Movie Website Reviews for Weekend of December 7, 2007

December 8, 2007

Another slow week for websites with more movies lacking real official sites than having sites that are award contenders. The best site in terms of style is His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass - Official Site while the best in terms of content is Juno - Official Site. If you combined those two, you would have a great site. Combining the two movie might produce different results.

The Amateurs - No Official Site
No site.

Atonement - Official Site
No official site for the North American release, but there is one for the U.K. release. That site has a huge number of videos, including seven clips and six featurettes. There's also enough style to not seem boring, but not enough to truly stand out. Overall effective, but there really should be a site for here.

Billy the Kid - Official Site
Typical documentary site in terms of style, or the lack thereof, and there's not an overabundance of content either with mostly just the regular features. The closest we have to an extras is the director's blog, which is an interesting read, but not enough to set the site apart.

Dirty Laundry - Official Site
All the usual features are here, but there's nothing in the way of extras. There's a director's blob, but it is still marked coming soon. It feels too small, which hurts its effectiveness.

Dus Kahaniyaan - Official Site
Since the movie is comprised of ten stories, there's not a lot of information on each story, just the short synopsis, cast & crew list, and the trailer. Each short film doesn't have enough information to really sell the film, and even combined it feels light.

Grace is Gone - Official Site
Just the absolute basics with the only noteworthy aspect being the background music.

His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass - Official Site
There are basically two sites here, a blog with all of the usual text based information, (synopsis, cast & crew bios, etc.), and the main site with other information, including audio about the world, select characters, alitheometer, etc. There's even a personality quiz to choose your Daemon. (This time I'm turned out to have a lion.) I like the amount of information given, (although I'm weary that it might be necessary to follow the movie), but there's not enough flash here to make it truly stand out.

Juno - Official Site
Typical Fox Searchlight site. Lots of information, including what feels like dozens of video clips, but I don't like the style. Movie sites need to stand out and not be cookie-cutter copies of each other.

Looking for Cheyenne - Official Site
Mostly it is just the basics and even then the cast bios are M.I.A. There are three clips from the film, which is the best part of the site, but it's not enough to stand out even during a slow week.

Noelle - Official Site
The site has the basics, as well as a number of video clips including interviews and a music video. However, it doesn't have a lot of polish and that hurts its effectiveness.

Revolver - Official Site
The synopsis, image gallery, trailer, and two clips. Not enough to meet the minimum standard.

Strength and Honour - Official Site
A rather small site with only three storyboards as extras.

Timber Falls - Official Site
Just a link to the MySpace page.

The Violin - Official Site
The site's in Spanish, I think. There's also very little content there, including no bios.

The Walker - No Official Site
Another release with no site.


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Filed under: Juno, The Golden Compass, Atonement, Noëlle, Dus Kahaniyaan, Revolver, The Walker, El Violin, Strength and Honour, Grace Is Gone, Billy the Kid, Dirty Laundry, Oublier Cheyenne, Timber Falls, The Amateurs