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Thursday, November 26, 2009
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2004-04-26
Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases and a few from the growing TV on DVD section. A couple of selections caught my eye this week, Love Actually - (Buy from Amazon) and Kids in the Hall - Season 1 both of which are my DVD pick of the week.
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2003-12-15
While the weekend after Thanksgiving is usually soft, the weekend after that usually sees a bit of a rebound. Last year, for instance, we saw a nearly 20% week-to-week increase at the box office. This year we weren't so lucky. No movie in the top five beat box office expectations, while a couple did place higher on the charts due to weaker than expected competition. This led to a drop of nearly 9% from last week and 13% from last year.
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2003-12-12
It's a two-way race for top spot this weekend with Something's Gotta Give targeting a mature audience while Stuck on You goes for the decidedly immature. A third movie, Love Don't Cost a Thing is also opening wide but it might have trouble just making the top five.
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2003-12-11
During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here's a list of highlights, (including this week's winner Big Fish - Official Site ) plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Big Fish
Current Content: The movie opened yesterday in limited release and the website added most of its content during the past week. The site has the usual features, including very extensive behind the scenes information, and several extras. Most notably is the Script to Screen, which shows how one scene looked at different stages and has commentary from the producers and the actress. There are also four Tall Tales illustrations, but all but one are marked coming soon. Along with the illustrated tall tales are audience submitted tall tales that you can vote on, (when they are all on site.) The only problem with the site is the really bad looping on the background music. But that is not enough to stop it from winning the embellished Weekly Website Award.
The Butterfly Effect
Current Content: Cast and crew bios were added to the site.
Chasing Liberty
Current Content: The flash site went live this week, and while the format is not bad there's a lack of content. Important sections like, 'About the Film' are marked coming soon, so it's hard to tell if this will be a good site or not. It does have a bit of sound and animation and enough marked coming soon to make you want to come back.
The Chronicles of Riddick
Current Content: Just an in-depth introduction.
Club Dread
Current Content: Typical Fox Searchlight placeholder site with the synopsis, cast and crew and a note saying, 'Website coming soon.'
Cold Mountain
Current Content: The flash site launched this week, but before I get into that … How can Renée Zellweger, who was born and raised in Texas, have such a bas southern accent? Nicole Kidman was raised in Australia and Jude Law is British, so their bad accents are understandable. But Renée Zellweger? Anyway, back to the site. The first thing I noticed was the music; different sections have different background music, which is an excellent addition. The usual features are there, with a couple of extras marked coming soon (Clips, Book and Soundtrack.) Not a lot of content, but miles ahead of most Miramax sites.
Girl With a Pearl Earring
Current Content: This site is, in a word, subdued. Which is probably for the best. The main difference from when the site first launched is the number of reviews posted on the site.
Honey
Current Content: Every week for nine months I looked at this site, and now that it was released I won't be checking it out anymore. And I miss it already. Anyhow, while I'm on the subject there was a huge addition to the media section. Four TV spots, four clips, and twenty-four interviews clips! Ok, they're short clips, but that's still a lot.
I, Robot
Current Content: None, just a redirected to the Fox movie pages.
Japanese Story
Current Content: Definitely a modest site that hits all the major areas, but has little in the way of extras. There's some animation, but no sound outside the trailer.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Current Content: A section on Weapons and Warfare was added. It is mostly text with an image gallery. As I was checking to make sure the link was right, two new features were added: A photo gallery of the premiere and Digital Horses, which is about bringing the huge battle sequences to the big screen.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: The film opens tomorrow and the Story section of the site is still marked coming soon.
Man on Fire
Current Content: None, just a redirected to the Fox movie pages.
Miracle
Current Content: So far just the synopsis and trailer are on this placeholder site.
The Passions of the Christ
Current Content: The flash site launched this week and while it has most of the usual features, it has little in the way of flash. (There are some minor animations but no sound.) The synopsis is also marked coming soon, but lets face it, if you don't know the plot you are not in the movie's target audience.
Peter Pan
Current Content: The bios were added to the site, but the clips are still marked coming soon. In many cases clips from the movie are not added to the site till after the movie opens in theatres.
