot to spend. (Especially if the magazine saves you from wasting money seeing a rubbish film at the cinema!)

You can subscribe to Empire Magazine for only £25 for 12 Issues, that's £25 a year, great value! It works out at just £2.08 per Issue saving nearly 50% with free delivery direct to your door! I'm not sure why I haven't subscribed yet.... I'll have to doo it soon! Every now and then they also throw in some free DVDs with the subscription; I'll wait until they offer some good'uns!

In conclusion, if you are interested in films, you should buy Empire Magazine. I'm not going to miss an issue!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review.

C

Summary: The movie magazine that you'll always find in my Living Room!