WHAT'S HOT

SETUP

PROGRAM FEATURES

The Viewing Guide

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide main screen

    When you start Leonard Maltin Movie Guide for Pocket PC, you get a screen like that shown above.  The Viewing Guide lists movie titles in order.  You can return to this screen from elsewhere in the program by clicking on the left (film reel) button on the menu bar.  Under the banner bar on the left is what looks like drop-down menu that lets you select which type of movies you'd like to see.  Instead of a drop-down menu, clicking it will show the Movie List dialog box you see below:

  Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Lists dialog

    In addition to the types of movies shown above, there are Popular Family, Popular Fantasy, Popular Horror, Popular Musical, Popular Mystery, Popular Romance, Popular Sci-Fi, Popular Thriller, Popular War, and Popular Western.  Clicking on a list will display only movies in that list.  Selecting a list name and clicking on the [Use] button will do the same.  The [Show All Movies] removes the filter.  [Cancel] returns to the main screen without changing the filter.
    To the right below the banner, is a true drop-down menu that lets you select which information is shown along with the movie title.  You can elect to show the movie's premier Year, the Rating, or both.
    Below the list of movies is the "Look up:" entry and the [Film Finder] button.  The Look Up entry allows you to enter the beginning of a movie title.  The list of movies will scroll to the first movie that matches what you've typed as shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Look Up function

    The Look Up function only looks up the beginning of the title, not words embedded later in the title.  If you want to find a word anywhere in the title, use the Film Finder.  The Film Finder button opens the dialog you see below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Finder

    The Film Finder dialog lets you find a film based on any combination of part of the title, the release year, the rating, the genre, the actors, the director, the awards given for the film, and some additional attributes that we'll see in a moment.  Entering the same search string as we did in the Look Up entry will find "QUE" anywhere in the film's title for the results you see below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Finder results

    Let's take a closer look at some of the Finder options.  The Year entry allows you to select the year the film was released.  The Rating entry allows you to select a rating from "bomb" to 5 stars.  You also have the option of displaying films with just that rating, that rating or less, or that rating or more.  It's too bad they don't have a "so bad it's actually funny" rating.  That would allow you to find "Plan 9 From Outer Space" but leave "Gigli" on the shelf.  The Genre button displays the dialog shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Finder Genres

    You can select any number of Genres from those shown above.  Keep in mind that the Finder uses an "OR" operation on the genres so, if you check "Sci-Fi" and "Western" you'll get anything in either category and not just "FireFly," "Outpost," and "Wild, Wild West."  The [Clear Criteria] button clears all checks and shows "No Preference" for Genre in the Film Finder dialog.  Clicking on the button next to Starring will open the dialog shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Finder Select Actors dialog

    The alphabet tabs across the top of the list work just like the ones in the built-in Contacts dialog.  Clicking on any tab once, moves to the first letter on the tab; twice moves to the second letter; three times moves to the third letter.  The "#" will display the whole list from the beginning.  (As you might guess, since no actor's name starts with anything but a letter, the "#" and "A" are synonymous.)  The "[ ]Show Selected Items Only" check box will only list the actors you've already checked.  This is useful if you're just wanting to eliminate an actor from the criteria.  "Lookup" functions the same way the movie title look up does on the main screen.  The "Item" menu has one option:  "Deselect All" will remove all check marks and show "No Preference" next to "Starring" in the Film Finder dialog.  The Director Selection dialog works in exactly the same way and has the same options as the Actor Selection dialog, except, of course, you're selecting from a list of film directors.  Clicking on the button next to "Awards" displays the Award Selection dialog shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Finder Award Selection dialog

    The "Year" entry allows you to enter the year in which the award was given.  Leaving it blank corresponds to any year.  You can check any of the awards shown above.  Like the other check lists, the program will display any movie that falls into any of the categories checked off.  [Select None] clears all checks and displays "No Preference" next to "Awards" in the Film Finder dialog; exactly the same as "Deselect All" from the "Item" menu.  [Select All] checks all awards.
    Finally, clicking on the button next to "Attributes" displays the dialog shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Finder Attributes Selection dialog