Something's Gotta Give
Current Content: The film opens this week, but there were no changes in the site since it was reviewed last.
The Statement
Current Content: I've got a bone to pick with this site, under the History section the site states that Adolf Hitler said, "one can either be a German or a Christian, but not both." That was actually a quote from Martin Bormann, Hitler's private secretary. This site as all the usual features, synopsis, cast and crew bios, trailer, image gallery, etc. And a few extras like the aforementioned History section, and a section where the five main actors briefly speak about their characters. Before you go to the site, be warned than the long synopsis gives away many key details of the plot and should probably be avoided unless you've already seen the movie or read the novel it is based on.
Stuck on You
Current Content: Two for the Road was added to the site. Each part deals with one aspect of the twins life and has an accompanying video segment.
Torque
Current Content: The flash site was added. But despite the change in format the content is mostly the same. E-cards and some downloadables were added, but the game is still marked coming soon.
Way Off Broadway
Current Content: Another film opening tomorrow, it has a simple site without sound or animation (outside the trailer that is.) It does hit all the main points a film site should.
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton
Current Content: The trailer was added to the placeholder site, and there's a new poll on the Tad Hamilton fan site, which isn't as fun to mess with. Not that I messed with the first poll. That would be unethical for a journalist to do.
Submitted by:
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2003-11-13
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Anything But Love
Current Content: For a movie that has music as such a central theme, for there to be no background music on the site is a very large oversight. There are four clips along with the trailer, synopsis, small image gallery and a few e-cards. But the lack of music is what stood out the most.
The Big Bounce
Current Content: Placeholder site with just the synopsis, photo gallery and some downloads. The trailer is marked coming soon, as is the flash site.
The Big Empty
Current Content: This movie opens this week in L.A. and opens wider next week. The site has just an image of the poster with 'more information' coming soon. The production company as more details on their site including the trailer. This is one of those movies that is so intriguing that you want to know more, but is probably so uncommercial that few will ever get to see it.
Chasing Liberty
Current Content: Typical Warner Bros. placeholder site with just the synopsis.
Fog of War
Current Content: This site's format is one of the most compelling I've seen. The timeline of events with audio clips, video clips, images, text and sometimes even a talking Mac. (You really have to see it to believe it. It seems so out of place on a website for a serious documentary, but it works.) There are more traditional features like the trailer and such, but it's the timeline that's the focus of this site.
Garfield
Current Content: The placeholder site now says the trailer will be online in December, not November as it previously said.
Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban
Current Content: The teaser trailer for the third film was added to the site this week.
Honey
Current Content: After months and months of the same placeholder, there was a redesign not too long ago, and now the flash site has finally been launched. And it was worth the wait. Content wise, it has all the regular features, with more than a few extras. In fact, it's the extras that make this site stand out. There are a couple of quizzes, short bios on how some stars started out, a video remix, a game called Six Degrees of Missy E and others. Each of these sections starts with an audio clip from the movie, and while that is playing the volume for the background music is lowered so the clip is easier to hear, which was a very nice touch. Speaking of the music, not only is there six clips that can be listen to in the background, the full music for 'I'm Good' by Blaque was added to the site. It was a close call for the award this week with this site just missing out to The Missing. But when the two TV Spots and two Interviews are that are marked coming soon are added to the site it has an excellent shot at winning.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Current Content: No real changes since it won the weekly website award.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: The flash site has launched, but there's very little content. It does have the trailer and a image gallery and some downloads; but there's no synopsis or other information about the movie. Also, while there's animation, there's no sound and that's never a good sign.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Current Content: Like the other movie opening wide this week, this site has previously won the weekly website award. Unlike the other movie opening wide this week, there were extensive updates on this site. All the material previously marked coming soon , (synopsis, Cast and Crew Bios, Production Notes and Featurettes) were all added to the site. Two more international sites, the German and one of the Spanish ones also launched this week.
