Movies Books

This book is a lot of fun and really enjoyable reading. The Barbra thing is a hoot! This apparently is the first of an annual series - I can't wait till next year!

There are some wonderful essays in here. Two of the best include one about producing by a producer who worked for Robert Redford. Very interesting look at the producing life, which I've rarely seen written about. And another utterly fascinating essay by a homosexual who explains why homosexuals idolize tough, bitchy, ballsy female stars like Madonna and Streisand and Judy Garland. I've always wondered why homosexuals would idolize these type women (why women, they love men?) and this essay is an articluate glimpse into the homosexual mind.

My 3.5 yr old son loves this book. It tells a condensed version of the Finding Nemo story, and his favorite part is the last page where "Nemo loves his dad and his dad loves him." My son gives me (his dad) a special hug.

Our son, age 4.5, loves reading this book. He feels like he's reading a real big boy book! Most of the words are basic, but there are enough words to tell a real story (based on the movie, of course). Many "Level 1 Readers" are really dull for adults and kids quickly outgrow them. This book's engaging pictures and plot keep us reaching for it over and over.

My daughter just loves her Manny so it's so far proven to be a good book.

Beautiful pictures and nice story! The eight flash cards included are of the characters. My 3 year old son loves them!

I just recently obtained this book. It is quite fun and most informative. I am choosing to read this book in random order. In other words, I am randomly selecting various years and songs that are most interesting to me, and am reading it in that manner. Mr. Funnell's book really succeeds on two fundamental levels. On the one hand it is a genuinely informative, insightful, and probative study of a vitally importart body of American music. I believe that , in time, it will be regarded as one of the essential books on this topic. Yet, as valuable as the book is to the study of this important sub-genre of the American Songbook, it never bogs down into the pseduo-intellectual type of rhetoric that unfortunately typifies a lot of "serious" works on popular culture. "Best Songs of the Movies" is an engaging and lively book. This is just the sort of book that prompts one to want to curl up in a comfy chair , put on a cd of "That's Entertainment" or other suitable movie musical compilation, and read through the vaious years and songs profiled in the book. By the way, I especially appreciate Appendix 1, which provides brief capsule bios on the songwriters. Of course, we know to expect to see Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, etc. However, it is also nice to see such lesser lights as Ralph Freed, Johnny Marvin, and Allie Wrubel sharing space with the aforementioned luminaries.
In sum, this is one of the best books on American music and American movies to reach publication in quite some time.

`Best Songs of the Movies' is a superbly written reference on popular music. It is full of fascinating, detailed information and insightful comments about the songs nominated for the Oscar in the first 25 years of the award.

I found this `page-turner' very hard to put down. It's wonderful to dip into, and it will settle any argument you may have about the great songs from the movies. It is full of information that, up until now, was not easily accessible. For example, I learned from 'Best Songs' that there were two songs called `Linda'. I was intrigued to learn about the Oscar nominated `other Linda' and the movie in which it appeared. I challenge you to sing this song!

It seems there's not much interest in the Best Song Oscars these days but this book makes it clear that this was not always so. The fascinating introduction shows the historical process by which changes in popular music have led to a decline in the significance of the Best Song Oscar.

It's very clear that the author has meticulously researched the subject. The book has a very attractive design with well-chosen stills from many of the movies discussed. The Appendix, giving biographical details on all the songwriters mentioned in the book, is especially valuable.

'Best Songs of the Movies' is a delight to dip into and an indispensable guide for movie buffs and anyone who has any interest in American popular music. If you want to impress your friends with your comprehensive knowledge of popular music, you should get `Best Songs of the Movies' (but, don't tell them about the book!).

Gene D. Phillips's "Beyong the Epic: The Life & Films of David Lean" comes at a time of renewed interest in David Lean and his films, and puts perhaps the definitive stamp on this filmmaker's achievements. Though it often goes over the same ground as previous books have on Lean--especially the excellent biography by Kevin Brownlow (1996)--Phillips's book has assembled a mass of material from biographical, critical and other sources, including personal interviews with actors, colleagues and filmmakers who knew Lean, and has integrated these materials into an admirable whole, lucidly and painstaikingly evaluating the opus of Lean in its entirety. At last, Phillips offers the Lean devotees--and a broader audience--a remarkable book that places the cinematic achievemnts of David lean into proper perspective, balancing all the elements of a director whose directorial style and methods both attracted and repelled viewers and critics, some of whom still have not accorded Lean the high place he deserves among twentieth century filmmakers. Massive and minutely authenticated, tackling the knottiest problems head on, "Beyond the Epic" redresses critical lapses, and, without being maudlin or worshipful, presents an image of David Lean as, deservedly, one of the greatest narrative film directors of the twentieth century.

The film historian Phillips brings out the person, the immense talent, and the consummate skills of the director about whom one film critic wrote that David Lean's films were "too mammoth in scope and Olympian in style" for moviegoers, even students of the artistic genre, "to get an impression of the man behind the camera." Lean was an extraordinarily ambitious and skilled director who brought his particular, uncompromising touch to any movie he made. Among his movies are the panoramic classics "Dr. Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia"; "Great Expectations" and "Passage to India" adapted from major novels of different centuries; and the war movies "In Which We Serve" and "Bridge on the River Kwai." Lean worked with Alec Guiness, Katherine Hepburn, Omar Sharif, Charles Laughton, and Julie Andrews--all of whom acknowledged his indelible impact on their performances as well as the finished movie even though viewers were not distinctly aware of the director behind it, as they are in a Woody Allen or Alfred Hitchcock film for example. Phillips hones in on Lean's particular style and accomplishments by close readings of many of his 16 films. The author analyzes details of scenes from the films to cast light on Lean's techniques and masterful intentions; and he often notes commentary and critiques by critic, actors, and others for additional perspectives and appreciations of Lean's work. As his major, most memorable films show--"Lawrence of Arabia," for example--Lean was able to create and project romanticism, expansive emotions, genuine characters, and variously the sweep of history or the genius of literature without sensationalism or sentimentality. This is his characteristic, extraordinary, achievement in the world of film.

Stephanie and her two freinds try to fix Joey up on a date.They write a personal ad in a magazine.They get over 1,000 replies from the ad.They went through the mail and picked five dates for Joey to go on.They all had something wrong with them the first one wasa russian woman and she beat joey over the head with her purse.The second one was horrible the date never even happend.And the third went the same way.The fourth date was a man who didnt know it was Joey that was looking for a date.The Last and final date was with some one named Risa.Little did they know that Risa was actually Danny's date Marrisa.She dumped Danny to go out with Joey.That was on Valentines day and Danny and Joey were depressed.Stephanie while all that was going on she was trying to make a valentine for Kyle Sullivan.In the end her and Kyle Went out on a date for valentines.

I loved this book! It was one of the best books I've read in a long time. I would rate this 20 stars if the scoring went that high. Very funny. I'd reccomend this to any Full House fan.

This is an extremely well researched book regarding the African-American film industry, which is a very neglected area of the business. I highly recommend it.

This book chronicles the evolution of Black Film and Black people in films from the racist depiction of Blacks in Griffith's Birth of a Nation through the Black Diaspora to Spike Lee.

A great read

This is a great book for children of all ages. My two year old loves the story!

As a kid I bought 2 copies and I still treasure them. The book contains beautiful color photos from the motion picture with Mickey Rooney, Kelly Reno, & Teri Garr. The book contains an abbrieviated version of the story in simple large print that is great for the 7-10 age group to read. It's also a nice keepsake for those of us who still wish we could have a "Black Stallion" of our very own.

The classic mini-series from the 80s is even more vivid in print. From the first page the novel clutches the reader's heart and refuses to release it till the final word. That old cliché, " I laughed, I cried" applies so well to this wonderful novel about the great war between the states. The reader will laugh and certainly will cry.

The novel centers on two families, the Geysers and the Hales, bound by blood but divided by geography and ideology. The Virginian Geysers and the Pennsylvanian Hales are cousins but when war breaks out they are bound by pride to take up arms against each other. It's blood against blood in this horrific tale of pain and suffering and war.

John Leekley has produced an epic sure to become a classic. The Blue And The Gray is worthy to stand beside the works of Margarette Mitchel and John Jakes as the very best of Civil War literature. John Leekley's brutal imagery, described with unrelenting passion, brings the horror of that bloody conflict to vivid life.

This is American literature at its finest. Honest, thought provoking, and superbly written, The Blue And The Gray will touch the reaser's heart and reverberate through the reader's mind long after the final page is turned.

For someone looking for a more emotional view of the Civil War, with more 'people and feelings' than true history, then this is a very nice read. It is the fictionalised account of the Geyers and the Hales, cousins - one family of the South, the other from the North, that find themselves divided and fighting each other during the War Between the States in the US. The Geyers were farmers, of the land, though were not slave owners, and the story focuses around their eldest son, John, an artist who went into the war as an artist correspondent, torn by his love for both families and seeing both sides of the argument. He hates the institution of Slavery, a hatred amplified by the hanging of his black friend, a freed man for hiding fugitive slaves. The Hales were city-folk. Not only were they divided on their views, but by their styles of life. You see all the various scenes of how families were divided, how the glory of war could turn sour for the many boys simply looking for adventure.

There was a real John Geyser, and he did draw a lot of pictures as his time as a soldier. But he was not a war correspondent, and not that professional of an artists. Still is immature drawing carry a power to convey the horrors of war.

So take the 'history' with a grain of salt and enjoy the 'emotions' of the great conflict that ripped families and friends apart.

This book was basis and 'publicity' version for the CBS television mini-series The Blue and the the Gray, an epic staring the great Stacey Keech and Gregory Peck as Lincoln. This book and the mini series had Bruce Catton as consultant. I also highly recommend this mini-series as giving a human side to the conflict.

"Blue's Big Parade" is Blue's Clues book #17, once again featuring a new story style in which Blue and the other dog characters can talk. The new format seems to be working well.

It's the start of summer and Blue comes up with the idea of a summer celebration parade. They have one week to prepare and Tickety Tock is around to help keep track of the time. Kids will learn about time management and preparation as the characters ready instruments, parade floats, a song routine and more.

The pages are for the most part fully colored and the cover art is particularly great. This is a fun book for summer or any time of the year.

Summer has arrived and Blue, Joe, Magenta, Periwinkle, Green Puppy, and Purple Kangaroo are all excited about the town's upcoming summer celebration.

Blue gets the idea that they could celebrate by having their very own parade. Tickety Tock, Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper and the rest bring out a calendar to count the days until the celebration. They also use the calendar to decide which projects they need to accomplish before the parade, which is 5 days away. These include making hats, using wagons to make floats, and practicing their marching.

This delightful story is #17 in the Blue's Clue series published by Simon Spotlight/Nick Jr. By using the calendar, children can learn the days of the week, planning for future events, and breaking up large projects into manageable tasks.

Blue's Big Parade is an extra-colorful book which ends with a spectacular fireworks display. My son enjoys it very much, and I feel it's a wonderful book to celebrate summer, teamwork, planning, and accomplishing taks.