Genre Films Books - Page 5

The Art of Cars

Suzanne Fitzgerald Wallis, Michael Wallis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the tradition of the smash hits Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles comes the newest film from Pixar Animation Studios, Cars, the story of a race car who learns that it's not all about the fast lane. (In fact, life begins at the off-ramp.) Offering an insider's view into the artistic development of Cars, this gorgeously illustrated book celebrates the whimsical yet painstaking research that fueled Pixar's directors, production designers, and artists. Fascinating storyboards, full-color pastels, on-the-road snapshots, and hundreds of character sketches reveal the origins of Pixar's charming and clever automobile-based world. Gleaned from the team's trips to racetracks and down the famed Route 66, The Art of Cars is as colorful as its memorable story and characters, making this book the only movie tie-in for adults a spirited ride down the road of a masterful animated feature film.

Cars is a Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar Animation Studios film. 2006 by Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios. All rights reserved.

Ahistory: An Unauthorized History of the Doctor Who Universe (Second Edition)

Lance Parkin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Completists Rejoice - Simplifiers Beware 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 13 people found this review helpful.

"Ahistory" is the latest edition of Mr. Parkin's attempt at chronologizing Doctor Who. As such it is a humongous work with seemingly endless entries about every tiny nuance that ties individual episodes of Doctor Who together, along with the books and audio adventures of the same.

The trouble here is that everything is an enormous mess, because nobody really cared all that much about continuity in a show that was originally designed to be shown once and then taped over.

What makes it worse, according to "About Time" (which I recommend instead), Mr. Parkin seems to have actually written Doctor Who novels to cover plot holes in the continuity (such as Tegan not liking transmats when she'd never seen them before in the show -- surprise, there's a story he wrote where Tegan encounters transmats!)

There is much in this book. Far, far too much. Also it contradicts many things that are said in "The Discontinuity Guide" and "About Time". It even contradicts itself in places.

One gets the sense that it's all a bunch of fanboys arguing with one another, and not a respectable history (or even ahistory) that tries to be definitive.

So this is a terrible work for someone wanting an introduction to Who, but is great for those who want to write their own Who and would like to know what happens in the Somethingth Century so they can put their story there.

The major redeeming feature is that "The Discontinuity Guide" and "About Time" do not cover the books or audio adventures to any real extent, and "Ahistory" does. But even this can be seen as a handicap when there is still much debate over the canonicity of the books or audio adventures.

A purist will probably go for just the television series, as there is enough of that to last a lifetime (28 seasons so far), and will likely wish to pass on this book. But the rest of us; the completists, the people interested in what the novels are saying without wishing to actually read them, and the novelists and writers of fan fiction; these will want to have a crack at "Ahistory".

Editorial Review:

The Second Edition of "AHistory" amends and vastly expands the work of the sold-out First Edition, continuing to incorporate the whole of Doctor Who into a single timeline. All told, this book takes nearly 800 full-length Doctor Who stories and dates them in a single chronology --- starting with the origin of the Universe and working its way forward through the various eras to the end of time. Specifically, this Second Edition covers... all Doctor Who TV episodes up through "Last of the Time Lords", the Series 3 finale; all "Doctor Who" novels from Virgin and the BBC, up through the New Series Adventure "Wooden Heart"; the Big Finish audio range up through "Frozen Time" (#98); all Torchwood Series 1 episodes and novels; the Sarah Jane Adventures pilot; all Telos novellas. In addition, this Second Edition incorporates the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip that has been running since 1979.

Bond on Set: Filming Casino Royale

Greg Williams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

COOL BOOK - GREAT PRICE 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a COOL BOOK! Mainly just pictures - no distracting graphics, text, etc... except for some candid thoughts here and there. Eva Green being funny, smoking at the piano between takes... And you see how Daniel Craig really put himself into the physical side of the film: nursing a black eye with an ice pack, busting through a wall of sheetrock (it's really him), wearing bandaids on a swollen hand (cover picture).

The color and black/white photos are large, close-up and feel almost vintage/period. A favorite already is one of Bond resting between takes through the window of his stunt car... all black/white/silver looking. Very cool.

As others have also commented, I was unsure of this new Bond until I saw the film - now it's my favorite. This book is definitely worth more than the Amazon price - I added it on a whim to my order of the soundtrack - and am glad I did.

