Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide

''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' was a book-format collection of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969, was updated biannually after 1978, and then annually after 1986. The final edition was published in September 2014. It was originally called ''TV Movies'', which became ''Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide'', and then ''Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide'', before arriving at its final title. Film critic Leonard Maltin edited it and contributed a large portion of its reviews.

Features

The book used a star rating system. The lowest rating was "BOMB", followed by one and a half stars, rising in half-star increments to a maximum of four stars,
and
frequently giving out two-and-a-half star ( **1/2 ) reviews. The sole exception to this was '' Naked Gun : The Final Insult'', which was rated with two and one third stars out of four, referencing the film's title.

Maltin did not cover direct-to-video films because of their great number (six released each week by 1994). Made-for-television films were included in the guides for many years, though in the late 1990s, Maltin gradually began to phase them out to make room for current feature film releases. All had been removed by the early 2010s, and no TV movies made after 2004 were included in new editions. Maltin used a different system for rating TV movies: "Below average", "Average" or "Above average", with select variants for highly rated films, including "Way above average" for '' The Day After'' and the Emmy Award-winning ''Special Bulletin'' (each from 1983), and "Outstanding" for ''Minstrel Man'' (1977). Certain theatrically-released films (usually low budget, obscure, foreign, concert, or serial films), as well as the majority of films based on Edgar Wallace novels, were also removed from the guide over time to allow the inclusion of new titles.

Another notable feature of the Guide was that each review included a reference to the source material for the film if it was based on previously published material. Films were listed alphabetically letter-by-letter, ignoring punctuation and spaces. Articles were also ignored and transposed to the end of the title.

The Guide was notable for containing what the ''Guinness Book of World Records'' calls the world's shortest movie review. His 2 out of 4 star review of the 1948 musical '' Isn't It Romantic?'' consisted of the word "No". Another very short review concerned the film '' Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed'' where Maltin wrote, "It is what it is." Yet another was of '' Are Husbands Necessary?'' in which he wrote "And what about this film?", and one more right behind these is '' Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol'' where, in comparing it to the previous installments, he commented, "More of the same, only worse."

Bombs

Along with typically listed worst pictures of all time, the hundreds of films Maltin designated as a "BOMB" in his guide also included the following: ''American Gigolo'', the Woody Allen-directed '' Anything Else'', '' Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever'', '' Battlefield Earth'', '' The Benchwarmers'', '' Best of the Best'', '' Bobby Deerfield'', ''The Bonfire of the Vanities'', ''The Cannonball Run'', '' Cannonball Run II'', ''Captain Ron'', '' Celtic Pride'', ''College'', ''Cop and a Half'', ''Delgo'', '' Driven'', '' The Dukes of Hazzard'', ''88 Minutes'', '' Endless Love'', '' Every Which Way but Loose'', '' Fatal Beauty'', '' Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'', '' Four Rooms'', ''Freddy Got Fingered'', '' The Garbage Pail Kids Movie'', '' Grease 2'', 2010's ''Gulliver's Travels'', '' Howard the Duck '', 1980's '' Jazz Singer'', '' The Karate Kid Part III'', '' Little Man'', '' Mame'', ''Mannequin'', ''The Missouri Breaks'', the 1980 adaptation of ''Popeye

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