[Book Review] 150 Movies You Should (Die Before You) See by Steve Miller

This book is a cool new movie guide written by blogger Steve Miller (Watching the Detectives, The Universal Horror Archive) about some of the worst films ever made, appropriately titled "150 Movies You Should [Die Before You] See".

If you are familiar with any of Steve's blogs, then you can rest assured that this new guide to the "worst of the worst" is written by none other than a movie buff who has seen thousands of movies over the course of a lifetime. Mean-spirited this book is not; in the opening acknowledgements, Steve tips his hat to all of the filmmakers involved who have provided many hours of enjoyment.

Each of the 150 films covered in the book is categorized by subject and gets at least 2 pages of coverage, featuring a synopsis, trivia quiz, and other interesting tidbit about the film. For example, the trivia for the 1984 film City Heat mentions that one of the credited writers, Sam O. Brown, is actually the late Blake Edwards, who left the film before it was finished.

Don't take the title of the book too seriously; some of these movies are worth seeing for one reason or another (City Heat is in my Netflix queue). Trapped By Television (1936) is one film I'd like to see before I die, if simply to see how far technology has brought us. Steve writes: "Now when my cellphone can handle what the broadcast camera can do in this film, the movie is hopelessly dated". Mary Astor is in the film, so there is some good trivia about her such as : Name the two films she appeared along with William Powell (gotcha thinking, right?)

The odd titles of some of these films almost guarantee a spot in such a book: Hobgoblins, The Wasp Woman, Monster A-Go-Go, Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory, Cry of the Banshee, and Hideous! These I haven't seen.

Of the handful of films in the book that I've seen, I can agree they are truly terrible, such as Howard the Duck. That film is so bad I don't know where to start. The chapter "It Seemed like a Good Idea At the Time" features a few modern clinkers such as Catwoman, and The Love Guru, a stupid film that teams Mike Myers with "Mini-Me" Verne Troyer, and the big climatic sequence involves two elephants going at it. Also in the book is one of the most hated films of the last 10 years, Freddy Got Fingered (which was recently discussed in a blog post by Matthew at Movie-Tone News)

Some other films covered in the book are "guilty pleasures", like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. It's a bad film, but one that I remember watching and enjoying as a kid on TV, so there's a nostalgia factor for me. The chapter "Big Budget Bombs" features costly turkeys such as Ishtar and Heaven's Gate. However, James Cameron's Titanic is not among the films in the book.

Some of the films might even be among your favorites, such as The Black Cat, which is included in a chapter called "Kinda-Sorta Based On The Book" because it has nothing to do with the original Edgar Allan Poe story. Most everyone's least-favorite Bond film, Moonraker - though still considered a Bond classic - is also in here. The trivia quiz for this one asks which British actor is a cousin to Bond-creator Ian Fleming (David Niven, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, or James Mason) I'm not telling; you have to buy the book to find out.

Other cleverly-named chapters are "Monstrous Monster Movies", "Strange Superheros", and "Happy Holidays!", which includes the truly terrible Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (recently reviewed by the Filmfather). (Though Steve left out Halloween III: Season of the Witch) I'm sure there were many more films that could have been included but didn't make the cut.

The slick book cover is colorful and eye catching, with a collage of movie posters that are arguably more enjoyable to look at than the films themselves. And the book's title is easily readable on the spine, so it will look great on a shelf or sitting on your coffee table as a conversation starter. The pages inside are enhanced with graphics that make the titles and bullet points stand out, so it's easy and fun to read. I'm certainly keeping my copy handy so I can easily refer to it later.

It's perfect gift for any film buff who wants to (as Steve puts it) "dive right into the steaming swamp of disastrously delicious movies".

Available at your local bookstore or online from Amazon.