Editorial Review:

Featuring the debut of a brand-new Bond and set in a number of spectacular European locations, Casino Royale is the latest addition to the most successful film series ever made. Working alongside cast and crew, premier showbiz photographer Greg Williams creates a unique visual record of the making of the movie.

Famous Monster Movie Art of Basil Gogos

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

THE BEST ART FROM THE BEST ARTIST 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

First of all...Like so many reviewers before me have said; almost every boy that grew up in the '50s & '60s anxiously collected our 35 cents every month so we could go to the local candy store & buy the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. This magazine became our bible & 4E Ackerman became our surrogate father. More than 45 years have passed; but I can still remember those magnificent covers as though it were yesterday. Basil Gogos painted the cover of the Gorgo issue which had a blue background & also the Vincent Price issue which had a white background,etc. This Book displays all of Basil Gogos outstanding cover art which graced the cover of FM for so many years. Don't take my word for it...ask Stephen King, Rick Baker, George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, John Landis, Rob Zombie & a host of others..This book is an absolute delight for the senses & like fine art is meant to be treasured,

Editorial Review:

Basil Gogos changed the face of classic horror with his film monster portrait art. Like a bizarro-world Norman Rockwell, he created magazine covers of Frankenstein, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. the Phantom of the Opera, and countless others in horrifying yet dazzling images throughout the 1960s and '70s. His intense colour and bold, impressionistic brushwork gave a unique sense of drama and sophistication to these iconic characters. Today, collectors fight over his original art-but, with this book, every fan can own glowing full-colour reproductions of his most famous work as well as many previously unpublished paintings and drawings.

Surf's Up: The Art and Making of a True Story

Cody Maverick

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Surf's Up , the latest CG-animated feature film from Sony Pictures Animation, is based on the "true story" of up-and-coming surfer Cody Maverick.  The film follows Cody as he enters his first professional surf competition.  Inspired by the legendary wave rider Big Z, Cody leaves his family and hometown of Shiverpool, Antarctica to travel to Pen Gu Island for the Big Z Memorial Surf Contest.  Cody believes that fame and fortune will bring him the admiration and respect he craves, but when he meets a washed-up old surfer named Geek, Cody begins to understand that the greatest champion isn't always the one who comes in first.

Get an inside look at the making of this incredible film in Surf's Up: The Art and Making of a True Story, which is packed with a wealth of extras, including a DVD that details the digital image-making process, a teaser movie poster, a booklet on "Building a Digital Wave," vintage surfer postcards, a surfbook bookmark, and a commemorative Pen Gu Times newspaper.
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, James Woods, Mario Cantone, Deidrich Bader, Jane Krakowski, and Mindy Sterling, Surf's Up is directed by Ash Brannon ( Toy Story 2 ) and Chris Buck ( Tarzan ).

Sony Pictures Consumer Products and Insight Editions have partnered to create two incredible previous books, The Art of Open Season and The Art & Making of Monster House .  Animation Magazine's rave review observed that Insight Editions and Sony "have raised the bar for movie tie-ins!"

The Rough Guide to Film Noir 1 (Rough Guide Reference)

Rough Guides

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Decent reference book 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I've read a number of Rough Movie Guides over the past couple of years, including ones on horror, science fiction, comedy and gangster movies. What was common to all these books was that they were about genres. The Rough Guide to Film Noir, however, is more about a style that, while typically associated with crime movies, can cross over into other areas as well.

It is therefore a good thing that this book starts by trying to define noir and describe its history. Noir was a style recognized principally after the fact: the creators of noir during its classic period of the mid-`40s to mid-`50s didn't set out to make noir films, but some shared factors linked them together. In particular, the films tended to be cynical and morally ambiguous, set in an urban contemporary environment, with antiheroes and femme fatales rather than strict good guys and bad guys. They had a look to them that worked best in black-and-white, with an emphasis on shadows. Some of this was the result of low budgets (most noirs were B pictures), the influence of German expressionism (brought over from Europe by directors like Fritz Lang and Billy Wilder), and the new attitudes that came to the U.S. after World War II.

