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Movie Review Research Guide

It is important to know when your movie was released. Check sources in the Reference Collection such as:

Film Review Index
Halliwell's Film Guide

Locating Reviews for Older Movies

The Boreham Library is a fairly new library. Most journal subscriptions began in the mid-1970's and electronic full text available in databases covers the most recent 5-15 years. Consider using ILLiad, our interlibrary loan service, to obtain reviews as well as the resources listed below:

• Film Review Index 1882-1949     Ref 791.4375 F487ha v.1
• Film Review Index 1850-1985     Ref 791.4375 F487ha v.2

The Film Review Index indexes publications that review movies and provides a brief citation of where the movie review is located, not the review itself. You must then determine whether this library owns the publication in which the review appears.

The following is an abbreviated example of an entry in the Film Review Index.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (US; Arnold, Jack; 1957)
America. Mar 16, 1957, v96, p685
Hollywood Reporter. Feb 1, 1957, p3.
Magill's Survey of Cinema. Series I. V2, p836-38.
The New York Times. Feb 23, 1957, p13.
Newsweek. Mar 11, 1957, v49, p106.
Variety. Feb 6, 1957, p6.

Use the Journal Locator link on the Boreham Library home page to determine whether a magazine, journal, or newspaper is available in this library in paper, microform, or online within a database. Periodical citations have a date and usually a volume number.

Use the Boreham Library Catalog to determine whether a book is available in this library. Book citations usually only have a page number.

Locating a Movie Review using Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature is located on Row 27B and is shelved alphabetically with all other print indexes. The call number is INDEX 050 R227.

Select the volume for the year in which your movie was released. For example, select volume 46 for the year 1986 to locate reviews of The Color Purple.

Look under the subject heading Motion picture reviews — Single works

Movies are arranged alphabetically by movie title. Here is an example of an entry:
America   154:75  F 1 '86  R.A. Blake

In the above example, America is the title of the magazine, the volume number is 154, page number is 75, date of magazine issue is February 1, 1986, and the reviewer's name is R.A. Blake.

NOTE: Many abbreviations are used in the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. If you do not understand an abbreviation, consult the preface pages in the front of the book for an abbreviation key.

Consult the Journal Locator to determine if the Boreham Library owns the title for the year cited or if full text is available in a database. NOTE: Check the format as well as the date. Some of the older titles are only available as microfilm or microfiche in our library.

Locating a Movie Review in Lexis-Nexis

1. Find Lexis Nexis in our A-Z list of databases.
2. Select the News category under the red Search tab.
3. Enter the name of your movie in the first search box.
4. Set the Select Source box to Book, Movie, Music, Play, and Video Reviews.
5. Set the Specify Date box to Date is between and enter when the movie was released.

Note: Most reviews appear soon after the release of the movie. Rather than having to sort through reviews of current movies that only make a comparison to your movie, set the To date to include reviews that may have been published the next year. Click on Search.

Locating a Movie Review in Academic Search Premier

1. Find Academic Search Premier in our A-Z list of databases.
2. Type the name of the movie in the first Find box.
3. Type the phrase motion pictures - reviews in the second box. Open the drop down box to the right of this box and set to SU Subject Terms.
4. Set the date range to the year the movie was released.
5. Click on Search.

Some citations will have an HTML or a PDF Full Text link to open the complete text of the story. If full text is not available, click on the "Find Full Text" link to determine if full text is available from another database. If no full text is available, consider submitting an Interlibrary Loan to request a copy of the article from another library.