I bought this because (ready for a shock?) I quite enjoy listening to Mark Kermode ranting on the radio from time to time. I hadn't read his previous work, and was hoping for a translation of his spoken criticisms to the written page (or Kindle, in my case).
I generally enjoyed the work as it was pretty much what I was expecting - radio-Mark on the the printed page. However I did finish the book *slightly* disappointed - with the editing - and as a result the book was merely Good when it should have been Great.
Kermode's rants were all there - agree or disagree with them they are compelling reading, and you can't beat a *passionate* critic. The problems I found were two fold. Firstly, I started to notice a niggly habit in the writing where the author would refer to his previous book simply by saying 'see previous book'. Not wildly helpful for me, as I hadn't read it - but hardly a world-ending problem. The real problem lay in the contrast between this, and his increasing habit of restating in later chapters points he had made quite adequately in previous ones. I found myself muttering at the page 'Yes, I KNOW that's what you said in the last chapter - I just READ the last chapter - how do you think I got to THIS chapter?' whenever he did this, whereas when he said simply 'see last book' with no further explanation I was ranting that 'I *can't* see the last book - I didn't *read* the last book - what am I, telepathic?'. This kind of inverted referencing persisted through the whole book, and whilst it is tempting to blame the author I think the editor should have taken a stronger hand here.
My feelings about the editing were compounded by Chapter 6. Chapter 6 FELT like it was just a long list of non-English language horror flicks that Mark really liked in the original (subtitled) version, followed by a list of the English language remakes that were rubbish (in his view). I think he made his point early on, and to keep repeating it, and to keep on at the same genre became tedious. How about foreign action/romance/thriller/period/sci-fi etc. genre films? How about making a counter point and looking at foreign language versions of English language tales, to see if non-English/American film producers are better at the remake than Hollywood? Chapter 6 - unfortunately the last full chapter - just got stuck for me - and again I have to blame the editor. Up to this point it was a 5 star book. Afterwards - well that chapter on it's own just dragged and dragged. In retrospect, it feels like a book comprising 6 long articles, and the editor didnt have the heart to cut down chapter 6 because it would have made the work lopsided.
Now, I recognise I've focussed on the negative here - so to be fair most of the book is a good old romp through Kermode's rabid (and encyclopaedic) mind - and was entirely delightful. Just read his other book first (to find out about the references - and tell me what they all meant) and skip chapter 6. Oh, and have a word with the editor, someone. . .
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