Book reviews: Yippee Ki-yay Moviegoer and The Film Experience

Two new film books have recently been published which, in their own distinct ways, manage to channel the magic of cinema through their pages to leave the reader remembering just why it is they continue to shell out their hard-earned cash for a night at the movies, or buy another DVD to add to their already-toppling collection.

First up is Vern's Yippee Ki-yay Moviegoer (Titan Books), a book culled from the web pages of geek central itself, Aint It Cool News, which allows the author's views on Die Hard, Mad Max, Predator 2 and the death of the R-rated movies to reach a wider audience.

And what views they are. Whether he's ripping into the makers of Die Hard 4.0 and their decision to go for a PG-13 rating, wondering whatever happened to waiting patiently for a film to start or going off on tangents about the world at large with the odd mention of movies, Vern is every Internet fanboy rolled into one but with a lot more style. And swearing.

That's perhaps unfair, as he's actually every movie viewer rolled into one, at least every one who's ever had a moan to their friends about the quality of big budget films made in the last decade (I'm talking about you Transformers) or the attractiveness of Mary Poppins.

It's hard not to get caught up in his excitement and, while this might not be a deep and meaningful treatise into the mechanics of filmmaking, it's certainly more accessible for the average (and not-so average) film fan who just wants to read about some great films and feel like they're in on the joke.

Also out now is the slightly weightier tome, The Film Experience: An Introduction (Palgrave Macmillan) by Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White, which goes deeper into what it means to enjoy a film through the various lessons learnt from watching them.

Rather than the often dry or unwelcoming books on the history of cinema which occasionally appear to daunt the budding film scholar, this book recognises that not everyone goes to watch French arthouse films in darkened cinemas with just a handful of others.

Instead, the authors are well aware that modern viewers are just as likely to watch a downloaded film on their iPhone or boot up a DVD on their laptop as go to the local multiplex. They also know that we've all seen enough films to know what certain visual or aural clues mean - if it's too quiet in a horror film we can be pretty sure a cat will come out of nowhere to scare the life out of us in a few seconds time - and that we've been learning about films since the first time we watched one as children.

With chapters covering editing, sound, genre, critical theories and how to write a film essay, this is a fantastic starting point for anyone who perhaps wants to take their love of film a step further to take a course on the subject or even become a critic.

In fact, grab a copy of both these books and you'll be on your way to becoming the next Barry Norman, Jonathan Ross or even Vern, none of which is a bad thing.