The Missing
Current Content: Every site should have a hook, something that sets it apart from the pack. This site's hook is the commentary by Ron Howard, which is broken up into a dozen segments and sprinkled throughout the site. (You can also listen to them all in the Media section, but just exploring the site with the commentary on works better.) Another unusual feature is the Characters section. Each of the five main characters has a flash animation introduction that helps set the mood. These two features combined with the more standard fare, (synopsis, trailer, cast and crew bios, extensive behind the scenes information) and excellent use of animation and background music help set this website apart from the others this week. And because of that, this site wins the enduring Weekly Website Award.
Something's Gotta Give
Current Content: Just a small change to the placeholder site.
Tupac: Resurrection
Current Content: The movie opens this week, but there were no changes in the site this week.
Troy
Current Content: The trailer was indeed added to the placeholder site.
Watchful Eyes
Current Content: So far the only content on the site is a flash intro that ends with, 'Website coming soon.'
Submitted by:
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2003-10-30
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
50 First Dates
Current Content: Placeholder site with no content.
The Alamo
Current Content: The flash site was launched just in time for the movie's release to be delayed, so don't expect many updates till we're closer to April of next year. So far the site has the regular features, synopsis, trailer, cast and crew bios, image gallery. And a few extras like a Educator's Guide, (in Adobe Acrobat format) and others marked coming soon like Behind the Scenes and Screen Savers. There's also animated segues and sound effects, but no background music.
Alien: The Director's Cut
Current Content: The movie opened in a few hundred theatres yesterday, but the modern reviews have not been added yet..
Alien vs. Predator
Current Content: Redirects you to the Fox movie page. But the teaser trailer is available at Apple.com.
The Barbarian Invasions
Current Content: Typical Miramax site with the trailer marked coming soon.
Dirt
Current Content: Simple site with just the synopsis, trailer, cast bios and a few reviews. Outside the intro and the trailer there is no sound or animation, which is too bad since the quirky nature of the film would lend itself perfectly to a flashier site.
The Human Stain
Current Content: Typical Miramax site.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Current Content: Flash site launched and it definitely the most fun site this week. Most of the content is there to entertain, not inform you about the movie. In fact, they don't even have a synopsis yet. They do have the trailer, along with two cartoons, plenty of images, sound clips, descriptions of all the major characters, acme gadget, spy car, etc. There are also seven small games to play. Information on the soundtrack is marked coming soon; and when that section is added hopefully so will some background music. There is also a decided lack of subtly with product placements that is a problem. Even so, this site wins this week's whimsical Weekly Website Awards.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Current Content: Just in time for Halloween, monster wallpaper and e-cards were added.
Love Actually
Current Content: The first of two TV Spots was added this week.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: A new placeholder site was launched with less content as the last placeholder site. But the flash site is marked coming soon.
The Matrix Revolutions
Current Content: The cast and crew bios were added.
Paycheck
Current Content: Placeholder site with just the synopsis, trailer and image gallery.
The Perfect Score
Current Content: Just a redirect to Paramount's movie page.
Shattered Glass
Current Content: The movie opens in limited release this weekend and the new website was also launched. The site has the usual features including synopsis, trailer, cast bios and crew list (no bios.) There's also a learning guide (in Adobe Acrobat format) and a message board. There's also background music for the opening, but as soon as you enter the main site it stops.
Spider-Man 2
Current Content: A new poster was added to the site this week.
Troy
Current Content: Another redirect.
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2003-10-16
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. This was bit of a weird week, the best sites either had little or no changes to an already impressive site, or there was a major update but with most content being marked coming soon. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Alien: The Director's Cut
Current Content: The flash site was launched during the past week and while there is a lot of information, most of the multimedia is still marked coming soon. Synopsis, Trailer, Cast and Crew Bios, Production Notes and Legacy are there. So is an interesting twist on reviews, they have reviews for the original from 1979 and will have reviews for the Director's Cut when they are available. As I said, most of the multimedia is marked coming soon and this includes 6 clips, TV spots and an interview with Ridley Scott. The site also has good background music and animated intros. The only complaint I have is the animated intros are a little too long, they could be trimmed to improve the pacing of the site.
Beyond Borders
Current Content: The production notes and the cast and crew bios were added.
