Variety Movie Guide

With 8,600 entries, the Variety Movie Guide 1999 is not as comprehensive as standard references like Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide, Halliwell's Film & Video Guide, and VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever. But as of March, 1999, it is the most up-to-date guide on the market, reviewing movies up through the winter of 1998. And the detail of each listing makes up for what the guide lacks in breadth. Editor Derek Elley not only provides the running time, country of origin, principal cast, and director for each entry but also the producer, screenwriter, photographer, and other significant credits, as well as its availability on tape, laserdisc, or DVD. Rather than settle for the mere capsule review, Elley appends several paragraphs of prose to each title--summaries of articles that originally appeared in Variety.

The tone of the volume is buoyant and slangy, faithfully reproducing the slick terms for which the magazine is famous. If you don't know what "hoofology" is, if you wouldn't know a "shutterbug," a "megger," or a "yahoo" if you tripped over him, Elley provides a glossary of every zaftig phrase in the book. Though it shows signs of being rushed hastily through the press, the guide is a worthy friend to movie lovers, particularly if you are interested in mainstream films. You will find detailed commentary on independent, low budget, and foreign pics, but the tastes of the directory are geared primarily toward blockbusters and crowd pleasers. --Raphael Efrem Shargel