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Jun 23, 2010

Keely rated it:

I have a lot of friends who swear by Pratchett, but I found him rather dull. I tried reading the first book in the series, but I couldn't finish it. A friend suggested this as one of his better outings, so I bit.

He seems to harp on the most obvious jokes, extending one-note gags into paragraphs, chapters, or even whole books. I found that out of every ten jokes, one would make me laugh and nine would make me groan and roll my eyes. Really not a good rate of return.

His wor More...

9 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 23, 2011

Mike (the Paladin) rated it:

I'm stingy with my 5 star ratings and considered going with a 4 here, but I really enjoyed this read. It is hilarious. From Trolls who don't want to get "type cast" (I played a troll who runs out and hits him with a rock) to a talking wonder dog who can't get noticed because he's too "scruffy" the cliches of the movies get very screwed. Everyone is headed to "Holy Wood" to be a star. And of course as we all know, moving pictures or, the clicks can effect the fabric More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Христо rated it:

“Подвижни образи” на Пратчет плаче за филмиране
http://www.knigolandia.info/2011/12/blog...

Ех, Света гора (Holy wood)! Място на мечти наяве и впримчващи съновидения! Там, където 15-метрова жена се изкачва по огромна кула, а в ръцете й безсилно се е отпуснал Библиотекарят, а около тях пикират двама магьосници на метла. Където кучето Пляси с отрицателен интелект непрестанно тича насам-натам да спасява кой ли не от какво ли не, а дълбокомисленият пес Гаспод умело дирижира неговите с More...

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Jun 23, 2011

Pat rated it:

There are a couple different kinds of Discworld books in the Pratchett library: the Vimes books, the Early Period books, the set about Rincewind and/or Wizards/Witches, and the set of odd one-offs. This would be a book about Wizards (although thankfully no Rincewind, who I kinda loathe) but mostly it's about the motion picture industry and Hollywood in general. The only central character who really carries over is Gaspode, the small stinky talking dog. The rest of the book (although the Librari More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2010

Chris rated it:

Given a choice between books and movies, many people - myself included - will say that books are always better than movies. "You can use your imagination," we'll say, "drawing on the powers of the human mind to create things that manifestly are not real. You can decide for yourself what the scenes look like and how the characters appear, rather than have some director feed his or her vision over yours."

Despite that, however, we all still love the movies. If you gave More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 05, 2009

Kate rated it:

Synopsis from Google Books:

Discworld's pesky alchemists are up to their old tricks again. This time, they've discovered how to get gold from silver -- the silver screen that is. Hearing the siren call of Holy Wood is one Victor Tugelbend, a would-be wizard turned extra. He can't sing, he can't dance, but he can handle a sword (sort of), and now he wants to be a star. So does Theda Withel, an ambitious ingénue from a little town (where else?) you've probably never heard of.

More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 22, 2010

Cory rated it:

A new magic seeps into the Discworld, a magic that has the ability to transform reality and turn seemingly ordinary people into stars--and not the kind made of slowly exploding hydrogen either. It comes from a place called "Holy Wood," and it's got people acting very strange...

I really enjoyed this installment of the Discworld series. If you've been reading the books in order of publication, you'll know that Pratchett Terri often lets our reality slip off into the Discworld f More...

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Feb 04, 2011

MisterFweem rated it:

Again, reading Terry Pratchett is good medicine. And I mean reading it. I've tried watching some of the movies made from Pratchett's work and they are -- and a whole -- generally unwatchable. I know Pratchett has a fear of Hollywood (which I can understand) but I have concluded, after watching many British sci-fi/fantasy movies, that they can't make one watchable. At all. I promise I've tried. I really, really love Pratchett's stories, so I thought watching some of the films based on them would More...

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Aug 22, 2011

Suzanne rated it:

Once again the Discworld has me giggling. Darn near chronically. This time, it’s Holy Wood and all the references to various films. Especially when it’s just plain wrong (have you followed a “yellow sick toad” lately? Or perhaps you’ve a desire to be “a lawn”?).
There’s a lot of things going on in this one, lots of characters with their viewpoints and plots. But the main one focuses on Victor, and later Ginger, and the strange magic of Holy Wood (not real magic, mind, silver screen magic). A More...

