Reserve a special place on your coffee table for this entertaining book; it will be highly useful for your guests while you are in the kitchen, for sneaking off into the smallest room or for inspiration when you want to rent a DVD, not to mention pub quizzes.

It takes the form of lists of films, starting with their directors, a year-by-year list of the classics, sexy SF films, animations, themes that have been remade several times, and of course those turkeys that don't only appear at Christmas. Of course, this is all the author's opinion and you are bound, like me, to be nodding violently sometimes and gasping in amazement (or horror) at others. I was pleased to find out that there are a lot of films out there that I haven't seen from my favorite genre, and that is always a good thing.

This is the sort of book that makes a grand gift, and the user-friendly presentation and sprinkling of quotations and old posters make it both utilitarian, and rather attractive.