The Pocket Guide to Collecting Movies on DVD: Building an Essential Movie Collection-With Information on the Best DVD Extras, Supplements and Special Features-and the Best DVDs for Kids

Citizen Kane • Boogie Nights • Sunset Boulevard • My Fair Lady • Almost Famous • Jaws • A Hard Day's Night • Lord of the Rings • Monsoon Wedding • Apocalypse Now Redux • Moulin Rouge • Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid • A Beautiful Mind • Shakespeare in Love

THEY'RE NOT JUST MOVIES ANYMORE.

THEY'RE DVDs.

Supplements...special collector's edition...extras...Words that set the heart pounding of every DVD lover. But how do you decide which DVDs to buy? Where do you begin collecting? Which special features are really special? What commentaries are informative or entertaining? Which disks are worth your time and money? Here at last is the portable, one-of-a-kind DVD buyer's guide -- from veteran film and television critics Steven H. Scheuer and Alida Brill-Scheuer.

Director/star/crew audio commentaries • Outtakes • Filmographies and biographies • Alternate takes, music, and endings • Celebrity interviews • Deleted scenes • Trailers • Lost footage • Hidden features and Easter eggs • Animated menus • Production notes • Storyboards • Promotional art • DVD-rom extras • Behind-the-scenes footage • Screenplays • Souvenir booklets • and a special afterword on the best DVDs for kids

For those serious DVD collectors, then this is a must buy. For me now, not only I'm colleting DVD movies but also any interesting DVD books!


Crowd roaring clapping for these critics   November 30, 2003
 6 out of 8 found this review helpful

I've been a film junkie all my life. And every year I avidly read every review and buy every book (of reviews) that I can lay my hands on. I consider myself such a serious fan of film that I read so many reviews I end up being a critic of critics. Vincent Canby and Janet Maslin (both from The New York Times) always won the award for the two people I could totally trust. I must now double that list and add Alida Brill and Steven Scheuer to that small circle of respected critical resources. This pocket guide puts an end to the silly idea of a collection of quickly created paragraph reviews (like just about every other dvd book) and instead focuses serious attention and commentary on about 180 must see movies. And it explains, quite thoroughly, why you will need to add quite a few titles to your collection. In their review of the classis "Do The Right Thing" they start by telling the truth: "this film grabs you by the first frame." And to that I must add THIS book (The Pocket Guide) grabs you on the first page. If you are a fan of film, buy a front row seat to this book and sign up for one-click shopping on Amazon and other sites... because your DVD collection is about to grow much bigger... and smartly so.


I liked it, but ...   November 19, 2003
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

This is a really good book, and I do recommend it. This, and the Video Hound's Guide to DVDs series are the only ones I've found that describe and rate both the movie and the DVD, as most movie review books really only give capsule reviews of the movie and ignore the DVD extras. This book has in-depth reviews of 134 good movies and their DVD editions, whereas the Video Hound guides try to give a capsule review on a much larger set of DVDs. I think the reviews in this book are very good, and the information about DVD extras are even better.

However, there's one thing that I really didn't like about this book: It doesn't list any identifying information about the DVD, like the studio catalog number and / or UPC number. A number of the titles reviewed in this book have had several releases, and even though the review will mention which version to buy (at least by which studio released it), it's not always easy to pick it out of the review. They really should, at the very least, clearly list the catalog and UPC number of the versions they are reviewing at the beginning of the review (with recommended version if there is one), and ideally also use this information when they are comparing features of different releases of a title.


Truly Helpful   November 5, 2003
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

With all these "Special Edition" "Extended Version" and "Director's Cut" DVD's floating around, this cheap little book is worth the money to anyone building a library of DVDs. What's on the three-disk Fellowship of the Rings that isn't on the original DVD release? Which version of Casablanca has the interview with the writers? Which 80-dollar "Special Edition" of the movie is the same old DVD but in a fancy box with a poster? The writers of this pocket guide have watched all the supplemental material and can tell you what's there. They're not afraid to tell you what's worthwhile and what's drivel. As a screenwriter and an author (Crafty Screenwriting), I like to watch my DVDs over and over. I'm glad I've added this book to my library.


Excellent Introduction to Classic Films on DVD   November 4, 2003
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

This is an excellent book for younger collectors who may not know about classic films. Also, I think it would make a good gift this holiday season, especially for those folks getting a new DVD player. The book was fun to read with lots of good information on collecting DVDs.