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CINEMAS
What's on
 |
Virgin
Net Cinema
www.virgin.net/cinema
Virgin's
cinema
section has
everything you want in an online listings
site. Dates, times and venues
are easy to find and there's plenty of potted
reviews and witty
articles
to keep you amused should you have time to
browse. |
ABC
Cinemas
www.abc-cinemas.co.uk
It's as
easy as
ABC to find
out what's on at your local cinema with this
site, which is also very
easy
on the eye thanks to clever use of Flash
technology. It also features
precis'
and trailers of all the big releases. |
Cinemas
in the U.K
www.aber.ac.uk/-jwp/cinemas
A directory
of cinemas throughout the UK listed
alkphabetically by town. The
authors
have done their homework not only do you get
the address and phone
number
for each entry, but also how many screens
and seats, includes links to
the big cinema chains. |
National
Film Theatre
www.nft.co.uk
This
site is
needlessly heavy
on text, but is a mine of information all the
same for the capital's
film
goers. It will tell you what's showing at the
NFT over the next few
weeks,
so you don't miss out on any arty or classic
gems, while it also
contains
listings for the impressive IMAX cinema. |
Odeon
Cinemas
www.odeon.co.uk
Here,
you can not
only find
out what's showing at your nearest Odeon, but
also book your tickets
online.
Add reviews of the latest releases and
well-stocked video and DVD store
and you have a very well-implemented site. |
Scoot
Cinema Guide
www.cinema.scoot.co.uk
The most
accessible, accurate
and easy-to-use film finder on the Web. Scoot
even provides directions
to the cinema, along with information on the
facilities provided and
potted
reviews of the films on offer. |
UCI
Cinemas
www.uci-cinemas.co.uk
The
owners of
many of the plush
mulitplexes springing up on the edge of towns
all over the country, UCI
has put together this very impressive site. |
Yell
Film Finder
www.yell.co.uk/yell/ff
Finding
your
nearest cinema
with this site is a little laborious, but the
information on films and
times is comprehensive and bang up to date.
There's also access to
useful
additional information, such as local
restaurants and the nearest pub. |
|
Cinemas
Background Information
|
International
Movie
Database
www.imdb.com
with
over 170,000 films listed, the International
Movie Database is the
Granddaddy
of all movie sites on the web. Not only
that, but it's one of the best
online resources of any kind. A huge
database of just about every movie
ever made, you'll find information on
everything from the cast and crew
to continuity errors. |
Brit
Movie
www.britmovie.co.uk
Even
though
people are continually
berating the state of the British film
industry, we have made some fine
movies over the years, as this site proves. A
huge collection of the
best
British movies ever made, the list spans from
early masterpieces like
The
39 Steps to the Ealing comedies and from
Sixties classics like Alfie to
modern success stories like the Full Monty.
Each is accompanied by
details
of the cast and crew and a short synopsis.
Then there are articles on
actors,
actresses and genres. |
British
Board of Film Classification
www.bbfc.co.uk
This is
the
organisation that
decides what you watch and who can legally
watch it. It explains the
decision-making
process in some detail, along with the
rationale behind the various
classifications.
Recent adjudications of the Board are also
reproduced online, while the
most interesting part of the site is that
devoted to controversial
decisions
of the past. Student Union favourites like
Texas Chainsaw Massacre and
A Clockwork Orange are dissected, along with
the reasons why they were
withdrawn. |
Exposure
www.exposure.co.uk
This
useful
resource is aimed
at young film makers who want to emulate the
phenomenal success of The
Blair Witch Project. The centrepiece is the
witty and worthwhile
'Complete
Eejits Guide to Film making'. Covering
everything from writing your
screenplay
to getting your film shown, this site should
give you some inspiration
when your creative juices are running dry.
There's also a handy
contacts
list and details of screenplay competitions. |
Film
100
www.film100.com
This is
a well
considered list
of the 100 most influential figures in cinema
history, in the author's
opinion, of course. From Walt Disney to the
Lumiere brothers, the
innovative
split-screen format will allow you to browse
through the entries with
ease.