    "MPAA" may not make sense to anyone but a film buff.  It stands for Motion Picture Association of America.  What it really means is the age-appropriateness rating of the film according to the MPAA.  That's the familiar "G," "PG," "PG-13," "R," "NC-17," and "NR" (not rated).  It's normally called the film's "rating," but that could easily be confused with how many stars it rates.  Still and all, I'd like to see a more obvious label.
    "Nationality" refers to the country in which the film was produced.  Clicking on the button calls up the dialog shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Finder Nationality Selection dialog

    This screen works exactly like the other screens with alphabet tabs, "Lookup," "Show Selected Items Only," and "Items|Deselect All."  I was actually quite curious about the "132m" "Nationality" that's first in the list.  The only film that matches that criteria so far is the 2004 release "Van Helsing."  I suspect it means "No country will claim this."  Possibly it's what was written on Victor Navorski's (Tom Hanks') passport in "The Terminal," a movie which, incidentally, doesn't appear in the Leonard Maltin 2005 Movie Guide.

    Next in the list of attributes is the type of media on which the film was released to rental shops.  You can choose from DVD, LaserDisc, and VHS.  Next is a choice of "Film Stock" which allows you to select All, only Color, or B/W (only Black and White) films.  Finally, you can select the film "Process" using the dialog shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Finder Process Selection dialog

    Obviously, this option is pretty much for film buffs only, but it's here for those who care about such things.

    Once you've narrowed down the list of movies to some you think you might like to see, clicking on the title will open the Movie Details screen as shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Details screen (review tab showing)

    The Details screen always opens with the "Review" tab showing.  You get the title, director, premiere year, and run length in the top banner.  Below that is a smaller banner with the movie rating, the "stock" (B/W or color), the media (DVD, LaserDisc, VHS), and the star rating.
    The only problem I have with the top banner is that it's too big.  It takes up too much of the screen in portrait orientation as you see above.  In landscape orientation, it's far worse.  Take a look at how much you can read of the review in landscape orientation.

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Details screen (landscape orientation)

    I have no issues with the second banner.  In fact, it has a very nice additional feature:  If you click on any of the icons, an explanation window will pop up.  Clicking on the red, green, blue film icon, for instance, shows the "Film Stock" pop up shown below:

Film Stock pop-up

    Clicking on "Starring" will switch to the "Starring" tab as shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Details screen (starring tab showing)

    The "Record" menu has only one option.  "Add to My Movies..." will add this movie to your personal collection list.  The personal collection list is a feature of the Movie Manager which we'll look at next.

The Movie Manager

    The Movie Manager is a database of the films you own.  When Leonard Maltin 2005 Movie Guide for Pocket PC is first installed, it installs the categories in the drop-down shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Manager screen (category drop-down shown)

    The categories provide a good start, but the program also allows you to customize the list to fit your personal tastes and needs.  Selecting "Edit Categories..." from the Category drop-down menu calls up the Category Editing screen shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Manager Category Editing screen

    The Category Editing screen lists the current categories.  The "Edit Category" entry works like the "Lookup" entries, allowing you to scroll quickly to a particular category in a long list of them.  The [New] button will add a new category.  The [Delete] button will delete the currently selected category.  There isn't a way to easily transfer films from one category to another and you can only put a film in one category.  That can be fairly limiting.

    Back on the Movie Manage screen, on the right side of the drop-down bar, is the "Sort By" menu that's displayed below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Manager Sort By menu

    The "Sort By" menu allows you to order your movies in a number of helpful ways.  I'll particularly call attention to the "Due Date, Status" order, which lets you see which movies you haven't seen, but need to return soon.

