ria_mhrj's review against another edition
5.0
Having read and loved The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex last year, I got my hands on It's Only a Movie, expecting more of the same. However I was pleased to discover a different but equally entertaining reading experience awaited me.
An autobiography told by a film lover, the book was an amusing journey through Mark Kermode's early experiences with cinema and how he built a career around a subject he is so passionate about. The book was hilarious, written with a wry and self effacing tone that nicely contrasts his reviewing style, which he describes in the book as being necessary for all critics, the absolute sense that you are right and everyone who disagrees is wrong, wrong, wrong. I was also pleased to see Kermode sneer at the "if you liked... you'll love..." school of criticism, a method which recently kindled my ire with posters for Pitch Perfect professing it to be "Bridesmaids meets Ted!". No. Just No.
Back to the book, it provided great insight into the mind of a passionate film fan and I would be very keen to read more books by Kermode, let's hope he puts pen to paper once more.
An autobiography told by a film lover, the book was an amusing journey through Mark Kermode's early experiences with cinema and how he built a career around a subject he is so passionate about. The book was hilarious, written with a wry and self effacing tone that nicely contrasts his reviewing style, which he describes in the book as being necessary for all critics, the absolute sense that you are right and everyone who disagrees is wrong, wrong, wrong. I was also pleased to see Kermode sneer at the "if you liked... you'll love..." school of criticism, a method which recently kindled my ire with posters for Pitch Perfect professing it to be "Bridesmaids meets Ted!". No. Just No.
Back to the book, it provided great insight into the mind of a passionate film fan and I would be very keen to read more books by Kermode, let's hope he puts pen to paper once more.
ohnoflora's review against another edition
3.0
I know this is meant to be an autobiography of sorts - an account of how his love of film started - but I really would have liked less anecdotes (entertaining though they were) and more insight into the practice of film criticism as a whole (why do it? why does he think it's important? what can it achieve? what are its limitations? etc etc etc - these questions are never addressed).
quitenerdyblog's review against another edition
3.0
Always love hanging out with big man Kermode, though I think as a writer the last ten years have really helped him. Comparing this to How Does It Feel? is (in the very nicest way) reassuring proof that we are all, always, improving as writers. Still lovely though, as I said.
redjanet17's review against another edition
4.0
As an avid fan of Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's weekly films review podcast from their radio show on BBC 5 Live, I was looking forward to reading this memoir very much. I enjoy Mark's ability on the radio to yammer on endlessly (and often without much time to catch his breath) about films while also making the listeners laugh with his descriptive sense of humour and ongoing bickerings with his co-host.
Reading this book was an experience very similar to listening to the podcast (albeit with the absence of Simon Mayo) in the sense that Kermode writes pretty much exactly how he speaks - at length, ramblingly and often skipping from one tangent to another. I won't claim that this is the best written memoir ever, as in some sections this style doesn't work as well for reading as it does for listening and there are some parts which I did think dragged, but, especially if you're a fan, I think, it's good fun and fills in some gaps of Mark's career that he may have not yet covered on the podcast whilst also setting down some of the more well-known anecdotes in print.
The book definitely passed Kermode's own "5 Laugh Rule," (whether intentionally or not) and had me chuckling along embarrassingly in my lunch breaks, similarly to the experience of listening to the podcasts on my train journeys. I'm not sure if non-listeners would find it as amusing, but I would hope it would at least encourage them to look up the show on iTunes (if not the live radio show on Fridays itself).
Reading this book was an experience very similar to listening to the podcast (albeit with the absence of Simon Mayo) in the sense that Kermode writes pretty much exactly how he speaks - at length, ramblingly and often skipping from one tangent to another. I won't claim that this is the best written memoir ever, as in some sections this style doesn't work as well for reading as it does for listening and there are some parts which I did think dragged, but, especially if you're a fan, I think, it's good fun and fills in some gaps of Mark's career that he may have not yet covered on the podcast whilst also setting down some of the more well-known anecdotes in print.
The book definitely passed Kermode's own "5 Laugh Rule," (whether intentionally or not) and had me chuckling along embarrassingly in my lunch breaks, similarly to the experience of listening to the podcasts on my train journeys. I'm not sure if non-listeners would find it as amusing, but I would hope it would at least encourage them to look up the show on iTunes (if not the live radio show on Fridays itself).
miramanga's review against another edition
3.0
Not as ranty as I would have liked. But I still <3 Mark Kermode!
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