Each is accompanied by a witty and
well-written biography, while the
whole
site is well designed and organised. |
Carry
Online
www.carryonline.com
The
Carry On
films are undoubtedly
an institution and this huge site will take
you back in time to the
days
when Barbara Windsor wasn't a pub landlord and
Kenneth Williams was
still
with us. The atmosphere of ribald innuendo is
perfectly judged and the
level of detail incredible. You'll find
accounts of all the films, from
Carry on Sergeant in 1958 to the ill-judged
Carry on Columbus in 1992,
and detailed biographies of all the actors. |
Jurassic
Punk
www.jurassicpunk.com
This
site might
not be much
to look at initially, but there's a whole host
of film clips and
trailers
beneath the dowdy exterior. If you're one of
those who can't wait to
see
the big new releases, then you'll find a wide
selection of trailers for
each new blockbuster. There's fresh content
added every day - from a
variety
of sources - and not many of the latest
releases escape the Punk's
grasp. |
The
Movie Cliches List
www.moviecliches.com
Hollywood
blockbusters
might
be an easy target, but don't let that stop you
enjoying this huge list
of all the ridiculous excesses that separate
Hollywood from the real
world.Gems
like, 'A hero will show no pain even during
the most terrific beating,
yet he will wince if a women attempts to clean
a facial wound', and
many
more besides will have you laughing out loud.
Helpfully divided into
sections,
these observations are all funny because
they're true. |
Film
Four
www.filmfour.com
As well
as
promoting the Film
Four cable channel, and providing
easy-to-follow online listings to
help
you plan your viewing, this site contains
plenty of interesting
content.
Even if you don't subscribe to Film Four,
you'll enjoy the
streaming-video
interviews with big-name directors and special
spotlights on
independent
film festivals around the world. There are
also comprehensive and
well-researched
retrospectives of major films, stars and
directors. And you can see
what
the film-making arm that funded Four Weddings
and a Funeral is up to. |
Dark
Horizons
www.darkhorizons.com
An
excellent site
for cinephiles
that is bursting with the latest news, images,
clips and reviews of all
the current and upcoming blockbuster films.
Each
film is
given extensive
treatment, with details of the plot, cast,
crew and rumours from the
set.
There's also an excellent news section that
will keep you up to date
with
everything going on in Hollywood - including
the early word on the big
releases, whispers of new projects and so on.
Then there's a huge
archive
of everything on the site over the last three
years. |
Empire
www.empireonline.co.uk
A slick,
well
stocked site
that is easily a match for its popular print
cousin. The very latest
movie
news and reviews are regularly updated so if
you really want to know
what
is going on from a UK perspective, this should
be one of your first
stops.
What really marks it out as a quality site,
apart from the stylish
design,
are he insightful features and the quality of
the chat on the well-used
message board. |
Oscars
www.oscar.com
If once
a year
isn't enough
for you, you can relive the tears and triumph
of the Oscars all year
round
at this well put together official site.
Featuring a comprehensive
spread
of subjects, you can read about everything
from Oscar fashion to the
history
of the awards. There's also a wide selection
of streaming video clips
so
you can enjoy once again the tension of the
announcements or the tears
of Gwyneth Paltrow. |
Film
Scouts
www.filmscouts.com
This
stylish site
could provide
a pointer to the future of movies on the
Internet. It features short
films
by independent film-makers, many of which are
actually very good. And
if
you've got a reasonably fast connection, the
quality isn't bad
either.
Film
buffs will
also enjoy
the in-depth documentaries. When we visited,
there was a fascinating
insight
into the weird world of David Lynch on offer. |
Greatest
Films
www.greatestfilms.org
As this
site
explains, choosing
the greatest films of all time is always going
to be a tricky business
and much of it is down to personal taste. So,
Greatest Films has
garnered
opinion from a variety of expert sources and
left it to you to make
your
own mind up. This is one of those sites that
seems nothing special at
first
glance, but contains such a wealth of
interesting information that you
can spend ages surfing around. |
Script-o-rama
www.script-o-rama
A great
site that
will appeal
to anyone who lives and breathes the cinema.
It's a mammoth resource
that
contains the original scripts for just about
every major feature film
ever
made.Relive your favourite moments from Star
Wars or Casablanca or
marvel
at the changes made during filming. There's
also a selection of as yet
unfilmed screenplays by up-and-coming writers
and a large variety of
television
scripts. |
Site
Officiel du Festival de Cannes
www.festival-cannes.fr
Cannes
has long
been a glamorous
affair and the lavish website, with its clean
black and gold
typesetting,
almost matches it sequin-for-sequin. Available
in both French and
English,
it not only covers this year's events - making
good use of audio-visual
trickery - but has a first rate database of
past Cannes folk and films
to rival the IMDB. The real winner though, is
the archive section -
which
gives a vibrant sense of this annual gathering
in the name of cinema |
|
Film
Reviews
|
At
a Glance Film Reviews
www.rinkworks.com/movies
An
extremely
useful and comprehensive
resource put together by a pair of movie buffs
named Sam and Dean.
