To be fair, I may have got the wrong end of the stick, or expected too much - but with such a high regard in the realm of Sci-Fi, I would expect anyone to come away thinking that this book should have covered better issues.

Whereas many of the BFI film guides descend into realms of film-school arsiness (literally so in the case of Michael Rogin's semi-classic 'Independence Day'), this is a refreshingly straightforward collection of trivia and informed commentary on 'The Terminator', and probably the best that is likely to appear. Given that 'The Terminator' was produced quickly on a low budget, and that not much was expected of it, no records were kept of the filming, and there really isn't much to write about the making of the film itself. Rather, the author takes us through the film, pointing out the clever bits, and writing about them. It's almost as spartan and efficient as the film itself - you'll probably finish it in half an hour, and wish that it was longer.

This was a very good look at "The Terminator." It covers issues such as the debt to Harlan Ellison, the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and how the violence and anti-social nature of the original movie were sanitized in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." There is a fascinating discussion on why the audience responds to the villain in "Terminator" and not the hero (Michael Biehn), and the analysis of the scenes of the film and their duration is quite interesting.

In short, this book takes its topic seriously and addresses issues that previous articles I had seen on "The Terminator" hadn't really raised.

The "Appropriate Response" to this book by people who enjoyed the movie is to buy it.

It's too bad this book is out of print; I highly recommend you track it down. It's the story of unrequited love told by a hapless, overweight loner who undergoes a metamorphoses after a particularly grueling rejection. For anybody who has experienced the despair of unreturned love (i.e. anyone alive), this is an excellent, laugh-out loud romp of a book. It's short and bitter but hilarious, and it jumps right in to the glaring truths about relationships that are seldom told in books. The narrator's voice alone is incredible, with his dry, understated discussions of all but the most awkward aspects of dating and sex.

The phrases in this book work well and the phoenetic spelling isn't horrible, I just found it difficult to quickly find what I wanted to say. I found the two page "essential phrases" list in the back of my other travel guides more useful because you didn't have to flip a bunch of pages to get what you need. I was on a brief trip to Europe, this book may be more useful for longer trips.

This book is very useful to me because I travel to Europe every year and when I go there, it's difficult to get around the airports or the country itself. This little phrasebook has helped me to communicate with the other people in the countries I go to.