The Rough Guide traces noir to its roots in early genre pictures such as horror movies and gangster films. And though noir would be mostly associated with films in the decade or so after WWII, it would continue to influence movies up to modern times, as shown in the Guide's Canon of 50 essential films, which includes the very recent Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

As is typical with these guides, the choices made for these 50 films are debatable. While certain films definitely merit inclusion - such as Out of the Past, Kiss of Death and L.A. Confidential - others are more iffy, such as the aforementioned Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (a decent enough movie, but too new to have really earned a "classic" status).

The Guide also provides brief looks at some of the icons of noir (such as Lang, Wilder, Robert Mitchum or Barbara Stanwyck), a section on some common settings for these movies (such as Los Angeles or San Francisco), a look at noir in other genres beyond crime and a chapter on noir produced by other countries.

Despite some minor errors (I haven't read a Guide yet that doesn't have some mistake in it when describing a movie plot line), this book is still a decent reference book, both readable and informative. There are plenty of other books on film noir out there, but the Rough Guide serves its purpose well as a compact introduction to a highly influential style of movie making.

Editorial Review:

From dimly lit streets and glamorous apartments to world-weary detectives and irresistible femmes fatales, The Rough Guide to Film Noir illuminates every corner of cinema’s darkest and most compelling genre. From early masterpieces like Double Indemnity and Kiss Me Deadly through to neo-noir classics such as Chinatown and LA Confidential, this book highlights all the groundbreaking noir movies. There are profiles of legendary performers such as Humphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck, great directors like Fritz Lang plus key cinematographers, composers and designers. Complete with website listings and books for further reading, this Rough Guide takes a fascinating look at the noir movies made in the Classical Hollywood era and beyond.

The Science of Star Wars: An Astrophysicist's Independent Examination of Space Travel, Aliens, Planets, and Robots as Portrayed in the Star Wars Films and Books

Jeanne Cavelos

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not so long or so far away, some of it could happen 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Quality entertainment is its' own reward, so in many ways the plausibility of the scenarios is not an overriding concern. However, there is a threshold of believability that cannot be crossed, for if it is, it can cease to be entertainment. The quality of the entertainment has a great deal to do with the location of the threshold, if the story is very good, the bar is higher, but for a mediocre story it can be much lower. In the Star Wars movies, the bar is generally considered pretty low, as most people who watch them are fairly uncritical of the scientific basis for the events. George Lucas was brilliant when he opened the series with the phrase, " A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." This is equivalent to the classic "Once upon a time" opening to fairy tales. By immediately giving the Star Wars events the status of a fairy tale, Lucas provides himself with a great deal of scientific poetic license in his Star Wars movies.
However, there are always people who examine the actions on the screen and consider the plausibility based on the current theories of science. In this book Cavelos critically examines the major events in the Star Wars series from the perspective of modern science. The opening chapter is a discussion of the major environments where the action takes place. It starts with the questions concerning how prevalent planets are in the universe. In this case, recent research indicates that there are an enormous number of planets, so the focus moves to planets that could support life, in particular, human life. Here, the odds drop substantially, as the range of temperature, gravity and atmosphere that humans can function in is in all cases very narrow. The existence of specific planets such as Tatooine with its' two suns, the moon "planets" of Endor and Yavin and the ice planet Hoth are all seriously examined. Given the constant number of new surprises that the study of planets in our solar system has provided, while unlikely, most of these environments cannot be ruled out.
Chapter two, which deals with the characteristics of alien life forms, was my favorite. Many of the main species, such as the Wookies, Hutts, Banthas, Jawas, and Ewoks are examined from a biological perspective. How their bodies are constructed and if they could function in their environment makes an interesting exercise in comparative biology. By examining Jar Jar Binks, one can reach many conclusions concerning how his species functions. This is a chapter that would make an excellent study topic in high school biology classes.
Chapters three and four deal with the technology, with chapter three devoted to the artificial intelligence (AI) of droids and four the technology of the spacecraft. Despite many problems in implementation, there appears to be no reason to doubt that droids with the capability of R2-D2 and C-3PO will eventually be constructed. However, the development of interstellar craft that travel through hyperspace will require substantial advancements in harnessing energy and the presence of scientific realities that we currently know nothing about.
The Force, that all-encompassing energy field, is the topic of the last chapter. It is also the most difficult to envision, although in many cases, it is just another name for God. The difference is of course that using the force would mean that an individual could channel the power of God for their own purposes, independent of the goodness rating of the action. Extra-sensory perception and the current "evidence" for it are also examined.
I am a devoted fan of Star Wars, and as I scientist I recognize when scientific laws are broken on the screen. Nevertheless, it was a very fun book to read, because there is scientific evidence that indicates that some of what happens in these movies could actually take place.