Somehow
they've managed to find the time to review and
rate hundreds of films,
covering all genres and eras as they go. The
reviews are all short and
to the point so can be consulted quickly and
easily. Having two reviews
of each film also means that you can formulate
your opinion more easily
than simply being told whether a film is good
or bad. |
Atom
Films
www.atomfilms.com
Wonderful
site
where you can
see and download the latest short films.
Everything from the new
Aardman
Animations ( who made Wallace and Gromit)
creation to the latest Oscar
winning short.... but watch out for Joe
Cartoon's foul mouthed gerbil
in
the microwave. They email regular updates. |
Blunt
Review
www.bluntreview.com
Blunt by
name,
blunt by nature
is the maxim of this site, on which all of the
new releases are
reviewed
by one Emily Blunt. In fact, her opinions are
actually much fairer and
more reasoned than she gives herself credit
for. Not only that but
they're
nicely laid out, not too long and clearly
well-informed. Ms Blunt also
has a nice line in sarcasm and a rather
unusual rating system. |
Bollywood
www.bollywood.org.uk/
News,music, new releases and
profiles from
the exotic
world of Indian films |
Filmweek
www.filmweek.co.uk
It may
not have
as many entries
or look as stylish as other review sites but
Filmweek's writers
certainly
know their movies. Well-considered reviews are
added as new movies are
released and these are then archived for later
viewing. Most
importantly,
Filmweek is British, so you'll only hear about
films that have actually
been released on this side of the pond. |
Hollywood
www.hollywood.com
Coming
directly
from the heart
of the movie industry, Hollywood is a hotbed
of reviews, trailers,
previews
and exclusive pictures. The design is a little
chaotic but there's so
much
to see that it hardly matters. Because it's a
US site most of the films
featured won't be out over here for some
months but at least you'll
know
which blockbusters are on their way. |
Film
99
www.bbc.co.uk/film99
Coming
directly
from the heart
of the movie industry, Hollywood is a hotbed
of reviews, trailers,
previews
and exclusive pictures. The design is a little
chaotic but there's so
much
to see that it hardly matters. Because it's a
US site most of the films
featured won't be out over here for some
months but at least you'll
know
which blockbusters are on their way. |
Aint
it Cool News
www.aint-it-cool-news.com
Harry
Knowles has
long been
a thorn in the side of the big Hollywood
studios. Armed with a long
list
of contacts in the industry, his aim is to
bring you the latest movie
news
and reviews before anyone else. The layout is
somewhat chaotic but that
just adds to the sense that this is news and
gossip hot off the
presses.
The enthusiastic team take great delight in
pricking the fragile egos
of
the great and the good and why not? |
Movie
Review Query Engine
www.mrqe.com
A
supremely
useful site that
will search a hand-picked selection of
reputable sites, to bring back
as
many reviews as it can find. In particular,
this will also be a useful
resource for those interested in foreign
language films, which are
often
hard to track down elsewhere. And even if
you're not looking for a
particular
flick, movie buffs can while away many a happy
hour leafing through the
most popular and most recent reviews. |
Movie
Bloopers
www.moviebloopers.com
Now you
seeit,
now you don't.
Silly little mistakes that film makers
shouldn't have made are pointed
out frame by frame in this site. |
Oh
the Humanity
www.ohthehumanity.com
Not
content with
the narrow
subject areas covered by the Tokyo Stomp site,
the very professional
looking
Oh the Humanity takes things several steps
further in the quest to find
the worst film in history.
From
laughable
special effects
to nonsensical plots, we've all seen films
that are truly terrible.
This
site allows you to share the horror and recoil
in fear at the sheer
number
of bad movies out there. |
Inside
Out
www.insideout.co.uk
Recently
we seem
to have been
blessed by more and more UK-based movie review
sites, going some way to
correcting the extreme US bias that exists.
This is one of the best,
combining
intelligent, knowledgeable reviews with
extensive coverage of film
festivals
in the UK.
The
London and
Edinburgh Film
Festivals are covered in exhaustive detail by
a roving reporter, who
picks
out the highlights and lowlights of each. We
also liked the clear,
unfussy
design, which reflected the nature of the
reviews. |
Film
Unlimited
www.filmunlimited.com
The
Guardian's
online offerings
are so unfailingly excellent that it comes as
no surprise to find that
Film Unlimited contains some of the best film
criticism on the Web.