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Feb 17, 2011

R. August rated it:

As with The Simpsons and Futurama suffer from the problem of having a great setting, great jokes, great writing, and crummy plots, making 30 min. episodes of the cartoons enjoyable, but the movies hard to sit through. Usually by the 1 hour marker in the movies I start wondering why I should care and thinking about going home. Setting and writing grips you and plot keeps you. I've had the same problem with the discworld novels - good setting, good jokes, good writing, but by page 150 I stop re More...

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Oct 15, 2010

Pvw rated it:

Pratchett is funny in his satire, but when I compare him to Jonathan Swift or Douglas Adams, the first one is more socially relevant and the latter is just... funnier. Pratchett has an abundant fantasy and delivers some enjoyable descriptions. But this abundance is also a problem, because he continues introducing new weird characters to the book until you want to shout: "Terry, start your story now!!" In 'Moving Pictures' Pratchett takes on the Hollywood circus - a rather easy victim t More...

2 comments like

May 08, 2009

Jamie rated it:

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett is the first of his Diskworld novels to make me go "Meh..." The idea is that an evil spirit breaks lose and starts putting ideas in people's heads that give birth to the creation of motion pictures, or "clicks" on the Disk. It's got enough good lines, jokes, and parodies to make it entertaining, but the whole Hollywood lampoon seems so out of place on the Diskworld that I found it really distracting and jarring. Indeed, Pratchett seems to an More...

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May 15, 2011

sage rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Sep 30, 2010

Eric rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Jun 11, 2009

Laura rated it:

This is probably my least favorite Discworld book so far. I read that in so many other reviews, but thought "eh, they are just being picky." I don't think that anymore. There wasn't really much of a plot. Which made it hard to want to keep listening to "find out what would happen." Because there really wasn't any resolution I was waiting for. Now technically, there was a plot with the Holywood deal and the guy that died in the beginning, but I just didn't really care. More...

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Jan 11, 2009

munling rated it:

" What you do is, you take some corn, and you put it in, say, a Number 3 crucuble, with some cooking oil, you see, and then you put a plate or something on top of it, and when you heat it up it goes bang, I mean, not seriously bang, and when it's stopped banging you take the plate off and it's metamorphosed into there, er, things... You can eat it, if you put butter and salt on it, it tastes like salty butter. "

By the alchemist Peavie on how to make banged grains, some fluf More...

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Feb 13, 2010

Locke rated it:

I've read most of the Terry Pratchett books out there. I read them in the chronological order, so this one I read quite a while ago.

In comparison with other Discworld novels I didn't much like this one. DW novels generally fall into two categories: good and not-so-good (thank you, captain obvious). "Moving pictures" belongs to the latter.

The whole idea of a Hollywood parody seemed to be forcefully superimposed on the world created by Pratchett and didn't work ve More...

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Oct 09, 2011

C_ rated it:

Ein witziger Fantasy-Roman rund um Hol(l)ywood, den ich an manchen Stellen aber leider etwas lang und platt fand. Auch wurde ich mit der Hauptperson, Victor, irgendwie nicht so ganz warm. Er blieb mir immer ein bisschen unsympathisch.Im Großen und Ganzen hat das Lesen aber Spaß gemacht, bei den vielen Anspielungen auf die reale Filmindustrie konnte man sich ein Schmunzeln nicht verkneifen. Und ich melde mich jetzt für die Adoption von Gaspode und Laddie :) Die beiden Hunde und die Ente waren mei More...

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May 05, 2011

Sara rated it:

Altro capitolo della saga di Mondo Disco, l’Universo creato dal fortunato scrittore e popolato di personaggi al limite della macchietta. Stavolta se la prende con Hollywood, raccontandoci alla sua maniera l’origine della statuetta degli Oscar in una vicenda ambientata sulla famosa collina assolata con la scritta cubitale. Ginger pare essere la Marylin che all’occasione recita in Via col Vento, Victor a metà strada tra Fred Astaire e Clark Gable. O Lawrence d’Arabia, con – così recitano le locand More...

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Dec 06, 2011

Mike rated it:

This was a fun book, but I can't say that it was quite as good as some of the other Discworld volumes. I will say that Pratchett has a marvelous way of blending drama with humor, and for imbuing absurd characters with a strong sense of reality. It's quite a feat. You do end up rooting for these characters in a deeply emotional way and you feel a tug at the heartstrings when they triumph. Not that I'm saying anything about the end of this novel, mind you, just that you'll be on Team Victor, Te More...

