2046
Current Content: The main page is divided up into several sections, some of which are marked coming soon. So far there are Thoughts, production notes; Love, cast bios; Joy, trailer; Imagination, synopsis and Hope, reviews. That leaves Wisdom, Memories and Dreams marked coming soon. There is also a good amount of sound and animation on the site.


Around the Bend
Current Content: Not much has changed since the site first launched.


Beauty Shop
Current Content: After a long wait, the flash site is finally up. It has more style than most sites, but is a little light on content so far. But with a release date more than 6 months away that will probably be taken care of before then. The content it does has focuses on the characters with pop-up speak bubbles on the main page and character bios for one of the main features. Other features are the teaser trailer, the synopsis, image gallery, downloads and Hair Stylin', (current marked coming soon.) Add in some animation, sound effect and even an audio clip or two and this is a really good site. I was a little hesitant awarding this site with the weekly website award because of the lack of regular features, but it was best new flash site of the weekend and if the regular are added it's more than deserving of the exquisite Weekly Website Award.


Bride and Prejudice
Current Content: Typical Miramax movie website.


Christmas with the Kranks
Current Content: The second new flash site of the week. This one has even more animation and sound, but is also light on content. So far the site has the synopsis, cast and crew bios, the trailer and one of four games. That leaves two sections marked coming soon, promotions and stocking stuffers. I assume stocking stuffers is downloads and the promotions section is probably either contests or ads; it could go either way. On a strange note, there's a lot of mouse over animation that goes nowhere. On the main page when you move over the mouse over the doors they open. So I figure you click on the open door to launch a features, but nothing happens. It's mouse over animation just for the same of mouse over animation.


The Dust Factory
Current Content: Two more section were added to the site, production notes, (which include cast and crew bios) and video clips. The video clips have three clips from the movie and a music video featuring Hayden Panettiere.


Friday Night Lights
Current Content: The movie opens tomorrow but only one of the four features marked coming soon were added to the site. Playbook Powerplay gives you seven scenarios and asks you to choose from one of four plays. It's nearly impossible to get a perfect score because even the best choice has a chance to fail, and even when you finally get a perfect game you are still only called "nearly perfect." On a side note, I vehemently disagree with the first scenario. You're on the opponents' 25 yard line with 8 to go, why run for a couple extra yards? It's not going to make a difference to your punter, at least not if he's halfway decent. Try for a screen pass and the first down. I guess that's one of the differences between American Football and the CFL. The other major difference is the CFL is a better game.


The Grudge
Current Content: Some of the normal features were added to the placeholder site. Synopsis, image gallery, trailer and two TV spots. They are not as effective as they could be.


House of Flying Daggers
Current Content: The flash site is up, but it doesn't quite work with Mozilla. … Half an hour and several downloads later and I'm now using Thunderbird 1.0 and the site seems to work perfectly. The site has a good mix of content and style; there's enough animation and it has all the right features, (with a few marked coming soon) but it dropped the ball when it came to sound. There are no sound effects and the background music doesn't loop. There are four tracks to choose from and if they either looped or rotated it would be a really strong asset to the site. However, the section for the soundtrack is still marked coming soon, so may this extra will be improved at that time. Also marked coming soon are the full trailer, (the teaser trailer is on the placeholder site) and the reviews.


Madagascar
Current Content: The trailer was added to the site, and I'm not impressed. The animation looks too stylized and too jerky; not the smooth and realistic approach we've become accustomed to with digital animation.


Melinda and Melinda
Current Content: Typical Fox Searchlight placeholder website.


Millions
Current Content: Typical Fox Searchlight placeholder website.


Mirror Mask
Current Content: The trailer was added to the site. I was unsure what to think about the movie before I saw the trailer, and now I'm doubly unsure.


Polar Express
Current Content: Information about the IMAX release was added to the site, as was a game.


Primer
Current Content: Simple site in terms of style with no sound or animation. There is, on the other hand, a lot of information. Brief synopsis, extensive production notes, cast and crew bios, a Q&A with the director, image gallery and of course, the trailer.


Raise Your Voice
Current Content: Good site that hits all the usual features, (synopsis, cast and crew bios, image gallery, trailer, etc.) it also has plenty of extras, mostly in the form of video clips, (behinds the scenes, 5 interview clips, music video and a jam session.) There is also a section for making it in performing arts. Lastly, you can listen to Hilary Duff's lasted hit, Fly, as the background music.


The Sea Inside
Current Content: None.


Shaun of the Dead
Current Content: Just a heads up for all the people who joined the Shaun Squad. The prices for T-shirts and pins dropped a lot. So much so that if you watch all the clips, reading all the notices and answer the opinion poll and trivia question you're more than halfway to being able to get a pin. Upload a picture of you in your zombie fighting gear and you've almost got a T-shirt. Unfortunately, you can only get the prizes if you live in the States, which is not a shock as the only grassroots marketing campaign that I've seen that will send a prize to Canada is the Serenity team, Browncoats.


Shooting Shona
Current Content: Simple site that has almost all the usual features: synopsis, cast bios, crew list, image gallery trailers, (both the teaser and the full trailer.)


Silent Waters
Current Content: Typical First Run Features movie website.


Stage Beauty
Current Content: The flash site launched this week and it hits all the usual marks with not much in the way of extras. An image gallery of the premiere is the most unusual feature on the site.


Surviving Christmas
Current Content: There's a new intro to the placeholder site, which coincides with the new trailer. I expect next week the flash site will be up as well.


Tarnation
Current Content: Typical Wellspring movie website.


Taxi
Current Content: Good format with plenty of animation and sound, but the background music is a little repetitive. The site has most of the usual features, synopsis, character bios, image gallery, (both from the movie and behind the scenes), trailer as well as some extras, (behind the scenes video and a game), but its missing some of the basics, (cast and crew bios.)


Team America
Current Content: Another week, another round of updates. This week we have the Create Your Own Team Member game, one more TV spot and 2 more behind the scenes clips.


The Upside of Anger
Current Content: None.


Vera Drake
Current Content: The site has a bit more animation than I was expecting with a couple of the sections having a video clip. Strange thing is, there's no synopsis on the site and the trailer doesn't make it clear what the movie's about either. It could be that the makers of the film don't want people knowing the exact details of the plot before they the film starts. Or it could be they want to increase curiosity by leaving out some key details.


Submitted by: C.S.Strowbridge

Date posted: 2004-10-07