My wife’s definition of a movie buff is anyone who remembers who directed a film, and cares. Guys like Hitchcock and Speilberg kind of muddy the water on this rule, since the marketing machines have used those names as part of the advertising, but it’s basically a fair assessment. If you know who Howard Hawks is, you’re probably a movie buff. If you listen to the dialog in The Thing From Another World and suspect the director, or at least the person who wrote the dialog, was probably really Hawks, you’re definitely a movie buff.

But whether you’re a true movie buff or just someone with a DVD player and a subscription to Netflix, there have no doubt been times when you wanted a review on a movie, or wanted to look up a movie to see who was in it, or when it was made, or… Many of us have solved that problem by having a copy of the Maltin’s guide on our bookshelf. I’ve gotten a new copy every couple of years since back when VCRs were still a new thing. They’re great to have around, but not perfect.

For one thing, they are big. At 1644 pages the 2004 edition is more than 2 inches thick despite being printed on almost transparently thin paper. It’s a $20 paperback that gets dog-eared and worn out long before it gets replaced. But most annoying, it doesn’t do the thing movie buffs want to do most – look for categories of things. Wouldn’t it be great to get a list of all of the 5 star movies that a Gregory Peck was in? Or all of the 5 star movies from 1999? Or all of the movies starring John Wayne that were directed by John Ford? A book simply doesn’t let you do that.

But now Maltin’s guide is available for Palm OS, and it does all of that, and more. It also supports running from add-on cards, so you don’t have to use up your device’s memory. In addition to an alphabetical list of all of the movies in the guide, there are other powerful features, all of which are great for anyone who rents or owns movies.

You can add movies from the database to a My Movies list and mark them as “owned” or “viewed”. You can edit the My Movies list to add details about when it was purchased, what type of media it is on, where it is located, and other details, including notes and your personal rating. You can then filter or sort your movies by criteria such as whether you own them or not, your ratings, etc.

If you’ve rented a movie, you can add it to your My Movies list and use the Rental Wizard to mark when it needs to be returned and turn on a reminder for when to return it. For movies you own, you can use the Loan Wizard to track who you’ve loaned it to and when, and to check it back in when it’s returned. Those two features alone could easily pay for the cost of the program in saved late fees or by avoiding the need to replace a DVD in the event you lose track of who you lent it to.

The Palm Maltin Guide also features an Events section that tracks DVD releases, film festivals, and film premiers. The list can be updated using an Internet connection to keep it current, so you are always on top of when new releases are going to be available.

But, the most powerful feature for any film buff is a Film Finder that lets you specify year, rating, genre, star, director, awards won, or “attributes” (rating, formats available, etc.) and search for any movies that fit the criteria you’ve selected. Select 5 star rating and Gregory Peck and hit Search you’ll find that Maltin lists On the Beach and Twelve O’Clock High. Click on one of the movies for the detailed information, including review and cast list. Click on a cast member and you have the option of building a filmography for the actor listing all of the movies that actor is in. The searches are limited to what’s in the database, but with reviews of over 19,200 films, that’s a pretty comprehensive list.

Of course, you might wonder why To Kill a Mockingbird isn’t on that list of 5 star movies staring Peck, especially since that was the only movie he ever won a best actor Oscar for. I also marvel that Blade Runner gets 1 and a half stars while ET gets 5. In fact, I bump into reviews that make me wonder what Maltin was smoking when he wrote them all of the time, but that’s the way it is when you love films – no reviewer is ever going to completely agree with your taste. And, to be honest, the discussions that those reviews prompt is half of the fun of being a movie buff.

Considering that Landware is selling the Palm Leonard Maltin’s 2004 Movie & Video Guide well below the price of the paperback copy and has the virtue of being much more searchable than a book, it’s hard to find a reason that anyone who thinks a movie guide might be a good idea and owns a Palm shouldn’t get a copy. And if you use it anywhere nearly as often as I’ve found myself using it, it will be money well spent.

Tucker Hatfield
Technology Editor

Landware, $15.95 Palm OS
http://www.landware.com/movieguide/palmos/index.html