Reviews Books

Everybody Loves Raymond has to be the one of the funniest comedies on TV today. It has been playing since 1996 and is still fresh and funny in it's brand new episodes.
The cast includes:
-Ray Romano as Ray Barone, the overall star of the show. He has a house, a job as a sports writer for Newsday, a wife Debra (Patricia Heaton), and three children- two twin boys (Jeffrey and Michael) and a girl (Ally). Ray's ignorance is quite funny!
-Patricia Heaton as Ray's wife, Debra Barone. she is much more intelligent than him and is always tolerating Ray's family. She's the only "normal one" of the bunch!
-Brad Garrett as Ray's older brother, Robert Barone. Robert is always insanely jealous of his younger brother and how "lucky" he is for living Robert's dream of having a house and a family. Robert, for a time, lives with his and Ray's parents, but eventually moves out and gets his own apartment. Robert is always visiting Ray's home and is also always craving attention from his mother, Marie, since Raymond is undoubtedly her favorite child.
-Doris Roberts as Marie, Ray's mother. Marie lives across the street with Ray's father (Frank) and is an unbelievable cook. She is not particularly fond of Debra, and always finds some flaw with anything Debra is doing or cooking. She loves to make fun of Debra's housework and cooking. She is constantly made fun of by her husband, Frank, who obviously cannot stand her even though they have been married for 45 years. She undoubtedly favors Raymond over Robert, and even openly admits it a few times, such as in one of my favorite quotes: "I knew something was wrong with that meatloaf, I should have thrown it out or given it to Robbie." However, despite her unfriendly sides, she loves her family truly and always attempts to act out of love (though it doesn't always appear that way).
-And finally, Peter Boyle as Ray's father, Frank. Frank is a truly disgusting man who doesn't show love well and totally lacks taste or class in public. According to Ray, he once "peed in the yard" and "threw his shoe at a flamingo to protect his sandwich". Frank's comments to Marie are hilarious (as are Marie's comments to Debra). In one Thanksgiving episode, Frank admits that he truly loves Marie, which is obviously why their relationship has lasted 45 years. Frank thoroughly enjoys all types of food and cooking and also watching TV with his pants unbuckled.

So, there you have it. ELR is truly a great show. And while the upcoming season ('04-'05) will be it's last, this book is the perfect companion to the show, including lots of show information and pictures. If you love ELR, you should get this book.

Also, check out ELR: Season 1 on DVD here at Amazon.

"Everybody Loves Raymond: Our Family Album" is an ideal companion for the classic sitcom that ran for 9 successful years and continues to be loved through daily reruns.

Written by Ray Romano and series creator Phil Rosenthal, this book contains extensive information about the show, the cast and crew, and the individual episodes. It really is the perfect thing for fans who can't get enough of the show and want something a little more. This book includes an interview from everyone in the main cast (as well as some crew members), they talk a little bit about the Sweeten kids (who, of course, played Ray and Debra's three children on the show), and hundreds of color photos fill every page (both stills from the actual episodes and candid behind-the-scenes pictures). There are highlighted sections for some of the most popular episodes from each season, which are accompanied by photos and lighthearted comments from Romano and Rosenthal. There are even pictures and information about some of the cast and crew's real-life family members, which die-hard fans will love to see. Then, at the end, there is a complete episode guide for the first 7 1/2 seasons, which lists a brief synopsis and a "memorable moment" from each episode.

The only problem with this book is that, as I mentioned above, it only covers Seasons 1-7 and half of Season 8. I personally don't understand why they didn't at least wait until the entire Season 8 wrapped up before publishing this. Hopefully, though, they will come out with a revised edition that goes all the way through Season 9. Despite that, however, this is still a very valuable book to buy if you are an avid fan of "Raymond." It offers a lot of insight from everyone involved with the show, and it is more than just a short book with some pictures. It's very precise and informative, and you really get a feeling of what a special group of people worked together for those 9 years. It is sad that they could not continue the series for at least one more season, but they certainly went out on top and have deserved every bit of the credit they have received. "The sitcom of our times," it is indeed!

Oh!! i just cant get enough of the series. This book brings you inside stories, pictures and what not. Yeah, it does not cover all 9 seasons, but is still a great buy @ Amazon. Because they sell it pretty cheap here.

Go ahead and get one. You would love it.

I just got this book last week and I was amazed at how many pictures of the show were in there and they even put how they make an episode,now I know It's kind of weird a kid watching elr but everytime i watch the show I crack up, I have seen ATon of episodes and I also own seasons 5&6 on dvd.if you are addicted to everybody loves raymond like me and watch the show everytime It's on than this is definintly 1,000,000% the book for you there Is only on con about the book and here It is.

CON:the book only covers seasons 1-7 and a tiny bit of 8.

excelent resource for the bedside nurse to care for patients with advanced illness. Great tables and recommendations for multiple symptoms.

Although I have been a icu nurse for the past 20 years, I am new to end of life care. This book is with me for reference. I am becoming more informed each day. I especially like the fact I can research a symptom and then treat it without delay. The lay out of the book is easy to follow with fifteen of the most common symptoms experienced with the dying.

An excellent Primer on the subject with clinical vignettes and straight-forward discussion and therapeutic suggestions.

I recently started as a Hospice Nurse. I have found this book to be a great tool. It is very simple to use and easily understood.

Having left South West London twenty five years ago I have, like most of us, wondered what the kids I grew up with are doing now. Up until around `81' I would go back to visit every couple of weeks and the conversation would invariably turn to "Who's in jail?" "Who just got out?" Eventually the question would become "Who's dead?" "Who's alive?"

I remember one of my best friends Noel showing me a paper clipping from the South London Press reporting on his failed stick up of an off-license in Balham. By 1980 that was the way the wind was blowing. As kids we were always involved in some life threatening escapade or another, but it was more for kicks and only occasionally criminal. But by the time half my friends were in remand centres or borstals I knew I was well out of it.

So although it came as a massive surprise, it really shouldn't have, when I recently discovered that the aforementioned Noel is now better known as Razor Smith and is currently serving life for armed robbery.

Smith has shot, slashed and robbed his way into gangland legend. Before his life sentence he was the frightener in a gang of four known as the `Laughing Bank Robbers' who carried out a string of bank raids around South London, he has fifty eight criminal convictions to his name and has now chosen to write his autobiography - "A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun."

Described by G.Q magazine as "One of the most powerful and intelligent crime memoirs we've ever read" and "extraordinary" by the Guardian, I just thought it plain surreal to be standing in the middle of Waterstones seeing my name included in the `lavishly blood splattered' memoirs of a major career criminal. Names, places, incidents, half forgotten friends and enemies and even my brother all contextualised in the pre-teen remembrances of a kid I took my first and only pinch with. (For messing around on a railway track - ironically) And although Smith is no killer and I'm certainly no choirboy - I felt like Pat O'Briens's priest from the movie `Angels With Dirty Faces' reading about the gangster exploits of his boyhood chum Rocky Sullivan played by James Cagney. In fact we were all Cagney fanatics in those days, endlessly acting out scenes from White Heat or Public Enemy on the roof tops of Streatham High Road.

The book goes on to outline various `tear ups' between all those old sub-cultures of the late 70's such as the Rockabilly's, Skinheads, Punks, Smoothies and Teds which culminated, perhaps, some of the most notorious pre-gun gang wars such as `The Battle of Morden,' `The White Swan Massacre,' and the seemingly fortnightly riots at the Chickaboom Club in Carlshalton. But by the time most of these incidents took place I was lost in music and Razor had gone the way of the gun.

As I say, we all wonder about what happened to the kids we grew up with. I just never thought I'd find out in such a spectacular fashion.

Noel `Razor' Smith is currently residing in HMP Grendon.

I can't say that I am a fan of criminal autobiographies. And Razor Smith is not a notorious criminal of the Dillinger variety. He's a common thief, a man who used guns, knives and other physical violence to frighten others into giving them his money. He justifies his bank robberies, his primary vocation, by saying the deposits were insured. But who does Smith think pays for the insurance premiums? Who does Smith think pays for the stress and trauma he inflicted on innocent people who just happened to be there when he threatened their lives with his gun?

None of that, however, takes away from Smith's skill as a writer. Now serving what could be the rest of his natural life in prison, much of Smith's autobiography sounds like leftists like Leonard Bernstein during the 70s: it's the victim's fault for making the criminal. Nonsense. Smith chose his own life.

Smith appears remarkably candid in recounting his youth and how he gravitated toward the criminal life, not only because it beat working in more traditional means to earn a living, but because such petty criminality is remarkably common in England. At first I didn't believe Smith's tales of promiscuous youthful violence as a way of English life. A bit of research confirmed his claims. England is not Paradise.

As a grown man whose son had his own problems with the police and committed suicide, Smith sounds remorseful. Whether this is a ploy to advance his claim for parole is obviously unknowable. Regardless, Smith's memoir of his life is an enthrally, worthwhile excursion into the criminal's mind. Well-written and absorbing.

Jerry

South Londoner Noel "Razor" Smith's long history of crime culminated as a member of "The Laughing Bank Robbers", an armed firm known for their "gallows humour" who cracked jokes while collecting their loot - even, on one job, dressing in festive Santa hats and wishing terrified customers and staff a "Merry Christmas". Smith was also part of the Rockabilly scene who with his gang the Balham Wildkatz battled it out with punks, skinheads and other rivals at a time when the various London subcultures were tearing into each other at every opportunity with boots, fists, and whatever else was handy.

"A Few Kind Words..." stands head and shoulders above most crime memoirs. Firstly, it is not ghostwritten - Smith discovered a talent for writing whilst behind bars that eventually got him published in national newspapers. Secondly, prison is where he is right now, serving a life sentence (or technically speaking, eight of them). So let's just say that, on top of being extremely well-written, this book has an edge over much of its 'Real Crime' contemporaries in what can often be quite a tacky and superficial run-of-the-mill genre.

Smith loads his memoir with enough raucous mayhem to more-than-satisfy on the entertainment front, but also often pauses for intelligent, analytical reflections on the workings of his own criminal mind, and the life he has spent "fashioning the chains that now bind him". Through writing, he says, he has "found a more acceptable way of expressing himself" than via the violence and crime that has taken away his most basic human right: freedom.

Born in 1960 into an average Irish working-class family, Smith has none of the usual excuses of a broken home or violent abuse to account for his slip down the wrong tracks, and to his credit, insists it was entirely his own choice, something he walked into with eyes wide open to the consequences. Yet, in his exploration of the past, he interestingly cites an adolescent experience of unprovoked "torture" and forced false-confession at the hands of drunken police as a turning-point in his attitude towards "the system", sparking a rebellious spirit that - who knows - may not have otherwise been there, or atleast come so prominently to the fore. He also explains what it was like during the 70s when, with the IRA's bombing campaign at its height and anti-Irishness rife, London-Irish kids were often compelled to either feign Englishness or assert their own identity, sometimes physically.

Though such factors alone can hardly take the blame for the self-destructive one-man crimewave that Smith became, it does suggest how he would have felt the kind of outsider status that can often can lead in a lawless direction. However, with Smith's addiction to the power and adrenaline of armed robbery ("It was a rush that no amount of cocaine or Ecstasy could imitate") it is hard to imagine anything other than participation in an actual war (Smith's own suggestion, by the way) satiating such an overwhelming urge.

Smith gets great pleasure in considering himself one of the last London "Chaps", criminals who followed codes of conduct and honour taken from noir gangster films and westerns. Here he paints all the usual mythical pictures of gangsters who were honest, moral and fair (as opposed to the modern stereotypical urban criminal, cracked-up to the eyeballs, and would kill his own granny for a tenner). But in wild contradiction, he also describes himself as "a thug from a council estate" who admits to acts of violence that were "vicious and heinous" - such as his penchant for slashing faces, presumably - hence the nickname. (The book actually ends in a statement of show-off criminal no-value that defies the writing's overall intelligence.)

Nevertheless, Smith generally paints himself as human rather than hero (he doesn't always win - he often quite brutally loses), and he writes with an awareness that, due to his endless weakness for tempers, tantrums and slashings, he is not exactly endearing himself to the reader. But that is a winning ingredient, because in a crime memoir the down-to-earth honesty and lack of excuses makes a real change.

Mirroring Smith's life, much of the book is set in prison - in fact, Smith brings us on a tour of practically every prison in southern England. In these chapters he rails against what he sees as "holiday-camp" depictions in the British tabloid press where prisoners are treated with kid gloves and a revolving-door policy operates. Conversely, Smith runs through the many bad conditions, brutalities, injustices and corruption he has witnessed - which is enlightening but, of course, depressing.

Smith's endless revisits, after umpteen chances of freedom, may leave you exasperated and out of patience - Razor's life reads like a long prison sheet punctuated only by occasional bouts of freedom. But crime was evidently what he thrived on, his reason for living, and no amount of jail - despite its harshness - could quash his desire to keep going back to "the business" for more. Ultimately, in the book (until a massive life sentence in '99) he's springing back and forth like a yo-yo.

Of course, towards the end there are a few moments of regret (how could there not be?) but there's also a strong lingering sense of defiance (check out the last few paragraphs) that is quite startling. You're left remembering the zeal - an almost heady nostalgia - in which Razor Smith recounts his robberies, gangfights and prison escapes that leaves you wondering if given the chance he'd do it all again.

A career criminal is someone who is so committed to crime as a way of life that no amount of `rehabilitation' from the prison system can straighten him.

Razor Smith is a bank robber of the sort. In fact, he prefers robbing banks so much he'd rather give away three years of his life for a three-month fling with it, anytime. And when he gets bored looking at the same four walls everyday, he simply escapes. So easy, so he does it again and again and again. Life on the run has its extreme highs and lows but sooner or later it'll be back to the slammer for good when Old Bill and The System caught up. And they did. If Whitemoor is as escape proof as it's said to be, Smith could well be serving out his eight life sentences properly, this time.

In his early 30's (he's now 45) Smith took it to himself to learn to read and write properly. The consequences were quite unexpected: Not only did he discover a passion for books and writing, people actually paid attention to him and to what he said on paper. And because he had plenty of gripes against The System by now, he had plenty to say. Later, an A-Levels in Law and Honors in Journalism helped focus his anger and aggression and lend weight to his arguments. His newfound skills and plain-speaking, wry, observant prose make A few Kind Words an accomplished first memoir. It is also clear Smith now has every stab at a career that is leagues above the Road Sweeper job he once had and certainly as potentially profitable as the Other One.

But if Smith wins both our ear and our empathy, it's because he manages to talk about his condemnable behavior - and much of this is violent - without so much as a finger pointing in any direction except towards his own.

To begin with, he was at 15 a school dropout with too much time on his hands. Adrenaline Junkie might as well be his middle name. The first time he was arrested was for burglary, for which he was sent to a youth custody center. `If I came from a broken home,' he states quite matter-of-factly, `it's only because I broke it,' referring to how normal his parents and siblings were in comparison to him and not just the countless times armed police had to break down the front door of the family home, looking for him.

It didn't help either that the Irish cockney was growing up in the land of The Kray Brothers, the Great Train Robbers - the likes of John McVitie and such, where there was romance in thievery.

`There is a code (of honor) handed down by generations of infamous criminals, both real and fictional that you learn it from watching others in life and watching westerns and old gangster films.' Smith tells us, `this code meant you never needed to be ashamed of being a criminal, as long as you're the right one.'

The code included the imperative to be loyal: if a thug was caught giving evidence against his fellow thug, he will be striped (slashed) across the face with a sharp instrument in `a curving line from the corner of the mouth to the earlobe' to mark him traitor to his kind. Very likely, he'll end up starving in the streets.

So, to sum up his gentleman thief values or as a tribute to Al Capone or both, Smith took the title of his autobiography from the Chicago mob boss's quote, `Sometimes you can get more with a few kind words and a loaded gun than you can with a few kind words.'

Much later, in examining the forces that contributed to him staying in this rather vicious cycle, Smith points out the Crime Justice System for having failed to do the one thing it was supposed to do, namely in rehabilitating its criminals. Rehabilitation must help criminals secure the skills to thrive out there. How can the System realistically expect a highly-skilled ex-con to resist the siren call of crime which promises (and also delivers) a much more comfortable life for them and their family for a low-skilled, dead-end job that pays just enough to survive on carpet toast and Cup O Soup?

Most of us `straight-goers' can only guess at the reasons that keep prisoners on the path directly to the slammer and who better than Smith to shed a light. And what this noteworthy new writer drags with him into the cold light of day are the things we should not avert our eyes from.

it's very inspirational for designers to keep this handy. these posters are as good or better than the films.

This is a wonderful book in the series with wonderful reproductions of the posters of the decade. Makes a wonderful gift for someone who loves movies as well as a great coffee table book. Highly recommended

Like the other decade books in this series Film Posters of the 60's is a sensational buy. You could either keep it intact as a collection of posters in a book to show and discuss with friends, or cut the book up and actually have a vast number of posters up on your wall. This book is about a third the size of your standard film poster and most movies are full page colour. Any of them would look great up on the wall.

The 60's bought Sean Connery as James Bond to the screens. Rock stars like The Beatles also made movies. Films like Cool Hand Luke, The Graduate, Dracula, Night of the Living Dead, The Endless Summer, 2001 a Space Odyssey, Ocean?s 11 along with a heap of Westerns and World War movies like The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape have stood the test of time. Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman and others went up on walls for the first time in the 60's and you can put them up again today.

I wasn't born in the 60's but I still know most of these great movies. Buy this book.

Tony Nourmand's "Film posters of the 60's" is a wonderful and colorful coffee table style book that is a great treat to look through. There are many of the classic film poster images of the French New wave, the films of Stanley Kubrick and the classic 007 posters, just to name a few. Film poster collecting is a great adventure and this book reflects that enthusiasm. This book was lovingly organized with great detail. A superb value! Looking forward to future editions.

I would say that this is certainly the flimgoer's encyclepidea to all things related to movies and the people involved in creating them. As far as knowlage about films goes. I would say this is impressive and is recommended to any serious film buffs out there.

Halliwell's engaging encyclopedia of film is a treasure trove of information about everything relating to the movies, with exhaustive filmographies, delicious trivia, wonderful quotes, devilish quizzes, and the late critic's inimitable -- and sometimes charmingly eccentric enthusiasm. Warning -- you may dip into it to check one actor's credits, but will find yourself cross-referencing and just leafing through for hours.

If you need a new edition of this work, try Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies.

Over the last 20 years (or so) I've sent corrective notes to Leslie Halliwell and the subsequent editor, John Walker. For the premiere film encyclopedia, the Filmgoers Companion still has lots of errors, missing information for supposedly complete filmographies, and many many unlisted film stars, especially from the "transition period" to talkies (Anita Page, etc.). Personally, I think Walker was a very bad choice; he doesn't seem to be "into" the encyclopedic format of this valuable resource.

I felt that the book was appropriate about Spielberg's enormous contribution to the film industry over his career. The book has wonderful pictures and stories about each film from the first film, The Sugerland Express, to Saving Private Ryan with E.T. The Extra Terrestial, the Indiana Jones trilogy, and Schindler's List among the films listed here. This book chronologizes Spielberg's film-making techniques as well the special and visual effects. I am not one of his biggest fans. I admire his work and contributions to the film industry but I prefer more than the special and visual effects. There are other film-makers and directors out there that do less with more.

If you want a good read about cinema's most amazing director, then this is the book for you. It contains lots of really great insight not just on shooting the movie, but how it even started. Though author Douglas Brode tends to get a little too political, it is a really good book that I keep coming back to. Read at all costs.

This book is a great read for the major films of Spielberg. It is done with a great deal of research by the author, who puts together a very good story line of the producer/director and how he and his films progressed over time. The author also provides excellent background information on the films, from both a technical point of view and also the creative story line. The text layout, photos, and great front and back cover photos are there to flesh out the films. It is also a fun book to read. All put together, this is a very good book to understand Spielberg, his movies, his life, and his impact on very successful creative and commercial 20th century movies.

Douglas Brode's biography of the films of Steven Spielberg is an informative and interesting book that covers the life and films of Hollywood's most commercially successful film director. From his early T.V films to Saving Private Ryan, this book covers all the facets of Spielberg's work including unknown facts about the production of his films and supplementary information. With rare color production photos and stills, this book is a must- have for any Spielberg or film enthusiast.

I host a small group and have for about a year, coincedentially I called it Finding God in The Movies. I had a hard time coming up with questions for the small group and this book has great questions right inside. Eventually more people started showing up and everyone has amazing insights! I couldn't have asked for more!

The book really helped me with me class that I used it for. Even though we weren't required to read it.

Can we find God in the movies? Yes! In this outstanding cultural book, Johnston leads us to find God in the popculture. He mentions the movie as a story teller in which people communicate their values and worldviews. He, also, teaches us what the christian movies are and how christians can watch the films; the christian movies are what deal with the real human stories and what show the reality afresh. And, when we watch the movies, we, as chrsitians, have to see the christian values such as humanity, friendship, forgiveness, reconciliation, etc. In addition to these strengths, the most wonderful character of this book is the excellent complete film study guide. I enthusiastically recommend this book for all people who are interested in popculture and its application to their real lives.

Catherine Barsotti and Robert Johnston --- husband and wife --- give thoughtful Christians a book full of tools to help them view select movies (33 in all; the oldest released in 1982) through a theological or philosophical lens.

FINDING GOD IN THE MOVIES starts with an informative introduction that discusses the film genre and theological approaches to film. What makes a good film? "Head, gut, and heart. The best movies will engage the whole person." How does a viewer find God in the movies? "Unpack the story.... What is more primary in the way the story is shaped? (1) Is it the plot...? (2) Is it the characters...? (3) Is it the point of view, where a story is given value by the perspective of the narrator(s)...? Or (4) is it the atmosphere...?...Concentrate your critical attention on where the filmmakers have centered their attention. By doing this, you will prove a more receptive viewer of the story and perhaps the Story."

Each of the 33 movie-chapters starts with a two- or three-page "synopsis and theological reflection" --- a review. This is followed by "dialogue texts" (relevant biblical passages), "discussion questions," "clip conversations" (more discussion questions but about specific scenes), and several pages of "bonus material," which includes interesting behind-the-scenes information about the making and makers of the film. Movies also are clearly linked to two helpful appendices: one listing (Genesis to Revelation) relevant biblical references; one listing (A to Z) topics covered in or themes of the movies (for example, Abuse; Affirming the Human Spirit; Anger; Arguing with God; Balance in Life).

The movie-chapters are presented in 13 categories, the more blatantly religious ("Living Our Faith"; "Images of the Savior"; "Renewing the Church") placed toward the end of the book. You might want to start your exploration in these later categories or simply bounce around. The second of the 13 categories, "Beauty, Imagination, and Creativity," discusses two Pacific Rim movies, Spirited Away and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that celebrate imagination and creativity but may be hard for the neophyte to discuss theologically.

This is a book for Christians who have an understanding of common grace, "the wider work of God's Spirit throughout and within all creatures and creation," and for those who are open to dialogue with the secular world. What are some of the films discussed? Life Is Beautiful. Ulee's Gold. The Hurricane. Simon Birch. Chocolat. We Were Soldiers.

By using this guide you might get the hang of facilitating a movie-discussion group and then move on to films you wish the authors had included. We'd all have our own list. Mine? The Trip to Bountiful. Cinema Paradiso. Babette's Feast. The Quarrel. Smoke. Maybe I should check out Johnston's earlier book REEL SPIRITUALITY: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Baker, 2000).

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

I really enjoyed the book Frodo Franchise. I must have because I got two of them. Actually, I was curious about how a movie got made, especially one that I loved as much as Lord of the Rings. But I don't know why I got two.

DVDs can be stamped out in seconds, while VHS tapes are slower to produce because they have to be recorded in real time. Time is money, and so the movie industry's movers and shakers acted decisively to all but eliminate the VHS format - by charging video rental stores exorbitantly high fees for the rights to offer VHS rentals and much lower fees for the rights to offer DVD rentals. Author Kristin Thompson (Honorary Fellow in the Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison) traces how this and numerous other profit-driven directives have permanently changed the modern film industry in The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. Central to The Frodo Franchise is the story of Peter Jackson's celebrated three-film adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings", and the lasting impact it has had on cinematic and entertainment culture. "The Lord of the Rings" was utterly groundbreaking in that it was, from Jackson's initial vision, a commitment to three full-length movies to be released over a short period. Yet the success of the film itself is virtually eclipsed by the immense profits of the franchise label - toys, video games, movie-related books, collectibles, and countless other Lord of the Rings licensed merchandise. The Frodo Franchise examines this franchise phenomenon and its repercussions on modern cinema (where the real money to be made lies in a film that will spawn profitable sequels and merchandise, rather than one-shot stories), with especial attention paid to the construction of "The Lord of the Rings" trailblazer trilogy. Accessible to lay readers and cinema scholars alike, and illustrated with numerous black-and-white photographs as well as an inset section of color plates, The Frodo Franchise is an utterly fascinating, completely unbiased behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies and their effect on both the body of Tolkien's famous mythology and cinema as a whole. Highly recommended.

The Frodo Franchise is a MUST-HAVE for anyone who is passionate about: The Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson and how he and his fellow creative geniuses revolutionized the movie industry, New Zealand, the LOTR fan world, etc. It is an engaging, carefully researched and very detailed work about all aspects of the PJ/LOTR phenomenon. It includes great photos, important interviews, fascinating information about the way films are marketed and how LOTR took that to a new level, etc. The title tricked me--for some reason I thought it would be a negative book; however, it is clear Thompson is a Tolkien fan who was at first skeptical about the films but then grew to love them. This book is an in-depth look at all things LOTR and, much to this reviewer's delight, it is clear the LOTR phenomenon is not going away anytime soon. Thank you, Kristin Thompson, for this wonderful and important book!

This book is an intimate look at the creation, filming, and deployment of The Lord of the Rings movies. It discusses all the key participants, the role of New Zeland, how fans influenced the movies over the Internet, and how the film industry is fundamentally changing because of this project. It is well documented and close to the events because the author had access to everyone involved, producers, director, actors, techis, the works. The book is also a great action-packed read. Maybe the best film book we have seen this year!!

This book is a great read for any fan of the series.

I purchased this book for my boyfriend for christmas and I've kind of stolen it back (we live together so it's not a big deal lol). This is my favorite anime of all times. I love the story, I love the characters, and I especially love Sousuke and Kaname together. Even my boyfriend who "doesn't like anime" loves this series and wants to cosplay from it! *omgshock* I reccomend EVERYTHING that has to do with this series!

Full Metal Panic is an awesome show. I'm a girl and I think that the show is for both guys and girls personally. This book has stuff that goes on in the anime within it. A perfect item for your FMP collection.

I just got the book today, so I haven't looked at it in great detail... but the overall impression is great. Too bad that only about the first 1/3 of this book is in color...

I purchased this book to use as part of an 8th grade Grammar curriculum. It is wonderful! The stories and activities made learning the concepts fun. My son didn't even realize that he was doing schoolwork. An excellent choice for anyone learning grammar - or someone just brushing up on their skills. Two thumbs up!

This book is filled with useful information and helpful exercises. It helped me to understand grammar concepts my own English teacher could not explain to me. Thanks to this terrific and fun-filled book, I was able to get through 8th grade English easily. My teachers and parents have noticed a change in my papers as well as a better understanding of grammatical concepts. Anyone who is lost in the world of English grammar, should pick up this book.

Great book! The format is set up so that you can work straight through, or easily hop to specific grammar points. Little quizzes help you to see if you are understanding the concepts. I know this book will get a lot of use.

Terrific book! Was so helpful. I totally recommend it for anyone having trouble learning the rules of grammar!!!