    Clicking on the [New] button calls up the Enter/Edit Movie screen as shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Manager Enter/Edit Movie screen

    The "Details" tab allows you to enter title, director, country (referred elsewhere as nationality), year, made for TV?, runtime, genre, and starring actors.  This is the same screen that you'd see if you tapped on a film listed on the Movie Manger screen.  That would allow you to edit previously entered information on that film.  As we look at the other tabs of the Enter/Edit Movie screen, you'll see some previously entered data.  That information came from selecting a film in the Viewing Guide and tapping "Record|Add to My Movies..." from the menu.  Next up is the "Item" tab:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Manager Enter/Edit Movie Item tab

    The "Item" tab allows you to set a "Status" of None, Reserved, Loaned, Borrowed, Rented, or Returned.  You can also set a location, whether the film is owned by you and viewed by you, when the film was acquired, how much it cost, and the catalog number (which can be any number that helps you organize the films).  The next tab is the "Tech" tab, short for "technical information."

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Manager Enter/Edit Movie Tech tab

    The "Tech" tab lets you keep track of technical information about the film including the media, the number of copies you have, the DVD "region," whether it's a color or black and white film, whether it's Full Frame, Pan/Scan, Letterbox, or Anamorphic zoom format, the process, and the type of sound output.  To the right of the Tech tab is the "Ratings" tab.

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Movie Manager Enter/Edit Movie Ratings tab

    The "Ratings" tab lets you assign your own rating as well as the official MPAA rating, list awards given to the film, and add notes and opinions about the film.  You can even write your own review there.  Leonard Maltin's review is found in the final tab, the "Review" tab, which also includes the star rating.

Movie Events

    The final section of the Leonard Maltin 2005 Movie Guide for Pocket PC is the Movie Events screen.  The Movie Events screen shows three types of events.  The first is DVD Releases as shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide DVD Releases

    The DVD Releases shows the title and date on which that particular DVD will be on the market.  You can order the list by title or date.  If you order by date, you can choose oldest first or newest first.

    The next list of Movie Events is Film Festivals as shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Festivals

    The Film Festivals list shows the name of the festival and the date on which it begins for the current year.  Clicking on the festival name pops up some additional information such as location(s) and dates.

    The final list of Move Events is File Premieres as shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Film Premieres

    The Film Premieres list shows the title of the film and the date it will be released in theatres.  The list can be ordered by film title or by date.  Unfortunately for informed choice, there isn't any review information for Film Premieres.  You'll have to check the web to see if you want to see an upcoming premiere.

    The Movie Events lists are extendable in two ways:  You can add your own calendar(s) to the list and new calendars can be added by LandWare when you synchronize with their online databases.  Synchronizing will also update the current three lists with up-to-date information.
    You also have some control over the information that's displayed.  Clicking on the [Show...] button will call up the Event Display Options dialog shown below:

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide Event Display Options

    The Event Display Options dialog lets you choose the sort order (which you can also do from the main screen), choose to show only current events, and/or "Trim Events."  The [Trim Events] button lets you remove events that occur before a given date.

The Blockbuster Test

    One of the things I like to do when I review software is to come up with at least one "real-world" scenario to see how the software does.  For Leonard Maltin 2005 Movie Guide, the "reality check" was a trip to my local movie rental shop (whose name will appear only in the section header).  The test was in two phases:  The first phase was to check all of the new releases to see if they appeared in the recently updated movie database.  Movie Guide did very well:  Of 74 new releases that I found in the store, the database had information on 71 of them.  The next test was the "obscure" test.  I went through the racks, looking for movies that I didn't recognize at all, trying to stump the program.  Again, Movie Guide did very well:  Of 127 forgotten films, Movie Guide pegged 113 of them.  Good thing too.  A few of the ones I found were real gems.  A number of others were real stinkers.

HELP SUPPORT

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

BUGS AND WISHES

PURCHASING

PROS

• Database of films is very complete
• Lists upcoming theatre and rental releases and film festivals
• Updates with new information via Internet
• Works well with WM2003SE

CONS

• Details banner bar is too big
• Can't put your films into more than one category
• Occasionally unloads
• Doesn't properly wait for storage cards to "wake up"

OVERALL IMPRESSION

All screenshots in this review are taken using SOTI's Pocket Controller Pro.