Movie Website Reviews for Weekend of December 5, 2008

December 7, 2008

This is the weakest week for wide releases for the entire holiday season, but there were still several sites that are worth checking. This includes The Punisher - War Zone's Official Site, which is the best of the best and the winner of the Weekly Website Award.

Cadillac Records - Official Site
This site has everything your looking for in a site, as well as a 7-minute long making of featurette and 30-second clips from several songs from the soundtrack. Sells the movie very well.

Ciao - Official Site
All of the usual features are here, but not much in terms of extras. There's a second video, but it is just still images set to music. The regular image gallery is very much the same, and you can't control what pictures you see next. I hate that. Overall it is effective, but doesn't really stand out.

Extreme Movie - No Official Site
Nothing to review.

Frost/Nixon - Official Site
All of the usual features are here, synopsis, production notes, cast & crew bios, images, and trailer. There are also a few extras including several clips from the movie, and a look at the making of the movie. It's mostly clips from the movie, but we do get a bit of insight into the reasons Ron Howard made the movie.

Hunger - No Official Site
This movie is just having its Oscar qualifying run this week, and perhaps there will be a site when it opens in March of next year.

The Punisher - War Zone - Official Site
A massive site that includes all of the usual features (synopsis, cast & crew bios, image gallery, trailer), as well as a ton of extras. These extras include an interactive section for the city with some background information, a side site for one of the locations in the movie, even a multiplayer game. I like this game, which is a gun duel that tests timing and accuracy. Quite fun, and you can play against the computer if there are not enough other players online to get a quick match. Add in the music, sound effects, and animation, and this is a top-notch site. My only complain is the performance, as it took a long time to load some sections, and it really slowed my system down. However, this might be a problem on my end, and given the sheer amount on content here, I'm not going to count it against the site and it is still worth of the grueling Weekly Website Award.

Nobel Son - Official Site
In addition to the usual features, this site has a behind-the-scenes featurette and clips from several of the songs on the soundtrack. Better than I was expecting, but not up to the level of an award-worthy site.

Timecrimes - No Official Site
No official site, at least not one in English. The Spanish one can be found here. It certainly sets the mood, and I with there was an English equivalent site.

Tokyo! - Official Site
Most of the usual features are here, but there's not a lot of flash. That is, unless you head over to the original Japanese site, which they provide a link to on the home page. Had the English-language site had that much animation, I would have been inclined to consider it for the Weekly Website Award.


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Filed under: Frost/Nixon, Cadillac Records, Punisher: War Zone, Nobel Son, Hunger, Ciao, Los Cronocrímenes, Extreme Movie