Film Reviews

Web Sites

• Educational Media Reviews Online
  A database of video, DVD, audio CD and CD-ROM reviews, written by librarians and teachers, of materials from major educational and documentary distributors and independent filmmakers.
• Entertainment Weekly: Movies
  Limited access to movie reviews but you can see the "ratings" for free, including boxoffice earnings.
• filmfodder
  Reviews of current movies by a group of unaffiliated nonprofessional movie aficionados. Searchable reviews are archived by week.
• The Four Word Film Review
  Over 250,000 four word film reviews submitted by people like you.
• Motion Picture Association of America: Film Ratings
  The organization that gives the G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 ratings to movies. Allows you to search for a movie by title and tells you why each film received its rating.
• Movie Review Query Engine
  A searchable index of all published and available movie reviews, MRQE aggregates reviews, news, interviews, blog content and other movie-related material. Free registration allows users to access movie-specific forums and publish their own reviews.
• Movies.com: Reviews
  Tallies up reviews from magazines as positive/negative/mixed and gives the final score for each movie.
• New York Times: Movie Reviews
  A searchable database of movie reviews that have recently appeared in the paper.
• New Yorker: The Film File
  The New Yorker Film File collects nearly two thousand short reviews of films release from 1990 to the present. Reviews are arranged alphabetically.
• Reel
  The art of choosing movies. Reel will recommend movies to you based on the ones you liked.
• Roger Ebert on Movies
  Search Roger Ebert's movie reviews since 1985.
• Rotten Tomatoes
  Movie reviews from the nation's top print and online film critics, recommendations and news, with more than 100,000 titles and 360,000 review links in its ever-growing database.
• U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: Office for Film and Broadcasting
  The Office for Film and Broadcasting is responsible for reviewing movies and television programs. Search for past reviews by movie title.

Pittsburgh Resources

• City Paper Movie Review
  This free Pittsburgh entertainment weekly offers reviews for current movies and a review archive.

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Movies
  Reviews of current movies by Post-Gazette staff writers.

Selected Books

For additional titles, browse the library catalog under the subject headings:
Motion Pictures -- Catalogs
Video Recordings -- Catalogs
Motion Pictures -- Reviews

Comprehensive Guides

Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide This indispensable film guide comes out annually. Read more about Leonard Maltin at his website.
VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever This is another comprehensive film guide that comes out annually. The 2008 guide has more than 22,000 movies that are rated from 4 bones to a Woof!
	Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook "Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007" includes every review by Ebert written in the 30 months from January 2004 through June 2006--about 650 in all.

Rough Guides

The Film and Audio Department has a variety of film reference books that are always available. Our collection includes the Rough Guide series: handy little books that offer background information and histories of different film genres, along with great lists and descriptions of popular films and classics that you may have missed.
	The Rough Guide to American Independent Film Unconventional, controversial and often downright disturbing, indie films have given us some of cinema's most innovative and influential moments.
	The Rough Guide to Chick Flicks The Rough Guide to Chick Flicks is a lively guide to the movies women love, from melodramas to biopics, thrillers to rom-coms. Sassy, informed and occasionally unexpected, it celebrates women's films of every kind.
	The Rough Guide to Comedy Movies Cracking open a whole barrel-load of movie mirth, The Rough Guide to Comedy Movies gives you the ultimate lowdown on laughter in the cinema, from Airplane! to Withnail and I, and from John Belushi to Billy Wilder.
	The Rough Guide to Cult Movies Cult movies are generally films that are out of the mainstream and sometimes controversial but that have an extremely devoted group of fans. They are arranged here by topic.
	The Rough Guide to Film Musicals From the magic of Astaire and the pathos of Garland to the flair of Fosse, The Rough Guide to Film Musicals is the perfect companion to cinema's most spectacular genre, revealing how an escapist entertainment became Hollywood's most ingenious art form.
	The Rough Guide to Gangster Movies From The Godfather to Get Carter, tales of organized crime have produced many of the big screen's greatest films and most memorable moments. The Rough Guide to Gangster Movies gives you the low-down on all aspects of the genre.
	The Rough Guide to Horror Movies The Rough Guide to Horror Movies is a comprehensive guide to the world's scariest films, conjuring up vampires, monsters, ghosts and zombies. Includes origins, history, 50 essential movies, and the icons.
	The Rough Guide to Kids' Movies 100s of movies and DVDs reviewed from The Wizard of Oz to Harry Potter
	The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies is a comprehensive companion to the 'final frontier' of film, exploring cinema's fascination with space exploration, time travel and fantastical worlds. It includes the origins, the history, the canon (50 essential movies), the locations and the icons.
	The Rough Guide to Westerns The Rough Guide to Westerns is the ultimate companion to the genre that has, since the birth of cinema, fed our fascination with the Wild West. It includes the origins, history, the canon (50 essential westerns), and the icons.