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Title: Videohound's Dvd Guide by Mike Mayo, Jim Olenski, Gale Group ISBN: 1-57859-115-5 Publisher: Visible Ink Pr Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Video Hound has cranked out a nice film guide!
Comment: Want to read the reviews for a movie that has not been in the theatre for while then one should buy/use this source/reference tool/book in question,i.e., Videohound's Dvd Guide by Mike Mayo, Jim Olensk. In here one will find titles such as the stigmata and other classics. Recomended.
Rating: 2
Summary: Needs To Be Updated
Comment: Published in 2000, Videohound's DVD Guide is already outdated. Why? Because so many DVD titles -- both old and new-- are being released on a weekly basis that it is simply impossible to keep current. Anyone using this guide is bound to be disappointed in the large number of currently available DVDs not listed. Until studios complete the transition of all -- or at least most -- titles from VHS to DVD, such guides will continue to be out of date and of little use. As for the actual content of Videohound's Guide; it is adequate. The reviews, which are all subjective, will strike a chord with some readers, while striking a nerve with others. One useful aspect is the rating of extra features (outtakes, documentaries, trailers, etc.) which make DVDs so much fun. Unfortuneately, Videohound is inconsistent with its extras reviews. For example, the entry for the James Bond classic "Goldfinger" fails to mention the two commentaries and two documentaries featured on the "Special Edition" release. However, the entry for another Bond film, "Thunderball", does list all the extras. Overall, this guide is a great idea. However, it needs fine tuning. Videohound's VHS guides are very good and I suspect that in a couple years -- when the transition from VHS to DVD is complete -- that Videohound's DVD Guide will also be up to par. Until then, I'd wait this one out.
Rating: 2
Summary: Not quite the pedigree one would expect.
Comment: Having been an avid and exclusive user of the VideoHound Golden Movie Retriever (GMR) since 1996, I had high expectations of this DVD review guide sporting the VideoHound moniker. Unfortunately, many of the qualities I'd come to appreciate in the venerable Hound are largely lacking in this DVD guide - most notably, a sense of objectivity... First, it should be pointed out that each entry in this guide is comprised of two reviews: a review of the movie and a review of technical qualities of the DVD. As far as the technical DVD reviews are concerned, the editor(s) confesses in the one of the introductory chapters: "It would be wonderful if all of us - reviewers and readers - could have state-of-the-art 'reference' systems... But that's not the case, and so we don't presume to make definitive judgements." The problem is, one *must* have reference quality equipment to properly review DVDs. Otherwise, why bother going to the trouble of "reviewing" the technical aspects of each disc if the unknown quality of the reviewer's equipment is going to cast a questionable shadow on each review? That said, one good thing I can say about the technical aspects of the reviews in this guide is that each review list all of the special features of each disc, as well as the aspect ratio, the packaging format (i.e., snap case, keep case, jewel case etc.), the list price and so on. Most useful were the reviewers' comments on the cast/crew commentary tracks included on many DVDs, which seemed to be less biased than the reviewers' comments on the movies themselves. As for bias, the actual movie reviews presented in this DVD Guide were what was most disappointing to me. One of the advantages of the classic VideoHound GMR is that there are many contributors, a practice which seems to engender balanced, fair reviews. Although this guide also features contributions from several reviewers (the vast majority, however, being handled by editor Mayo and chief contributor Jim Olenski), I noticed a very odd and disconcerting practice that was employed numerous times: that of taking a film review from the classic VideoHound GMR and changing a couple of words here and there to support a newly altered rating (changing the 'spin' if you will); or else, incredibly, changing the rating without changing a word of the review. In a few cases, the movie was completely re-reviewed, and a different "verdict" passed on its merits, which would be fine except that we now have two inconsistent reviews of the same movie, both of which are apparently advocated by The Hound. Also, when an oddball euro-cult flick such as 'Lisa and the Devil' (originally dismissed with a "woof" by the GMR, which was perhaps a bit extreme) is suddenly bestowed a "four-bone" rating (a Masterpiece!) by the reviewer; or conversely, a moderately successful, more well-received movie such as 'Mystery Men' is given a "woof" (the actual VideoHound GMR gives it a more fair rating of 2-1/2 bones) - one tends to become wary of excessive bias in the reviewer. It goes beyond one person's opinion of this or that movie: a reviewer should try to put aside their likes and dislikes and concentrate on the movie's objective merits and demerits. Having used this VideoHound DVD guide now for about eight months, this annoying tendency towards subjective bias is something that is seen to come through in the reviews all too frequently. So my advice is: For good and fair movie reviews, buy the latest VideoHound Golden Movie Retriever instead. For good technical DVD reviews, try the Widescreen Review.
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Title: Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever 2004 (VIDEOHOUND'S GOLDEN MOVIE RETRIEVER) by Jim Craddock ISBN: 0787673129 Publisher: Gale Group Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: VideoHound's DVD Guide Book 3 by Gale Group ISBN: 0787657581 Publisher: Visible Ink Pr Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: DVD & Video Guide 2004 by MARSHA PORTER, MICK MARTIN ISBN: 0345449932 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 2004 by Leonard Maltin ISBN: 0451209400 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
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Title: Video & DVD Guide 2003 by Marsha Porter, Mick Martin ISBN: 0345449924 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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