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Aug 06, 2010

Bjoern rated it:

Wonderful!
A brilliant story of "a worlde gonne madde!" full of fine jibes against the "dream machine" of Hollywood and every other film maker ever walking our roundworld. it might not be so sophisticated as Pratchetts more recent works, but it's fresh, it's amusing and it shows so many "new" characters already grown old and routined in the newer books so it was a very enjoyable read full of wonders, laughs & wizards!
Somehow i especially liked the " More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2010

Ashley rated it:

This book was very disappointing. Usually I have no trouble retaining interest in a Terry Pratchett/Discworld novel, but this one I had to force myself to finish.

I think my problem with it is that it's too literal. What I love about Pratchett's writing most of the time is how he manages to mock things scathingly while at the same time making wonderful (and more general) loving comments about humanity. By following such a narrow path as he did in this book (with the straight on Holly More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 19, 2011

Templehurst rated it:

I gave this one a go again because I'd been reading Pratchett on the bus recently and felt like I might have judged it poorly in the past; undeservedly putting it in the same range as Monstrous Regiment and not in a middle tier with Small Gods. Not that it was bad, I just didn't like it. And? Well, I'm glad I read it again, since it let me hang out with the wizards, who are always awesome, especially Ridcully. It was nice to be reminded of Gaspode's origin, as well as Detritus, and between More...

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Dec 23, 2009

Theresa rated it:

"The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it's as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues."

"The universe contains any amount of horrible ways to be woken up, such as the noise of the mob breaking down the front door, the scream of fire engines, or the realization that today is the Monday which on Friday night was a comfortably long way o More...

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Oct 01, 2007

Dicehiggins rated it:

This was a fun book that borrowed a lot from the Hollywood heyday.....It follows Victor, Ginger, Dibbler and a talking dog, as they break into showbiz (Through a hole in a fence), turn light into gold, see the advent of talking pictures, and try to become flaming balls of gas and energy...uh I mean...stars. One of my favorite discworld books, and one I quote often.

"In a word -- im-possible!" "That's two words," said Dibbler.

"I'm vice-president More...

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Apr 10, 2010

Mari rated it:

You'd think, after the beginning humor, you'd expect most of the jokes would die out. It can't get any funnier than the previous funny, can it? What a load of cabbages. Things could get funnier, and the ratio of laughter volume over gradual page turns increased by leaps and bounds. I don't know how on earth I managed to survive over 20 years without having read any of the Discworld books until recently (The Truth was my first).

Pratchett shows his mastery not only with writing fiction More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 01, 2011

Matt rated it:

Now I remember why I don't read Terry Pratchett. He's got great beginnings, okay endings but highly tedious middles. It's rather like the premise is the point. He's at his best when sticking to Britishy bons mot or amusing descriptions (such as his version of popcorn, "banged grains," which if you apply lots of butter and salt tastes rather like salty butter). I think I might be willing to read the first 100 pages or so of most Discworld books but I couldn't slog my way through the nex More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 03, 2011

Isabel rated it:

Strange things are afoot in Discworld (aren't they always?). The alchemists have invented Moving Pictures and set up film studios at Holy Wood, attracting people, trolls and other denizens of Discworld from far and wide.[return]But when the model elephants on the resometer at the Unseen University start spitting out lead pellets and animals suddenly start talking, it bodes*. [return][return]* It doesn't bode anything in particular, it just bodes, ok!

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Dec 22, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

in a previous post, i mentioned that i love pratchett, and that no one should give away his books (i.e. leave them at the library) unless they're really bad. i had a very difficult time with this one. CMOT Dibbler is not a character i like, and i'm more used to the characters that are more developed later in the series. i read this one out of order, and it was very jarring to me to go backwards in character development, so to speak. not his best.

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Aug 04, 2011

Ting added it

Another goody from Pratchett. After starting off slowly it soon picked up with the antics of Holy Wood and the mysterious magic of the "clicks" that seemingly have parallels in many of our classic films. There is something here for everyone: dashing heroes, languid damsels in distress, and, of course, ever-loyal man's best friend (but don't let Gaspode hear that). Not his best work so far but highly readable and enjoyable. Kudos!

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