Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive

It's Only a Movie

The BBC's most popular film critic's Sunday Times Top 10 bestselling memoir

Film criticism is rarely as much fun as Kermode, whether on the radio or in this hugely entertaining book

A droll account of Kermode's rise to becoming the most prominent, and extravagantly quiffed, movie pundit in Britain

Breezy, entertaining ... certainly made me laugh

In an industry where serious film criticism is increasingly marginalised, we're lucky to have him

Scrapes, star encounters, filmic fixations and irreverent cinematic asides

Outspoken, opinionated, and never lost for words, Mark Kermode has carved out a career in print, radio and television based entirely on the belief that The Exorcist is the greatest movie ever made and that the Pirates of the Caribbean films should be buried in a very deep hole where they can never bother anyone ever again.

In It's Only a Movie, the incomparable Mark Kermode takes us into the weird world of a life lived in widescreen. Join him as he gets lost in Russia on the trail of a low-budget horror flick, gasp as he's shot at in Hollywood while interviewing Bavarian director Werner Herzog, cheer as he gets thrown out of the Cannes film festival for heckling in very bad French, and cringe as he's handbagged by Helen Mirren at London's glitzy BAFTA Awards. Written with sardonic wit and wry good humour, this compelling cinematic memoir is genuinely 'inspired by real events'.

Mark Kermode

Kermode has nutsy-boltsy knowledge, fierce and idiosyncratic enthusiasms ... and some very interesting things to say

As impressive as it is entertaining ... Takes a wrecking ball to the studio chicanery

Catching Mark Kermode in full rant is like witnessing an irate bloke slagging off an unfaithful mistress. Only funnier ... Disagreeing with Kermode is just as much fun as agreeing with him

A spectacularly well-researched and vehement argument

Combines historical context with hilariously barbed anecdotes

The angrier Mark Kermode gets, the funnier he is; good news then that this book is FURIOUS

[A] laugh-out-loud account that will tickle the funny bone of any film fanatic

[Kermode] clearly has a profound love of film and the depth of knowledge to go with it

An angry blast about the state of cinema-going

Christopher Fowler, Books of the Year: Cinema

Kermode sits in the stalls peeking through his fingers at what we’re served up on the silver screen and motormouthing about bad cinema in a frank and funny counterblast to all the Hollywood hype

The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex is the film critic’s anguished cri de coeur against overpriced 3D film tickets and soulless cinemas ... often very funny and enlivened with wonderful digressions borne out of a lifetime’s movie-going

a spritely, spirited tome ... with welcome doses of spicy self-deprecation and fascinating cultural history.

If blockbusters make money no matter how bad they are, then why not make a good one for a change? 
 
How can 3-D be the future of cinema when it's been giving audiences a headache for over a hundred years? 
 
Why pay to watch films in cinemas that don't have a projectionist but do have a fast-food stand? 
 
And, in a world where Sex and the City 2 was a hit, what are film critics even for? 
 
Outspoken, opinionated and hilariously funny, The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex is a must for anyone who has ever sat in an undermanned, overpriced cinema and wondered: 'How the hell did things get to be this terrible?'

Mark Kermode

Praise for The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex

Very angry and very funny

Kermode has nutsy-boltsy knowledge, fierce and idiosyncratic enthusiasms ... and some very interesting things to say

As impressive as it is entertaining ... Takes a wrecking ball to the studio chicanery

Very angry and very funny

Kermode has nutsy-boltsy knowledge, fierce and idiosyncratic enthusiasms ... and some very interesting things to say

As impressive as it is entertaining ... Takes a wrecking ball to the studio chicanery

Very angry and very funny

Kermode has nutsy-boltsy knowledge, fierce and idiosyncratic enthusiasms ... and some very interesting things to say

As impressive as it is entertaining ... Takes a wrecking ball to the studio chicanery

Books by Mark Kermode

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter