Alfie
Current Content: A lot of new features were added to the site this week, photo gallery, personality quiz and horoscope. Several more features were added to the menu, but are still marked coming soon, cast and crew bios, clips, soundtrack, Ask Alfie and customizable wallpapers.


The Barnyard
Current Content: Simple site with just the synopsis and some images so far.


Birth
Current Content: For how controversial this movie is, the site is rather understated. Just the synopsis, production notes, trailer, image gallery and cast and crew bios. The site also has some animation, sound effects and background music. Not bad, but nothing makes it really stand out.


Blade: Trinity
Current Content: Two new sections were added to the site, Surveillance and Production. Under Surveillance there's the teaser trailer, (which was previously there) and a clip with Jessica Biel. Production has the usual text based features, synopsis, cast and crew bios and production notes. This site is either one of the best placeholder sites I've ever seen, or an above average full site. With the release date nearly three months away, I'm leaning towards the former. Also, there's a new trailer online, but so far its just on the AOL site while the official site still has it marked coming soon.


Bridge Jones: The Edge of Reason
Current Content: Placeholder site with just the synopsis, image gallery and trailer.


Cowboys and Angels
Current Content: No updates since the site first launched.


Dig!
Current Content: The 'character' bios were added to the site as was the Sights and Sounds section. The latter section has image gallery, trailer, (marked coming soon), a couple of clips from the movie and a dozen songs you can listen to.


A Dirty Shame
Current Content: The film opens tomorrow, but the three video clips marked coming soon have still not been added to the site


The Final Cut
Current Content: It is becoming quite common for movies to have secondary sites. Sites not based on the movie, but a character or, more likely, a company from the movie. For this movie it is the Zoe Chip website. Like most of these secondary sites, this one has a bit most background information to share.


The Forgotten
Current Content: The section for characters was added to the site, but there are not bios as I was expected. They are instead short flash animations. A pleasant surprise. That is also the last section that was marked coming soon.


Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Current Content: The artwork on this site is excellent, which is to be expected. The site also has plenty of animation, sound effects, background music and all the right content. But for some reason, it doesn't feel like a cohesive whole. Like the whole is definitely less than the sum of the parts.


Head in the Clouds
Current Content: This site as all the usual features, synopsis, trailer, image gallery, etc. The site also has several video clips and background music that really helps set the mood.


Hitch
Current Content: Typical Sony placeholder site with just the trailer so far.


The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Current Content: Another production journal entry of sorts was added. In this one Roger Birnbaum talks about the journey the film has taken so far now that it is in post-production.


Incident at Loch Ness
Current Content: Good site with all the usual features and some sound and animation.


The Incredibles
Current Content: More videos were added, including day 101 of First in Line and a couple clips with Dash. Also, Edna Mode pops up in certain sections. The image gallery has a new section, Bob's Study, which has a bunch of Mr. Incredible memorabilia you can explore.


The Last Shot
Current Content: The flash site launched and I really like the style. All the usual features are there, plus a couple of extras. Filmmaking 101, which is half a dozen video clips from the movie and Megaphone Test, which is a soundboard. The site also has plenty of audio clips that play whenever you switch section.


Meet the Fockers
Current Content: The synopsis was added to the placeholder site.


Merci Docteur Rey
Current Content: Simple site without sound or animation, outside the trailer.


Mr. 3000
Current Content: With the movie opening tomorrow, two games were added to the site.


National Lampoon's Gold Diggers
Current Content: The movie opens tomorrow, but the last of the content was added last week.


Particles of Truth
Current Content: Simple site without sound or animation, (apart from the rotating images that are on the main page) but it does have a lot of information.


Schultze Gets the Blues
Current Content: None.


Shaun of the Dead
Current Content: The flash site launched this week, and I must admit I've been waiting a long time to see what they'd do with it. The movie itself has such a cool hook, (a Romantic Comedy with Zombies) that with even a little creativity and effort it could easily turn into an award winning site. Fortunately, the creators have put forth more than enough of both. The site has excellent background music, plenty of sound effects, animations, (including some mouse-over animations that add to the interactivity.) There is also plenty of features as well, at least there are plenty of features marked coming soon. Right now the site has the synopsis, production notes, trailer and five other video clips. Marked coming soon are the cast and crew bios, image gallery, behind the scenes, soundtrack, downloads and features. Even though most of the content on this site is still marked coming soon, what is there is so good that the site is easily the winner of the ungainly Weekly Website Award.


Silver City
Current Content: No new updates since the site won the award, which is too bad since I was counting on some updates when I gave it the award.


Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Current Content: There is a lot to watch and listen to on this site. There are long audio clips discussing the robots, Mysterious Woman, and more. Behind the scenes clips and the ComicCon Q&A session. There are also separate themes, and the little features like the images used for the character bios change depending on what theme you have it set to. When I first heard about this movie I thought it was too imaginative and ambitious to work; Hollywood has a tendency to screw things up, especially when it comes to movies like this. But this site helped sell me on the project.


Team America
Current Content: Another video clip was added to the site, but it is the same as the Q&A session clip 2. I'm not sure if this was intentional or a mistake. Also online is the latest trailers, but that's just a link to Apple.com. Also new, maybe, is the Kim Jong Il puppet pops up every once and a while and shoots something. I'm not sure if this is new or if I never stuck around the homepage long enough for him to pop up.


Undertow
Current Content: Placeholder site with just the synopsis, image gallery and trailer.


White Noise
Current Content: Just the synopsis, trailer and information about E.V.P., which is about as believable as any other parapsychology claim. E.V.P. is actually the result of several well known and well tested psychological phenomenon from audio pareidolia to gestalt principles and others such principles. In fact, you can test this yourself. Listen to the trailer without watching it and you will probably have a hard time picking out exactly what is said. But when you watch the trailer and see the subtitles the words become much clearer.


Wimbledon
Current Content: I must say, I love the tennis game on this site. In fact, every time I do research for this column I spend about an hour playing the game. The rest of the site is above average as well.


Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2004-09-16