Each
Friday, its
team of critics
set about the latest batch of new releases -
and for a supposed bunch
of
liberals they can be quite vicious!
Nevertheless, it's clear that those
who produce the site have a great love for the
cinema, while those who
design it ensure that their work is showcased
to best effect. |
Film.com
www.film.com
A very
professional US-based
site that has been around for a long time. It
may not have the wit and
irreverence of some of the newer kids on the
block, but it more than
makes
up for that with its authoritative,
comprehensive review section.
There's
also a healthy dose of trailers to watch and a
number of quizzes and
polls
to participate in. The excellent 'Greatest
Films You Never Saw' section
should also give you a few ideas for your next
trip to the video shop. |
Popcorn
www.popcorn.co.uk
The
problem with
most decent
movie sites is that they're heavily American
in focus, which means that
they concentrate on films that aren't even out
here yet. Fortunately,
Popcorn
goes some way towards restoring the balance
and is particularly strong
on securing exclusive interviews with major
British talent like Hugh
Grant
and Ewan Macgregor. The reviews aren't as
authoritative as they might
be
but the movie news is bang up to date. |
Kamera
www.kamera.co.uk
If
you're often
to be seen
perusing the listings outside your local
arthouse cinema with a copy of
Sight & Sound tucked under your arm, then
this is the site for you.
While it does review the big films too, often
offering a new slant on
them,
Kamera concentrates more on leftfield, less
mainstream offerings.
As well
as the
excellent reviews,
clearly written by true movie buffs, there's a
smattering of excellent
articles, interviews and essays, all of which
should appeal to anyone
who
knows their Annie Hall from their Annie. |
Movie
a Minute
rinkworks.com/movieaminute
Do you
often find
yourself
at a loose end when the conversation turns to
classic films? Then take
a look at this amusing site, which features
hundreds of movies, all
reduced
to two or three line précis.
Most of
them are
hilarious,
as classic films - from It's a Wonderful Life
to Return of the Jedi are
put to the sword with glee. |
Oscars.com
www.oscar.com
Applause!
Applause
The official
all singing, all dancing site that contains
everrything you need to
know
about the Academy Award Ceremonies dating back
to when all movies were
only made in black and white. Good reports on
the nominees for the 2000
ceremony - tearful acceptance speeches and
all. |
Stomp
Tokyo
www.stomptokyo.com
This
review site
is a little
different to say the least, concentrating not
on the latest
blockbusters
but on those movies usually found gathering
dust on the back shelf of
the
video shop.
Godzilla,
B-movies,
kung-fu
and films that are just so bad they're good
come together in a melting
pot of truly awful movie-making. Movies are
rated in lava lamps, bad
films
are good, good films are bad and all the while
you're left wondering
whether
the authors are being serious or not. |
Total
Film
www.totalfilm.co.uk
Rather
than just
transplanting
its entire operation to the Web, snappy film
magazine Total Film has
used
its site to provide a dual service to its
readers.
On the
one hand,
it reacts
quickly to any new premiere and has a snapshot
review up on its site.
On
the other, it archives particularly
interesting features and interviews
from the magazine.
The
design is
deliberately
sparse to make navigation quick and easy, too. |
6degrees
www.6degrees.co.uk
6degrees
is the
UK independant
film magasine- featuring film, video, book,DVD
and soundtrack reviews,
plus monthly articles on filmakers, stars,
industry professionals and
film
organisations. 6degrees also offers free
small-ads pages, weekly email
news letters, festival and cinema guides,
trailers, competitions, film
society information, education guides, video
interviews and much more
besides. |
|
|
DVD's
&
Videos
|
BlackStar
www.blackstar.co.uk
The
simple design
of this site
means it's fast to load and easy to work your
way around. You're
tempted
in on the front page with special offers and
free postage costs on DVDs
and videos. You can browse by film genre or
search for specific titles.
There's a plot summary for most of the films
and suggestions of other
films
you might like to see in the same genre. The
site is not short on
bargains
either - some popular videos were available
for a mere £3.99. |
DVD
Box Office
www.dvdboxoffice.com
This
site offers
free shipping
worldwide, which makes a pleasant surprise. Of
course because Boxoffice
is based in the States you can get hold of
films before they're
available
in the UK and they're much cheaper than over
here. New Arrivals take
centre
stage on the opening page of the site and
you're looking at prices
between
$25 and $30 for the latest movies. |
DVD
Express
www.dvdexpress.com
If you
are
serious about DVD,
then the only way to go is to import titles
from America. The problem
is
choosing a suitably reliable site. DVD Express
is one such site.
