Into Films? - Then Get This Book. (Halliwell's Film and Video Guide)

Member Name: jaybee

Product:	Halliwell's Film and Video Guide
Date:	24/10/00 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full of information that's easy to understand.

Disadvantages: none really

Halliwells Film & Video Guide is a great reference book. It is packed with information that would be great for the film buff, or for someone who might be doing research, or for someone setting a quiz, which needs information about films.

Watching films on television, or renting a video that you’ve never heard of can be a bit of a lottery, you can take a lot of the guesswork away by reading a copy of Halliwells, getting the overall synopses, plots, actors, running time and any other information about the film that is pertinent, before actually deciding if it's worth watching.

The book contains more than 23000 reviews of films, using an easy to understand rating system,which is useful in choosing a film at a glance. I personally find the reviews are pretty much spot on, although everyones taste is different and I'm sure you won't always agree with every one of them.

The films are listed alphabetically and each entry follows the same format: Publicity tags – publicity for the films trailers press releases etc: Ratings: A rating system of stars from 0 to 4 stars, no stars meaning it’s just an ordinary film. or worse, to 4 stars which is outstanding in some way, maybe production, remarkable acting, film score etc.
Country of Origin - Country where film was made.
Year of release – Not necessarily the year the film was made, but the year it was first shown.
Running time, production credits, Family viewing, Alternative title, Synopses, writer, director, photography,
Music credits, Cast in order of appearance, Critics comments - well known critics views on the films when first released. Academy awards if any.

As you can see from all the above it tells you just about everything you would ever need to know about a film.
All the above categories are indicated by icons which are printed at the foot of each page, and you soon remember what each icon means.

There is also a separ
ate at-a-glance list of all 3or 4 star films in the book. Other information in the book is a list of all Academy Award Winners in each major category since 1927/28. If you have this book you will have as much information as you will need about films.

I reckon this book is about as comprehensive a listing as you will get. It’s easy to use, full of information and trivia, and for it’s size and content is not too expensive. I’ve got a soft back copy and it costs £19.99. Well worth the money in my opinion.

Summary: