Playing with the big boys now

Every two years I get myself a new movie guide. For the last dozen years or so, Martin & Porter's DVD & Video Guide was always the one I used, like the one pictured at left. It's a serviceable guide with lots of helpful information and movie blurbs in it. But the small size of the book and number of pages really wears out the binding, especially after two years of regular use and abuse. For some reason I could not find the 2009 edition. I looked in bookstores and on-line with no success.

All for the best, I guess.

I was looking into getting Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide and his Guide for classic (pre-1960) movies as a replacement, but I wasn't too keen on the format. The listings seem all jammed together; add in a microscopic font size and you've got an un-user friendly guide.

Now, I've found something better. Much better, thanks to a Christmas present from my younger sister C.

This book is The One. It's jumbo sized and thicker than your average phone book, with 1,923 pages. Not only do you have capsule-sized movie summaries, but the book also has Academy Award winners and nominees in every major category, plus cast, director, writer, cinematographer and composer indexes. Oh yeah, it also has an alternate titles index and a categories list so you can find movies with similar subjects.

This is the guide you've gotta get for the movie enthusiast in your life. Trust me on this one.