Disaster Movies: A Loud, Long, Explosive, Star-Studded Guide to Avalanches, Earthquakes, Floods, Meteors, Sinking Ships, Twisters, Viruses, Killer ... Fallout, and Alien Attacks in the Cinema!!!! - Softcover

Kay, Glenn; Rose, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556526121 ISBN 13: 9781556526121

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2006

Synopsis

Complete with a foreword by Mike Nelson, host of Mystery Science Theater 3000, this dynamic guide to one of Hollywood's most popular and enduring genres provides a history of the disaster genre, descriptions of its trends and unusual traits, portraits of famous stars, and reviews of more than 150 disaster movies. The films reviewed include everything from famous titles such as The Poseidon Adventure, Titanic, and The Towering Inferno to more obscure movies such as The Night the World Exploded, Terror on the 40th Floor, and War Between the Planets. Casual disaster-movie fans, as well as die-hard lovers of the genre will benefit from the rating system, which ranges from "Highly Recommended" to "Avoid at All Costs," and the dubious "Recommended for All the Wrong Reasons."

About this title

About the Author

Glenn Kay studied film at Ryerson University and has reviewed films for local newspapers and on local television. Michael Rose is a writer and filmmaker who studied film at Ryerson University.

Reviews

Adult/High School–An engagingly snarky introduction to the genre, including film reviews that range from Highly Recommended to Avoid at All Costs and So Bad It's Good. The critiques are divided into categories that pretty much match the subtitle. The longest are of easily obtained movies, while those that are more obscure have shorter reviews. Each one includes the film's Most Spectacular Moment of Carnage. The extras, like Don't Be a Hero: The Disaster Movie's Hardest Lesson or The Most Ridiculous Disaster Movie Concepts Ever, are also entertaining. Art includes black-and-white stills, movie posters, and cartoons, as well as a color insert of some remarkable posters. For anyone who loves a good disaster flick–or a bad one, for that matter–this is an invaluable resource.–Susan Salpini, formerly at TASIS–The American School in England
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This smart and punchy guide to movies centered on man-made, divine or natural events leading to high death tolls or mass destruction is a must have for the genre's devoted fan. The co-authors' short history of the form begins with newsreel footage of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the earliest produced disaster film (the "little-seen" silent 1913 Italian film The Last Days of Pompeii) and nods to the many cheesy one-offs and contemporary mega-budget computer-animated star-packed blockbusters. The bulk of the book offers pithy and often humorous reviews of disaster films (organized by disaster type) that analyze key genre elements (such as "scenes of self-sacrifice" and "horribly gruesome and elaborate death scenes") and rates films on a five-tiered system, from "Highly Recommended" (among them, Airplane!, Mars Attacks! and both the 1953 and 2005 War of the Worlds) to "So Bad It's Good" (Firestorm, Meteor and Bug). Movie buffs should get a kick out of this.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556526121
• ISBN 13: 9781556526121
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416