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It's Only A Movie (2010)

by Mark Kermode(Favorite Author)

3.68 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

184794602X (ISBN13: 9781847946027)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Random House Books

review 1: One of our Anglophile obsessions is listening to the podcast version of the Friday afternoon movie review show on 5Live featuring Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo (or is it Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode?). Mr. Kermode is a highly opinionated film reviewer who has had a long and interesting career in the movie reviewing and film analyzing business.His first book, It's Only a Movie: Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive, came out in 2010 and chronicles his life growing up as a movie fan. He goes off to college in Manchester where he gets involved in hard-left political movements and film journalism. He's mellowed out slightly on the politics and not at all on his movie opinions. The book then relates several different stories of his travels for interviews with famous film makers... more. Most interesting is a visit to the former Soviet Union filled with the sort of hilarious disillusionment that's only funny long after the fact (the car ride from Odessa to a film location is a particularly memorable anecdote). And of course his (in)famous interview with Werner Herzog in the California Hills, when Herzog was shot in his abdomen by an "insignificant bullet."The book also includes many asides about many different movies. Fans of the radio show will find his collected thoughts of the awful goodness of Mamma Mia! here as well as reflections on various other movies. The tone of the book is conversational, with Kermode describing his life as if it were being made into a "movie of the week" with Jason Isaacs playing himself. Many pop culture references are made. Some were unfamiliar to me, though they might be more appreciated by someone who grew up in England in the 80s rather than came to appreciate it more from afar in the 2000s.It's a fun, quick read that fills in some gaps about Kermode's history for fans and provides a diverting character sketch with anecdotes for the reader unfamiliar with Kermode's many achievements.
review 2: About four years ago at a barbecue in a 'back garden' in south Dublin, a friend of mine told me he'd just heard a really great rant from a film reviewer about the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I went home, checked out the BBC website, and then discovered that this show -- Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode's film reviews on BBC 5 Live -- had a weekly podcast version as well. Sold! I listen every week, even when Mark Kermode's buddy Nigel Floyd steps in while Mark's on vacation. If you're like me, a huge fan of the weekly show/podcast, then some of the material in It's Only A Movie will be familiar. The recurring jokes about Jason Isaacs, Keira Knightley, and various other film industry personalities are there, but this book has a lot of 'new' material you won't have heard on the weekly show with Mayo, the Culture Show, or in Kermode's columns for The Guardian or elsewhere. The book is part memoir, part love letter to film, and part surreal humor column. Many of Mark's 'memories' are reimagined for the screen, with famous actors portraying the personalities in Mark's life, and certain shots being redone to conform more closely with Mark's desired outcome. Think alternate endings or cut-aways in comedies.One of the best parts is that with Mark not constrained by BBC censors or a more family-oriented audience, he can be a bit more crude or 'adult', if you will. The story of his trip to Russian with Nigel and the infamous shooting of Werner Herzog -- complete with references to Henry Rollins's IFC show -- are really great, with tons of details you wouldn't get just listening to him on the radio or podcast. I can't really tell if this book would be good for someone who hasn't listened to him on radio, TV, or read his work in the Guardian or Fangoria, but if you have heard him review a film and ejoyed it, then you'll probably love this. less

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