Tim Robey - Box Office Poison (2025)

A tremendous book - brilliantly written, funny, informative and particularly good at destroying urban myths and 'received wisdom' regarding a number of erroneously- slated and reportedly underperforming films.
Robey selects a range of films from the last 110 years, ranging from DW Griffiths' Intolerance right up to the film version of Cats in 2019 (from which only Taylor Swift emerges unscathed), and avoids the predictable and over-analysed failures such as Ishtar, Heaven's Gate and Battlefield Earth.
There are so many tremendous essays/analyses in this book, and I particularly liked the dissemination of Synedoche, New York, The Magnificent Ambersons, Catwoman and the truly terrible 2005 scifi movie A Sound of Thunder.
My absolute favorite was the writer's disbelief at/admiration for George Miller's family-unfriendly sequel Babe: Pig in the City. It's not normally the sort of film I'd watch, but I'm making time this week to see the Mad Max director's wholly inappropriate vision for the (subsequently curtailed) franchise.
I finished Box Office Poison in a couple of days - it's full of insight and a genuine love for the medium - and - any vestigial, residual liking I had for Oliver Reed* disappeared forever after finishing this book.
Highly recommended.

9/10

*What an utter c*nt.