Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever

At 1,812 pages, this is a very heavy book, and absolutely has no equal as a video guide. If you like to turn on the TV and play "guess the movie", you'll find it invaluable.Though I don't always agree with the reviews, the 1030 pages of A-Z video descriptions are very complete, it includes many foreign films, and has a healthy sense of humor throughout the entire tome. The ratings are in "dog talk", ranging from "4 BONES" for the likes of "Casablanca", to "WOOF !" for Showgirls.If you like trivia and lists, this is list heaven. It has an "Alternate Title" list, a "Category" list, "Kibbles & Series", "Awards" index, and the most complete cast, director, writer, cinematographer, and composer indexes you can get.With each new issue, extras are added, so this is a good one to update at least every other year, besides...your copy will be worn out by then......and a meaty butcher's bone to editor Jim Craddock and this "Cunning Canine Production" for giving us a book I can't live without !

Absolutely the most comprehensive reference you will find for the movie business. There is cross-referencing by actor, actress, director, composer, writer... You get the picture. And it doesn't stop there - you can pretty much guarantee that ANY movie you've ever seen, ever watched a few minutes of, or had ever even heard spoken of, will be in this book! Movies are rated on a woof!-to-four-bone scale and fall in line with most people's opinions. I've worn my copy out.

Since I found Videohound movie guides 7 years ago, I will never buy any other movie guide.My favorite part is the index which lists famous characters from books, so I can see what I'm reading. It also frequently matches my own opinion, so it also serves as a "rental recommendation". Can't beat that!

I have been bought Videohound's editions in 1994, 1997, and 2000. Each time the book is republished, the page count increases. There is a magazine rack in our bathroom, built into the wall. It no longer fits in the rack like the previous editions. We refer to the Hound more often than any book we have ever purchased. It is the equivalent of the Encyclopedia Brittanica of video guides, shrunk down to "only" 1,700 plus pages.At a penny a page, the Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever is the biggest bargain in movie guides.It is not only the biggest, it is the best. I have given my "old" copies to parents and friends, and it they are still using these "outdated" (1994, 1997) editions as a reference for watching Direct TV and cable.

I've been plunking down... $ a year for 5 years now for the annual VideoHound guide, and I'm quite happy I've done so. No one video guide is complete, but VH comes the closest, reviewing not only the a-list movies, but many of the b-to-z grade movies too. The reviews are concise and usually informative (and often sarcastic), and I tend to agree with most of the ratings given. The VH also attempts to make available format information beyond the standard VHS and DVD- you can look up whether a movie was released on 8-mm videocassette, laserdisc, CD-i, and Beta, as well. However, the information on these alternate formats is quite scanty- probably half of the movies in my laserdisc collection are listed as being VHS or VHS/Beta only.The VH doesn't stop where other movie guides do- almost half of the book consists of indexes- some incredibly useful, some not. The star and director indexes are alone worth the price of the book- my only complaint is that the star index only lists people with several movies under their belt. Stars who have appeared in only one or two movies don't show up- but perhaps an index listing them would be prohibitively large. The category index (want movies about waitresses or poetry?) is fun, but most of the listings are merely representative, rather than comprehensive. The VH contains quite a few more indexes, reflecting movie awards, cinematographers, and more.I wish the book contained alternate titles alphabetically in the body of the movie index (with a reference to the title the movie is reviewed under.) This would obviate the need for the alternate title index, and would make searching for movies a lot more intuitive. I also have quibbles with some of the movie reviews and ratings, but this is a given in any video guide. These complaints are minor, however- the VideoHound fills the role of video guide incredibly well, better than any other book I've ever tried.