Book Review: The Art of the B Movie Poster

b-movie-poster-book

The Art of the B Movie Poster
Edited by Adam Newell
Published by Gingko Press, 2016. 320 pages.

I’ve got a confession to make: I’m a sucker for poster books. I truly believe that movie poster art really is just that…artwork. It is also something that should be treated as such, meaning it should be saved and displayed. But most importantly though, it should be remembered, since there are hundreds of talented artists that put their soul into these and got little or no fanfare, let alone getting paid a decent price. It was because of the hard work of these artists put into these designs that made us go to the theater to see the film, sometimes solely based on what the poster showed them. As Pete Tombs writes in his wonderful introduction here about what this kind of art should be doing…”move, inspire, and entertain – and occasionally startle too, for that’s all part of the plan.”

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Book Review: It Came from the 80s!

it-came-from-the-80sIt Came from the 80s!
By Francesco Borseti
Published by McFarland, 2016. 294 pages.

Why are there not more books like this? With all the low budget films that were made in the 80s, there has to be an over abundance of incredible and fascinating stories that us movie nerds would eat up, from the high stress levels and time constraints, to no money, to dealing with once popular actors on their way down and young ones fighting their way up, to so many other things that were just a normal part of that kind of guerilla-style of filmmaking. But thankfully for us, Francesco Borseti has given us a chance to revisit some of these films, and hear from some of the different people behind them. Each chapter will cover one specific movie that will have different input from several people from the film. Might be the screenwriter, director, cameraman, effects artists, or all of the above, with each one giving their thoughts and memories of working on that particular title.

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Book Review: I Cannot, Yet I Must

Robot Monster Book

I Cannot, Yet I Must: The True Story of the Best Bad Monster Movie of All Time
by Anders Runestad
Published by Radiosonde Books, 2015. 680 Pages.

“I cannot – yet I must. How do you calculate that?
At what point on the graph do “must” and “cannot” meet? Yet I must – but I cannot!”

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