Summary: Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide versus Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever -- it's a close race. They each have their strengths and weaknesses.

I like that Maltin lets me separately choose between four fonts for the list and summary views (large & small, each in either bold and normal). I wish it let me "zoom" in or out interactively, without having to go to "Preferences". I also wish it let me choose from other fonts on the system.

I like that Maltin gives me the option to see both the year and the rating for the movie in the list view, but I wish it would let me sort on these. You can do a certain amount of sorting in certain sub-list views (e.g., after you've done a search), but you can only sort by one of Title, or Year (ascending or descending), or Rating. You should be able to sort by any combination of fields in either ascending or descending order, independently.

In the list views, I wish Maltin would wrap to a second line for long titles, instead of chopping off the name and allowing that to "run into" the year and/or rating. I also wish that movies like "Empire Strikes Back, The" would instead be listed as "Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, The", so that all the Star Wars movies would sort together.

There are two search methods -- the quick "search by name" field at the bottom of the list view (enter the first few characters of the name), and the more complete "film finder", which lets you search by title (including substrings), year, rating, genre, starring, directed by, awards, and other attributes (NCAA rating, nationality, DVD/Laserdisc/videocassette, color vs. black & white film, and an amazingly complete list of wide-screen processes).

I wish the reviews followed the format you typically see in most print listings, where the list of actors, actresses, director, etc... followed the actual review. Having some of this information on a separate screen is less convenient. Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever from PocketSensei (see http://www.pocketsensei.com/videohound.htm) follows the established convention better.

This application and the databases do take up quite a bit less space than Videohound (223KB for the application + 3.2MB for the databases for Maltin vs. 1MB + 8.7MB for the separate REX database for Videohound), and it has only somewhat fewer reviews (~21,000 vs. ~25,000). Space/performance wise, Maltin definitely beats Videohound.

In most of the list views, Videohound gives you a quick set of A-Z tabs on the right-hand side of the screen, plus a scroll bar. I like this solution better than the Maltin alternative.

Category-wise, it's a mixed bag. Videohound has "Kibbles" that help you narrow down quickly into some very specific sub-categories, but then it peters out and doesn't let you further sort the list by year, rating, etc.... Maltin has fewer categories, but the search function is much more complete, and at least it gives you some minimal options in the list views for sorting by year or rating.

Videohound incorporates browser-like "back" and "forward" buttons, as well as a history of previous movie titles you've looked at. Maltin has no equivalent. This is sorely missed.

I also like the Videohound "Golden Movie Pick of the Day". Trivial, but it lets you find out about excellent movies that you might not have otherwise heard about.

Ultimately, I think it has to come down to the reviews themselves. Maltin only shows nine four-star SciFi movies (ET; Empire Strikes Back; Close Encounters; 2001; Dr. Strangelove; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; Day the Earth Stood Still; Lost Horizon; and Metropolis (1926)). Moreover, it gives unconscionably low ratings to movies like Blade Runner (1.5 stars?!?). Compared to Videohound, the reviews tend to be shorter and do not seem to give you quite as good a feel for the movie.

Note that this program also includes a movie library/rental management feature that has yet to be tested.

See the official Landware company page for this product at http://www.landware.com/movieguide/palmos/.

Recommended: Yes