Movie Links

I'd add a Links section to this site if I could find a tasteful and convenient way to do so. Since I haven't yet, here are my indispensable web sites for movie buffs; I recommend bookmarking these links:

All Movie Guide:   www.allmovie.com   Great movie database with terrific plot synopses and reviews. It's just hard to link to specific pages or I would.

Internet Movie Database:   www.imdb.com   Equally indispensable movie database. (They've added a Pro version for a monthly fee--not sure what that's all about.)

Yahoo Movies:   http://movies.yahoo.com/   The one place I go to look up show times for movies playing locally. I'm not sure why I rarely search their database for movie facts.

Fandango:   www.fandango.com   I've tried it. It works. And when I have a giggle of boys dying to see Lilo and Stitch or Finding Nemo on opening day, I take no chances.

Rotten Tomatoes:   www.rottentomatoes.com   My favorite source of movie reviews—after I've seen the movie. They conveniently summarize and link to the reviews from major newspapers, so before I consider a movie I can see what percentage of the reviews are favorable. Currently, First Daughter is garnering only 11% favorable reviews, while Shuan of the Dead, "the biggest zombie comedy in British history", scores a remarkable 92% approval on the fresh Tomatometer. The trailer for Shuan of the Dead was funny, but that rating is the kind of surprise that might persuade me to catch it in the theater.

Netflix:   www.netflix.com   For a small monthly fee, you queue up a list of DVD's to rent and they pay postage both ways. Say good-bye to late fees: you keep the movies as long as you like and can have several out at a time. When you finish one, drop it in the mailbox and in a few days the next one in your queue arrives.

Blockbuster:   www.blockbuster.com   I used to use them as a second source of DVD rental ideas for Netflix (to pay them back for all the late fees). Now it looks like they are going after Netflix directly with a mail-order DVD rental program of their own.

Coming Attractions:   http://www.comingsoon.net/trailers/   You'll want a high-speed internet connection and up-to-date media player software, but after that you'll be downloading trailers like this one before you know it.

Screenplays:   www.moviescriptsandscreenplays.com   Here's where I start now when I'm looking for the script to download.

Book List:   http://www.westmount.ci.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/moviesa-z.html   The information is buried in other movie databases, but I found myself wanting a single easy-to-browse list of books that had been made into movies. This is an amateur site, with obvious gaps and numerous typos, but it has about 600 titles listed and it's the best of its kind I've located so far.

(Note:   I was able to construct a suitable "Power Search" at IMDb: by restricting the Country of Origin to USA, Language to English, Year range from 1960-2005, Keyword to "based-on-novel," and excluding TV movies, TV series, and "Direct to video" releases, I was able to generate a manageable and interesting list of about 2000 titles. Regrettably, I couldn't find a way to save the search and post the link here.)