VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever 2017: The Complete Guide to Movies on Vhs,dvd, and Hi-def Formats

We buy every edition of the VideoHound movie review books. My husband cross-references this with IMDB and other internet resources. We're disappointed that this year's edition deleted the composer and cinematographer indices. Certainly, they still offer many other helpful and interesting indexes. Thank goodness the volumes are bound with excellent glue. None of the spines has broken.

I buy this reference book for my husband for Christmas. I have been doing it for the past number of years. He is a big movie buff and he finds everything he needs so he really enjoys it.

Like any review book you have to work out the biases of the reviewers. There are so many movies, and I am so picky that I need help to improve the odds of finding movies I will like. This book will do that. It helps that I have some other different books from earlier years, and there are some wide disagreements. You can't go just by the rating, and they give enough info that you should be able to judge that you will or won't like this kind of film despite the number of stars they give it. Couple of criticisms: 1) When I see reviews of movies I'm familiar with, a lot of the descriptions are way off, like they've gotten a plot synopsis from someone else and messed it up in passing it along, though the rating is usually reasonable. 2) They don't tell you what format the movie was shot in originally. But I've watched a few newer movies that I picked based on this book, and they've been spot on. What more can you ask for?

I've gotten the latest version every year for at least ten years. This edition is 57 pages longer, but the type face is significantly smaller. I bought a magnifier with mini lights built in which makes a big difference since I keep the book next to my chair when I'm watching movies on TV. The small print in near dark would probably bug many people, but the explosion of information is exactly what I'm looking for. Some of the reviews are really terrible, especially for foreign films. Still, I find it an essential companion. Disclosure: I have a Ph.D. in cinema from U.S.C. and taught film history there and at other universities, as well as writing criticism for national papers. Mike Callahan

This book still remains the best of its kind. No other reviews whether it be from Roger Ebert, Leonard Maltin, or any other critics out there can top the ones from VideoHound. In fact, they just continue to get better and better, it seems. One may not always agree with their assessments, but that's what makes reading them so much fun and such a delight, because it gives YOU the chance to debate with your own opinions, as well. I've been getting a copy every year now for the past few years, and I know I'll continue to buy them for many more years, so long as they continue publishing them. Any die hard fan of films should never be without the "Golden Movie Retriever."

This is quite thorough, but often doesn't reflect my tastes, and generally reflects consensus. Tends to give lower ratings to lesser known films, even though some are far better than mainstream, well known films. Huge book. Doesn't include some well known foreign films. On the good side, it updates my older collection books from about 2005.

Briefly, this Movie Retriever/Guide Book far exceeded my expectations, vs. the Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide Books that I've been using for many years now. So while I was expecting ratings on mostly the newer movies that are on TV these days, most of which aren't rated, I had no idea that this book would be nearly as descriptive as it is. Yes, I was happy with the Leonard Maltin movie guides, and would have purchased another one, if they were available, when in reality, I had no idea how much better this VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever actually is. Highly Recommend!!!

The person I bought the book for is all about movies, a movie expert of sorts. He says it is the best movie information book he's ever read. He highly recommends this book. (p.s. the book is huge, like an old fashioned phone book. Lots of info!)

ES UNA BUENA GUIA EN INGLES DE PELICULAS, DESAPARECIDA YA LA DE LEONALD MALTIN. LA BUSQUEDA POR ORDEN ALFABETICO A VECES ES UN POCO COMPLICADA PUES EN ALGUNOS TITULOS PONEN EL ARTICULO POR DELANTE Y EN OTROS NO. EL PRECIO TENIENDO EN CUENTA QUE EL TIPO DE PAPEL NO ES EL DE MAYOR CALIDAD ES UN POCO ELEVADO. YO QUITARIA ALGUN INDICE COMO EL DE CATEGORIA Y RECUPERARIA EL DE LOS MUSICOS Y DE LA FOTOGRAFIA. PERO EN GENERAL ESTA BIEN Y MAS CUANDO YA ESTAN DESAPARECIENDO ESTE TIPO DE PUBLICACIONES.