Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer! by Vern

Book Review by Ryan Agee | 29 May 2010
Book title: Yippee Ki-Yay Moviegoer!
Author: Vern

 

There are plenty of film reviewers on the internet, but not many of them get their own book. Why is Vern special? At first glance, he isn’t really; his prose is oddly laboured – he usually uses ‘do not’ instead of ‘don’t’ for example, and his focus is generally on action movies. But after reading a few of these reviews, Vern’s enthusiasm becomes infectious, and his prose style starts to seem quite deliberately amusing – particularly when he’s analysing something like action sequences in a Schwarzenegger film with a mocking seriousness. The pieces chosen here are primarily reviews – often written long after the films were released – of action cinema mainstays like Predator, Enter the Dragon, Action Jackson, etc, but with a good number of largely forgotten films thrown in, such as They Live or Knightriders. A few pieces approach films in refreshingly different ways too – there’s a piece on the book Die Hard was based on, (originally to star Frank Sinatra!), and the Raiders of the Lost Ark piece is about a shot for shot remake that some incredibly resourceful teenage kids made. This collection of reviews is often as fun as the films it features, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously either. [Ryan Agee]

 

Out Now. Published by Titan Books. Cover price £9.99.