Offering
thousands of titles, as well as music CD's and
movie merchandise, this
is a great site. The design allows you to
search for a title based on a
key word, or delve through the structure in
place. |
DVDplus
www.dvdplus.co.uk
This
site looks
very stylish
and proved to be easy to navigate. You can
search for videos or DVDs by
title, actor or director or you can browse by
genre. Each DVD comes
with
a plot summary, reviews and a star rating. If
you're stuck for gift
ideas
then why not visit the Inspire Me section
where you'll find a list of
10
classic films that anyone would appreciate. |
Filmstore
www.filmstore.co.uk
This
site is a
subsidiary of
the Odeon cinema group and it sells the top
DVDs and videos. Each movie
comes with a plot summary and you can search
for specific actors or
directors.
There's a special section called TV Heaven for
cult soaps and TV shows
on video which contains classics such as
Brideshead Revisited. |
Filmworld
www.filmworld.co.uk
You'll
find a good selection of videos and CDs on
sale at Filmworld. The
movies
are accompanied by detailed background
information. Movie buffs will
appreciate
the many and varied ways you can search the
Filmworld database - by
film
title, director, actor, distributor or by a
specific year. You could
even
use the online Film Atlas to choose films made
in specific countries.
And
just to get you in the mood, you can even
check out a few film trailers
online. |
Video
Paradise
www.videoparadise.com
Video
Paradise is
yet another
WH Smith spin off. You'll find plenty of
special offers on the site,
with
most of the videos being backed up by
comprehensive movie reviews along
with customer comments. If you're not sure
what you fancy watching then
check out the video charts for inspiration.
Videos are sent out within
48 hours and delivery is charged at £2.95. |
Entertainment
Express
www.entexpress.com
Not only
does
Entertainment
Express sell videos but it also turns its
hands to CDs and software.
You'll
always find some attractive special offers at
the site with many videos
going for as little as £3.99. If you're
looking for inspiration
you
can browse by genre or find a specific title
by typing in a movie title
or an actor's name. The prices are good and
include delivery costs. |
|
|
Fan Mags
|
Clint
Eastwood: The World Wide Web Page!
www.clinteastwood.net
An
outstanding,
stylish and
utterly satisfying tribute to the iconic
actor-director. The site
manages
to cover most aspects of his public life,
building around an
intelligent
biography with an excellent filmography,
trivia, and video downloads
from
choice moments from Clint's films (including
14 minutes of footage from
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly). Most
importantly, there are a few
quirky
gems; the best is a set of audio downloads
from mid-60s bestseller
Clint
Eastwood Sings Cowboy Favourites. Fantastic. |
Degrees
of Kevin Bacon
www.fas.harvard.edu/~salm/student/sdokb
It has
recently
been estimated
that no site on the Internet is more than 13
clicks away from another.
But the discovery that it really is a small
world was first enforced by
a mere film trivia game - and floppy-haired
Tremors star Kevin Bacon.
Basically
- as this site demonstrates - the idea is that
Bacon is the hub of the
entertainments world. Any actor/actress can be
traced to him through
the
movies on which they have worked, in six steps
or less. The details and
variations on the game are described in full
here. |
Kubrick
Multimedia Film Guide
www.indelibleinc.com/kubrick
The late
director
was not terribly
well served by the Web before his death and
even after, there's not
much
to be found in one place. This tactful,
largely monochrome site spares
the comments on Kubrick's life and films,
letting an abundant supply of
images and aural extracts from the works do
the talking instead. While
material for the early days is slightly
lacking, most of the later
movies
are covered well (including a section on AI,
the film that never was).
Further links are heaped on, if you want
further reading. |
The
OneRing.net
www.theonering.net
Remember
the
Internet furore
over the recent Star Wars movie in the months
before its release? Well,
the whole thing's about to happen again, as
Peter Jackson's Lord Of The
Rings adaptation begins filming, for release
in 2001. Tolkien's seminal
trilogy has a huge fanbase and The OneRing.net
is one of the best of
half-a-dozen
sites tracking the films in production and
posting rumours, confirmed
castings
and script details as they come in. |
|
