Maxim (1-year)

Frankly I think its a waste of time. Why play games? If you want porn, there are many better magazines and TV shows and whatever for you to see. If you want news or culture or humor or whatever, there are a ton of those things out there too. (Not that its selling for the humor anyway.)

The popularity of this mag reminds me of the following exchange between Barry Fitzgerald and Maureen O'Hara in THE QUIET MAN: (a movie worth buying by the way;)

O'Hara: "Do you want some water in your whiskey?"

Fitzgerald: "When I drink whiskey, I drink whiskey. When I drink water, I drink water."

The only reason to buy this mag is for skin. Hey I'm a guy. I like good looking women as much as the next man, (after all I married one.) but if what you want then buy a skin mag. Why delude yourself.


maxim: for people who want to pay for advertisements   May 28, 2003
174 out of 245 found this review helpful

i've bought a few copies of this magazine, but none in over a year. maxim is chock full of repetitive sex stories and media-savvy "babes" that conveniently pose at the same time their new CDs or movies are about to come out. a typical issue is 175 pages of advertising (counting those airbrushed pictorials) and maybe 25 pages of actual content, most of which is either recycled from previous maxims or adapted from other magazines.

i find it hilarious that the same "manly man" guys who make fun of oprah-watching females buy this magazine and claim it the greatest thing on the newsstand, when it's really just the same shallow junk as any housewife-friendly talk show. it's not that i hate this magazine, i just think it's really really lame.


What every guy needs to know...   October 30, 2001
Mark Savary (Seattle, WA)
103 out of 182 found this review helpful

Always interesting, MAXIM delivers information and humor aimed squarely at the male audience. MAXIM is a hip cross between MAD Magazine (off-the-wall humor), and a censored version of Playboy (lots of bare skin, but no naughty bits showing). The results are always side-splitting, if not informative.

Part of the humor comes from how dumbed-down some of the information is, just to make sure men everywhere can understand what the editors are trying to say (and they flat-out tell you, "Hey, we dumbed this down so you'd get the point, stupid!"). Anything real in the way of education or enlightenment comes sprinkled with jokes, and photos of scantily clad beauties to ensure capturing the attention of the male reader.

Besides humor, articles talk about exercise, fashion, electronics, cars, and sex.

A men's magazine for the over-18 age group, one can expect spicy pictures, a few naughty words, and other adult-slanted humor and commentary throughout. Probably not recommended for the conservative crowd.


Used to be better   February 13, 2002
80 out of 87 found this review helpful

I've been reading Maxim since about issue #3. I used to really enjoy the magazine: their witty remarks and interviews with the monthly babes and product reviews were both entertaining and interesting. However, I'm now letting my subscription run out. Maxim has went through something like 3 editors since I've been reading and the magazine is getting progressively worse.

Maxim used to taste test microwave and fast food-type items and give them real, insightful ratings/reviews...things like pizza rolls, pizza pockets, etc. Now there's a fictional person named Hiroki, who does tests on stupid foods. So instead of "One tester said, 'Red Barron pizza had a crispy crust, but was a bit greasy,'" we're left with "Hiroki said the edible panties, 'Taste like chicken. Yum.'"

Another area where Maxim disappoints is in the number of advertisements. The magazine is now significantly thicker and stuffed with ads. In fact, I have ripped the first 10 pages or so out of my last several issues because those first 10 pages are all advertisements!

Maxim also puts a lot of emphasis on their women, who have decreased in quality (read: not as good looking). They do some heavy duty tweaking on the computer too; all of the models look like their skin is made of polished copper.

Maxim has called me no less than 4 times to get me to renew my subscription...I HATE telemarketers! The last time they called I finally asked to be removed from their calling list. They have been sending me "this is your last chance to renew letters" for about 4 months. Great, more junk mail.

Don't get me wrong, Maxim isn't a terrible magazine, but I don't think it's worth subscribing to anymore. You might want to stick to buying it on an issue-by-issue basis, or get the old issues from your friend. Save your subscription money for something else.


I swear I read it for the articles.   January 14, 2002
35 out of 51 found this review helpful

I'm an 18 year old girl at college and my roommate bought me for Christmas a subscription to Maxim because I like it so much. Sure, it can seem degrading, but it really is all in jest. This magazine is full of interesting articles, funny jokes, fair and educated reviews, and useful/useless trivia. You can easily read it from cover to cover and stay amused the entire time. Sure, there are some scantily-clad women in it, but even as a straight female I can appreciate a beautiful woman's body. Maxim doesn't mind mixing seriousness with fun, which is something that women's magazines have yet to discover. People say that Cosmo is essentially the women's equivalent of Maxim, but it's humor level is nowhere near that of Maxim. It prints funny jokes, hilarious Beat-This-Captions (my favorite feature), and isn't afraid to superimpose a beanie atop President Bush's head. It goes where truly no magazine has before; it's fascinating. Until another magazine can have such a fun-loving, yet level-headed perspective on the world, Maxim will definitely be my favorite.