The 247 Best Movie Scenes in Film History

Rating:
Summary: Quirky, Delightful Film Humor
Review: A real original--that's Sanford Levine and his delightful, quirky and utterly original take on little-noticed aspects of famous films. A must-read for the film fanatic or anyone with a sense of humor!

Rating:
Summary: Not Bad for a One Joke Premise
Review: Most books I read that have only a one joke premise are boring after the second or third page. Levine's book, however, was short enough and diverse enough to keep my interest for quite a while. Levine has created a fictitious group, the DOA (Devotees of Film Art), composed of enthusiasts of particular types of scenes. There is the Cigar Scene group, who give their "Kipling" award (named after Rudyard Kipling who wrote "Betrothed" which compares cigars to women) a Neck Brace Scene group, a Fluttering Drape group, and several other categories. It's hard to believe there are so many groups out there that get all giddy over such small details. Nevertheless, that is the one joke premise of this book. Levine reports what the he has learned from these groups at their meetings and through their newsletters. Through this fiction we receive a collection of film scenes and brief explanations of how they are important in those sub-sub-subgenres. Levine often has problems with facts, muddling names, misattributing lines of dialogue, and printing the wrong dates from time to time. He also seems to have only seen a very few films in his life, or at least the DOA member groups have seen a limited number of films, as the book uses the same films over and over. The most enjoyable part of this film is that he tells us cute things about various films. Next time I see "The Uninvited" I'll pay more attention to the fluttering drape. After all, the members of the Fluttering Drape Fan Club might actually deserve that respect.