Editorial Review:

Could the science fiction of Star Wars be the actual science of tomorrow?

-How close are we to creating robots that look and act like R2-D2 and C-3PO?
-Can we access a "force" with our minds to move objects and communicate telepathically with each other?
-How might spaceships like the Millennium Falcon make the exhilarating jump into hyperspace?
What kind of environment could spawn a Wookiee?
-Could a single blast from the Death Star destroy an entire planet?
-Could light sabers possibly be built, and if so, how would they work?
-Do Star Wars aliens look like "real" aliens might?
-What would living on a desert planet like Tatooine be like?
-Why does Darth Vader require an artificial respirator?

Discover the answers to these and many other fascinating questions as a noted scientist and Star Wars enthusiast explores The Science of Star Wars.

Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film

Carol J. Clover

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Do the pleasures of horror movies really begin and end in sadism? So the public discussion of film assumes, and so film theory claims. According to that view, the power of films like "Halloween" and "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" lies in their ability to yoke us to the killer's perspective and to make us party to his atrocities. Carol Clover argues, however, that sadism is actually the lesser part of the horror experience and that the movies work mainly to engage the viewer in the plight of the victim-hero - the figure who suffers pain and fright but eventually rises to vanquish the forces of oppression. Noting that since the late 1970s the victim-hero is usually female and the audience predominantly male, the author explores the fraught relation between the "tough girl" of horror and her male fan. Horror movies, she concludes, use female bodies not only for the male spectator to look at, but for him to feel through. The author concentrates on three genres in which women and gender issues loom especially large: slasher films, satanic possession films and rape-revenge films, especially those in which the victim is from the city and the rapists from the country. Her investigation covers over 200 films, ranging from admired mainstream examples, such as "The Accused", to such exploitation products as the widely banned "I Spit on Your Grave". Clover emphasizes the importance of the "low" tradition in film-making, arguing that it has provided some of the most significant artistic and political innovations of the past two decades.

Eyes Upside Down: Visionary Filmmakers and the Heritage of Emerson

P. Adams Sitney

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Editorial Review:

Sitney analyzes in detail the work of eleven American avant-garde filmmakers as heirs to the aesthetics of exhilaration and innovative vision articulated by Ralph Waldo Emerson and explored by John Cage, Charles Olson and Gertrude Stein. The films discussed span the sixty years since the Second World War. With three chapters each devoted to Stan Brakhage and Robert Beavers, two each to Hollis Frampton and Jonas Mekas, and single chapters on Marie Menken, Ian Hugo, Andrew Noren, Warren Sonbert, Su Friedrich, Ernie Gehr, and Abigail Child, Eyes Upside Down is the fruit of Sitney's lifelong study of visionary aspirations in the American avant-garde cinema.

Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner

Paul M. Sammon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Tabloid Trash 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 19 people found this review helpful.

At best, this book should be looked at if you're interested in the facts behind the production of the film and you're able to look past Sammon's masturbative narrative.

While the book is informative on what happened and the difficulties behind the making of the film, the author's writing ability is about the same as someone standing next to you with a bullhorn. Self-aware and bordering on narcistsic, Sammon's dirt-basic writing ability has a constant feel of "Hey! I was here to see all this!" attitude that really undermines his attempt at objective writing.

Frustrating and amatuerish, "Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner" is an unworthy footnote and a worthwhile coffee coaster.

Editorial Review:

The 1992 release of the "Director's Cut" only confirmed what the international film cognoscenti have know all along: Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's brilliant and troubling SF novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, still rules as the most visually dense, thematically challenging, and influential SF film ever made.

Future Noir is the story of that triumph.

The making of Blade Runner was a seven-year odyssey that would test the stamina and the imagination of writers, producers, special effects wizards, and the most innovative art directors and set designers in the industry.

A fascinating look at the ever-shifting interface between commerce and the art that is modern Hollywood, Future Noir is the intense, intimate, anything-but-glamerous inside account of how the work of SF's most uncompromising author was transformed into a critical sensation, a commercial success, and a cult classic.