Time Out' Film Guide

The Time Out film guide is one of the best cinema quick reference books. It contains short 50-100 word capsule reviews of literally thousands of major movies (to give you an idea, it has three columns of closely printed text per page, and a total of some 1700 pages!). Occasionally, a movie is deemed worthy of a longer review, leading to page-long mini-essays called 'cinefiles' on everything from Mash to Lilith to Bullets over Broadway. There are also a number of sections called 'Backstory', which often present an insider's view of a movie, or an interview with a key figure. At the end of a book, there's a section listing movies by director, genre and actor. This is ...

Okay I know there’s the Internet Movie Database which tells you just about everything you could ever want to know about films, but in my view there’s something immensely satisfying about having a film reference book sitting on your living room shelf. “Look at me! I’m seriously into films” it seems to shout from the shelves (err maybe that’s just me) and the Oscar for best film reference book has to go to Time Out. Forget Halliwell’s with its brief reviews and complicated symbols which you need to be a Mensa member to read, this is the king of film review books! The Time Out Film Guide is currently in its 9th ed. (it ...

While Halliwell's guide is also a good source of information, after not much deliberation I have awarded Time Out the title of King Of Film Guides. The reviews are as good as in Halliwell's and better than those in the Virgin film guide. As film reference books go, this is a fountain of facts and in depth opinions, which are set just write between the general movie-goer and the true film-buff. The series is regularly updated and has been a constant help in searching for old films, getting opinions on videos I have seen or am about to watch. Sensibly, the reviewers do not give marks out of ten, but simply offer an objective view of each film. ...