Big Fish
Current Content: The flash site launched this week but there is very little content. In fact, there is more content on the placeholder site then there is on the flash site. That could change as the release date nears, but there are no features marked 'coming soon' to let us know.
Elf
Current Content: Another game was added, Snowball fight, as was a section on Elf-themed self-help books.
Garfield
Current Content: The redirect was replaced with a placeholder site. Right now there's just the synopsis and cast list, but it says the trailer will be online in November. There's also more animation and sound than most placeholders have, and that's a good sign.
Gothika
Current Content: The flash site went live and it is good. Not so much for its content, (most of which is marked coming soon) but for the mood it creates. The background music helps, so do the little interactive features. And most pages there's something you can click on to see flashed from the movie and some text will appear. I even got the all the menu items to turn to, 'Not Alone' but I have no idea how and I can't seem to do it again. So far the site has the synopsis, trailer, more than two dozen images (all of which can be sent as e-cards) and quite a few downloads. Production notes, cast and crew bios and 2 movie clips are marked coming soon. This is the best mood for site since Identity, and just like that site Gothika wins the fervent Weekly Website Award.
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Current Content: There was a complete redesign of the site last week, the third design used, and the flash site is marked coming soon. There's less information about the movie than the last site, but more extras like wallpapers, screensavers, image gallery and even two full-length cartoons.
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Current Content: Three more interviews were added to the site featuring Viggo Mortenson, Karl Urban and Peter Jackson. Most of the interviews are text, but they are supplemented with video clips. Also, information on the upcoming release of the soundtrack was added.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: The trailer was added to the placeholder site.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Current Content: The Non-North American English International Sites is up, but it appears to be the same as the North American site.
The Matrix Revolutions
Current Content: This week's updates include more photos and the cover for the upcoming comic book.
Pieces of April
Current Content: Another movie opening this week with a website that hasn't changed since I last reviewed it. It's worth checking out for the extensive intro alone.
Radio
Current Content: Another flash site that launched this week. There's not much content, Synopsis, Trailer, Cast and Crew Bios, and four part production notes. There are two more previews marked coming soon.
Returner
Current Content: No changes since I first reviewed the site. Given the movie in question, the site could have used more flash.
Run Away Jury
Current Content: This site has previously won the Weekly Website Award. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get to the site right now; it's gone 404 on me.
Scary Movie 3
Current Content: So far there's just the trailer, four posters and a TV you can find. Since the movie is released next week, expect a large update soon.
Sylvia
Current Content: Opening this week, there was a bit of content added. There are six main sections, and each one except the last start with a little bit of animation and some background music. The music doesn't loop, so you only hear it when you change sections. The site has the usual information, Synopsis, Trailer and three other clips, Cast and Crew Bios, Image gallery, some downloads. It also has biographical information on the two main characters portrayed in the movie.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Current Content: Not much has changed, just new background music. The clip itself is long enough but the gap between loops is too long.
Timeline
Current Content: This site underwent a complete redesign this week and a lot of content was added, but even more is marked coming soon. It has the synopsis, cast and crew bios, both the teaser and the full trailer, image gallery (including some behind the scenes), downloads and even your chance to ask the director Richard Donner a question. Most of what is marked coming soon is multimedia, movie clips, behind the scene clips, interviews, concept art, etc. Production notes and news are also marked coming soon, as are three mysterious wormholes on the main page. I'm not sure what they do, but they might have something to do with the 1357 features marked coming soon.
Veronica Guerin
Current Content: The film opens tomorrow, but the cast and crew bios and film clips are still marked coming soon.
Submitted by: C.
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2003-09-24
k promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here’s a list of highlights, plus one last look at websites for films opening this week. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
Duplex
Current Content: It's a Miramax site. Boring beige background. Short synopsis. Cast and crew, no bios. The film opens in two days and the trailer is still marked coming soon.
Elf
Current Content: I know I usually love it when a site has background music, but I don't think I can take this background music for much longer. Maybe I'm old fashioned, But I feel it's too early for Christmas. Besides the background music this site has synopsis, trailer, photos, lots to download and a coloring book. Two of the sections also have more content marked coming soon, but no details on what that could be.
