The Secret Life of the Movies

by Simon Brew

Get ready to spot hundreds of things you've never seen before across a wide range of films, in this brand new book from the creator of Den Of Geek.




From the small references and inspirations, through to clues, hidden meanings and moments in frame that you may have simply missed, this indispensable guide is both a love letter to cinema and a jam-packed treasure trove that no film fan will want to miss!

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Media Tie In

240 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5
This was a pretty harmless and interesting little fact book about movies. It was mostly trivial stuff which is fine but some of it was common knowledge if you're a movie lover so I was like 'oh, I already knew that'. Other than that, it was fun to get through because of the layout and colourful pages. If you're looking for some fun new facts to learn about your favourite movies (because there's a lot in here) give it a go!

[David Howarth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great geeky insights. An easy book to dip into as every tidbit is told in short chunks, no more than two pages at a time.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the kind of book only a movie lover/geek can appreciate as it's about movie trivia useful for amazing your likewise moving-loving friends. I read this book from beginning to end but it may be more enjoyable simply using the index to identify included movies and then going to those pages. Reading it front to back presents too much information to possibly remember although it did subliminally trigger some of my movie choices while reading this. For example, it talks about the movie, Don't Look Now, which is currently on the Criterion Channel. I had to watch since I'd read about it in this book. There are also interesting tidbits about how The Hidden Fortress, a Japanese movie, influenced George Lucas in creating Star Wars. I just watched The Hidden Fortress as well and one can see how it influenced Star Wars: A New Hope. I rated this book at 3 stars for although I liked the information, I felt too much was wasted on making this book look pretty with colored pages and big pictures. I would have liked more trivia with more movies included. Still, it's a nice book for those who appreciate movies.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in a about a week during breakfast sit downs. Thus: easily digestible. Able to pick up and put down quickly. Estimate I knew about 3/4 of the tidbits already, but they are compiled and ordered in short and sweet and thematic bits. Only real negative was the dark purple pages, which were almost impossible to read. I had to skip those in dim light and keep coming back to those in full-sunlight.

9/10

[Rob Frampton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A useful enough compendium of Easter Egg-y movie trivia for the casual fan; certainly not remotely comprehensive. Annoyingly, some attempts to jazz up the book's design by using coloured pages render some sections almost unreadable in normal light.

[Mick Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to dip in and out of,neatly set out into chapters with little sub chapters on the films under discussion.some of these I have heard about.a good book for cinephiles. I will try and get around to reading the TV version by the same author.

[Joseph Frankel · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3 stars.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting and fun facts, there were a lot of pages I skipped since I hadn't seen the movies yet. I liked how it was set up and for the most part I found it very informative.

[Katie Rankine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoy this writers books on fascinating tidbits from movie history! Quick easy read!

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

Buzzfeed/WatchMojo article in print form. Blecch.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book with lots of movie tidbits. I read this in chunks because reading all the information at once was too much.

[jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice little film fact book <3

[Adam Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains a hell of a lot I never knew about the movies. Great trivia

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic! So many little interesting tidbits, formatted in such a way as to make it easy to read a few pages at once or the whole book in one sitting. I learned a lot about old movies and new alike, and actually found myself googling plot summaries for quite a few of the movies that were unknown to me, just so I could get a better idea of context. Some of it was shocking, some of it was unsurprising, and some of it was just fun to know. The pictures add a lot, and give reference as well as break up the written word. Definitely recommend for movie buffs, or even those who are casual fans of cinema!

I received a free copy from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting behind the scenes of some of the world's best known movies.

[Daniel Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

More please!

I devoured this far too quickly.
Packed with great nerdy film trivia.
It was enormous fun.
Please write another one!