Movie London by Tony Reeves(2008).
© Titan Books

Mania Grade: B+
Paperback: Movie London
Author: Tony Reeves
Publisher: Titan Books
Pages: 184
Price: $14.95

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Paperback Review: Movie London

From Fodor’s to Frommer’s and everything in between, the travel buff doesn’t lack for informative journey guides no matter their destination. Yet the traveling movie fanatic requires a unique synthesis in a companion book, a synthesis that film location guru Tony Reeves has been perfecting for years.

An update of 2003’s The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations Presents: London, Tony Reeves’ Movie London features almost 200 pages of travel tips, city maps and fun facts on literally hundreds of films. To say that Reeves’ pocketbook tome is the definitive London film guide is a bit of an understatement. Like other tourist books Reeves offers critical info on hotels, bars & restaurants, entertainment, historic sites and even info on how to best navigate from any of the city’s major airports. But in addition to these travel guide staples Movie London also tells readers where you can down a pint in the Irish pub from THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, what streets Jason Bourne took to evade his intelligence counterparts, and even what opera house masqueraded as Plavalaguna’s venue in THE FIFTH ELEMENT’s “Phloston Paradise.”

Movie London deviates from its predecessor’s blueprint in that the book is organized around 17 geographical subdivisions of London. These sections aren’t symmetrical by any means, but rather de-limited by content rather than area: for instance, Central London is divided into four different parts given that area’s prevalence on the silver screen.

Through each of these sections Tony Reeves is our amicable, know-it-all walking tour guide. In succinct, informative plain speak we get the lowdown on individual film scenes, actors and actresses involved and even debunked film location myths (surprisingly a lot of movies aren’t filmed on location…who knew!).

Outside of these geographical divisions there are full-color spreads on London’s theatrical bread-and-butter: Bond Streets, popular Rom-coms, Gangster films, Swinging Sixties London, Hitchcock films, horror locales and more.

It may seem like the disparity in Movie London’s organization would only lead to confusion, and indeed I thought structuring a film guide around geography would be a bad idea from the start. Luckily Tony Reeves’ decision to revamp the guide layout is an informed one as the structure of Movie London only reinforces its cohesiveness. The sections on the city of London are meant to expose the movie traveler to the widest cross-section of the film-friendly metropolis. These walking guides are extremely edifying and, in the end, only meant as a loose guide with which to plan your trip. An appendix in the back references every film mentioned (as well as alternate titles some films may go by) to make searching individual movies quick and easy.

The only main problem with the book is there are simply not enough pictures. While there are anywhere from four to six black-and-white thumbnails per page, sometimes Reeves mentions a particular locale that may be hard to identify in person without a pictorial aid. The only color illustrations are in the middle spreads, which are beautiful enough to make one wish the entire book was printed in color.

Despite these shortcomings, however, Movie London is a phenomenal installment in the movie-travel niche. Tony Reeves is an author dedicated to cinema and it shows in his exhaustive research and easy-to-navigate guide layout. Though only five years has passed since his last Movie London installment, Reeves has gone balls-to-the-wall to include all of the modern blockbusters including BOURNE SUPREMACY & ULTIMATUM, NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS, V FOR VENDETTA and CHILDREN OF MEN just to name a few. At a price tag of $14.95 this book is a must for anyone traveling across the pond this summer.

Movie London Giveaway

Courtesy of our friends over at Titan Books, we have a total of five copies of Movie London to give away for your reading pleasure. If any of you Maniacs are interested in winning a copy drop a comment below.

For more information on the novel be sure to check out Titan’s website directly at www.titanbooks.com.