Useful Links

Just came across this interesting site via Digg - it is a comprehensive list of documentaries that can be viewed online.

Just use the menu to navigate to each film. (N.B. Some might take a while to load)

> Check it out the list of free documentaries
> Find out more about documentaries at Wikipedia

A couple of weeks ago Anne Thompson - an established film writer who also has a keen understanding of new media - moved from her post at The Hollywood Reporter to their  crosstown rivals Variety.

You can check out her new blog at www.thompsononhollywood.com

She notes in her first post that:

Although I wrote the Risky Business column at L.A. Weekly for seven years, and filed some more Risky columns for Filmmaker Magazine in 2003 and 2004, and convinced the folks at THR to let me use Risky Business for my weekly column there, they want to hang on to it. It’s a hard-won part of my identity. But I’m moving on.

Although it is a hassle starting a new site from scratch (and a tad mean spirited for THR to hang on to the RiskyBiz moniker) sometimes a change can be an invigorating thing.

All the best to Anne at her new URL.

> Thompson on Hollywood
> Anne’s first column at Variety (which discusses 300)

Box Office Mojo have introduced a clever new section to their site called Chart Watch.

It tracks films to see if their rank has gone up on the various charts at athr site. You can select two views: Changes by Chart (which lists all the charts each movie moved on) and Changes by Movie (which lists all the movies that moved on each chart). It is handy to see how certain films are doing.

For example, it is interesting (or worrying depending on your viewpoint) to see that Night at the Museum is the 41st highest grossing film of all time at the worldwide box office.

> Chart Watch at Box Office Mojo
> The most successful films of all time at the box office according to Box Office Mojo

It looks like Amazon have created their own Wikipedia clone. It is called Amapedia and although it is still in beta, the idea is a very good one.

A wiki for Amazon products not only gives us more information about the huge amount of books, DVDs and products they have but also allows Amazon to better to gauge customer responses.

It will be interesting to see how this develops

> Amapedia (link via Read Write/Web)

The rather wonderful Lifehacker has posted an excellent set of links and advice for moviegoers:

Here’s the deal: if I’m going to shell out the dough to see a movie in the theater, I like to get my money’s worth, especially since I have to do quite a bit of maneuvering (babysitters, scheduling, etc.) even to get there. I don’t want to waste my hard-earned cash on the newest Rob Schneider craptacular; then again, just because a film has the George Lucas stamp of approval doesn’t necessarily mean it’s my cup of tea.

In this week’s feature, I’ll run down the sites I use before (and after) I go to the movies in order to make my dollar stretch just a little further.

For those of us outside the US its a little American-centric but the links are still worth checking out. (Link via Digg)

> Lifehacker guide to the movies

If you want to check out the latest viral videos doing the rounds on the Internet this chart comes in handy. It tracks the latest videos people are watching on YouTube, MySpace and Google Video.

> Viral Video Chart
> RSS Feed for the chart

* UPDATE 12/05/08: For a more updated list click here *

As someone who reviews films and DVDs the internet is an invaluable resource, but what are the most useful sites? After a look through my many film bookmarks and feeds here is my selection of the 10 most useful websites that I use on a regular basis:

1. The Internet Movie Database: After all these years it is still the single most useful site about films and filmmaking. It is an obvious choice but if you want to find out information about a film, actor or director the IMDb is without parallel. Sites like the All Movie Guide and Yahoo Movies try to do a similar thing but they are not on the same scale. Plus, the IMDB also has some very useful features under the hood - the Top 250 films voted by user ratings, the Trivia sections and the Memorable Quotes. Another useful aspect of the site is that on the top right hand corner of each film entry you can see whether or not the film is available on Region 1, Region 2 DVD or if there is a soundtrack.
2. Wikipedia - Film Portal: It might sound strange to rank a section from Wikipedia so highly but given the enormous growth of the online encyclopaedia its film entries have become numerous and very handy indeed. The idea of an encyclopaedia written and edited by users must have sounded crazy a few years ago but despite the odd example it remains a terrific resource if you want to get a basic understanding of a film or any aspect of filmmaking. Some of its entries on particular films are excellent (e.g. Blade Runner, Ran and Halloween) and is also useful at placing films in context. For example if you looked up Blade Runner you could also see links to other films from 1982, director Ridley Scott, author Philip K Dick, the Bradbury Building and what dystopian means. Plus, if you ever wanted to know about such diverse things as the WGA screenwriting credit system, Panavision, Lindsay Lohan and the little known Tom Hanks TV movie Mazes and Monsters, then Wikipedia has entries for them all. An amazing resource.
3. Metacritic: If you regularly read film reviews then Metacritic will make your job a lot easier. It collates reviews from a range of critics, gives them a rating out of 100 and then gives the film an average score. It usually includes a line from each review and also contains useful links to each film (the official site, the IMDb link and the trailer). Rotten Tomatoes is a much more popular site that does a similar thing but I prefer the look and feel of Metacritic. The film section is also complemented by ones for DVDs, music, games, books and TV. In my experience the average scores are pretty accurate but if you disagree then you can always add your opinion in the forums.
4. Google / Movies: Google is a search engine so popular that it has even become a verb. But apart from indexing millions of webpages and allowing you to search them it also has some useful features that you might not be aware of. It can spell-check, convert units of measurement and (most importantly for film lovers) help you find out your local cinema times. Again there are many sites that do this but Google’s reliably slick interface, ease of use and links to Google Maps makes them the current movie listing champ. The UK listings site is here and the US site is here.
5. Digg / Movies: Digg is a relatively new site but its fast becoming a great way to explore the buzz on news stories and the world of film is no different. They recently divided their stories in sections and one of those is devoted to Movies. Users submit and then vote (or digg) which stories they find interesting. You can browse the most popular this year (”Watch 70 legal TV stations for free”), this month (”Batman Begins sequel casting and title confirmed”), this week (”Siskel and Ebert hated each other [video proof]“), today (”99 Top Gun movie mistakes”) and recently popular.
6. Movie City News: A great one stop shop for film news edited by film writer and blogger David Poland. It has regular links to all the latest news stories and a series of blogs that are connected to the site. Very useful indeed.
7. Guardian Film: The Guardian and its sister Sunday paper The Observer are the best British newspapers when it comes to film coverage and their film website is where you can find all the stories if you didn’t buy the paper. They have the best range of articles and the best writers - Philip French is my favourite British newspaper critic whilst Mark Kermode and John Patterson are always worth reading. Unlike some other newspapers the Guardian understands publishing for the web and Guardian Film is regularly updated with reviews and features.
8. Criticker: Think of a site as a personalised Metacritic or in their words a “Personalised Film Recommendation Engine”. It allows you to rate films and then suggests ones you might like based on your ratings. Another handy feature is the Taste Compatibility Index that allows you to compare your film tastes with other users and more established critics. More addictive than it sounds and a good way of gauging what type of films you like.
9. Soundtrack Net: This site reviews the latest soundtracks but also takes a remarkbly detailed and comprehensive look at the role of music in film. There are interviews with composers, features on different scores and even an incredibly detailed database of music used in trailers.
10. Box Office Mojo: The best site for checking out how films have done financially at the US and global box office. It provides a lot of different stats and trends on what is going on at the box office including daily, weekly, monthly and yearly analysis. The section for All Time Box Office records is always worth checking out if only to see if anything will ever beat Titanic.

If you have any comments or suggestions for a useful site then do send me an email.