Gothika
Current Content: The trailer was added to the placeholder site.
The Haunted Mansion
Current Content: The full trailer was added to the site.
Honey
Current Content: No new content this week, but there was a redesign of the site.
Intolerable Cruelty
Current content: One of many flash sites that launched this week, and this one takes the divorce theme of the movie to heart. For instance, instead of downloads its called Disposable Assets. Besides the usual suspects, this site has a lot of interactive features and downloads. It also have TV spots and clips marked coming soon.
Kart Racer
Current Content: Having multiple, complete songs on a site is becoming a more common feature on sites, and this site has two. Besides the songs the site has the usual content plus a trivia game you have to register to play.
Kill Bill
Current Content: The flash launched this week and while there's a lot of content, most of it is either from the old site or is marked coming soon. There are flash intros to each of the characters, including one on Hanzo the sword, which was first on the old site. The last three characters are coming soon so is most of the new content, (Cast and Crew, Locations and Press Notes.) The character intros are good, especially Go-Go's which has some information on the band 5.6.7.8's and one of their songs you can listen to. I'm looking forward to when the rest of the sections are added and seeing how it all fits together.
Love Actually
Current Content: Just the placeholder site for now with the synopsis, cast and crew (no bios) trailer and photo gallery.
Love Don't Cost a Thing
Current Content: Typical Warner Bros. placeholder site with just the synopsis and a few images.
Luther
Current Content: The rest of the content has filtered in. There's an impressive amount of content, a lot of which deal with the historical aspect of the movie.
My Life Without Me
Current Content: Nothing new has changed since the site was first reviewed.
Mystic River
Current Content: The section on Clint Eastwood is now up. It consists of more than half a dozen interviews from the cast, the author of the novel and Clint Eastwood himself.
National Lampoon's: Dorm Daze
Current Content: This movie is set to be released this week, or maybe dumped is a better term. The site itself is offers nothing to keep the surfers attention. There's the trailer and four TV spots, none of which are intriguing, a few images and some posters.
Pieces of April
Current Content: The flash intro makes good use of flash animation and clips from the movie, both visual and audio. And it is definitely the best part of the site. All the usual suspects are there, (trailer, synopsis, cast and crew bios, production notes) but I kept going back to the introduction.
Prey for Rock and Roll
Current Content: Nothing new was added since the site was last reviewed but its still a great site with cool music that's just needed some extra flash to put it over the top.
The Punisher
Current Content: Complete redesign of the site. The old teaser site was moved and in its place is a new more in-depth site. It's still mostly teaser but there's a lot more background information.
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Current Content: None, just a redirect.
Run Away Jury
Current Content: The sections that were marked coming soon last week were added this week. The last two characters were Nick Easter (3 clips) and Marlee (1 clip and 6 photos) as well as the clips section (4 clips) was added. Needless to say, this site is heavy into the multimedia. But it's not at the expense of other content, there's a synopsis, production notes and even a section on Hackman's and Hoffman's longtime friendship and how Run Away Jury is their first movie together. The excellent content combined with the animated intros, sound effects and background music add up to this week's emotional Weekly Website Review.
The Run Down
Current Content: A previously award winning site, this site have nearly everything a site should have. Animated intros, background music, video and audio clips, there's even a game to play. And this week several more multimedia clips were added including a behind the scenes featurette and three more clips from the movie.
The Singing Detective
Current Content: The trailer was added to the site, and the Coming Soon was removed.
Sylvia
Current Content: The teaser flash site is up with just the synopsis, trailer and image gallery. The full site is marked coming soon.
Tupac: Ressurection
Current Content: Nothing, just a redirect to the Paramount movie page.
Under the Tuscan Sun
Current Content: Just in time for this week's release, the flash site was launched and it has a good mix of multimedia and text content. For example, there's the trailer and five clips from the movie. There is also extensive cast and crew bios as well as behind the scenes information. There are also animated intros to each section and good use of music.
Yossi and Jagger
Current Content: This site is silent and still. In fact, the absence of any unusual features prevents the surfer from staying too long.
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