Movie Website Launches for March 25 - March 31

March 31, 2005

During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates, including this week's winner, The Longest Yard - Official Site.

Beauty Shop
More than a dozen clips were added to the site including an extensive behind the scenes look at the making of the movie, and by extensive I mean it would make a good feature for the DVD when it comes out. The other clips include scenes from the film and montages on the characters and they do a pretty good job of selling the flick, better than the TV spots do.

Cinderella Man
Standard Universal movie placeholder website with just the synopsis, cast and crew (no bios), image gallery and two trailers. The trailer is excellent and this movie will be remembered come Oscar time and everyone attached to it could get an Oscar nod… well, everyone except Paul Giamatti who has clearly done something to offend the Oscar nomination committee.

Dust to Glory
No changes in the site since last week.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Just the poster so far.

Fantastic Four
A couple more images for each character were added to the site. Although I was expecting more updates on a regular basis than this.

Fever Pitch
Flash site launched this week, but it's too nondescript to hold my attention for long. The regular features are there as are a couple of special features (two quizzes and two videos), but so far only the Good Sport or Great Lover quiz is on the site with the rest marked coming soon.

Food Fight
Just a short animated intro so far.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Two more interactive features were added to the site, design a planet and Hitchhikers Trivia (I rank the same as a mouse).

A Hole in One
A very unpolished site. It looks like something I could do. One side note, despite the name, this film is about lobotomies and not golf.

The Interpreter
Standard Universal movie placeholder website.

Into the Blue
Just the trailer so far, and it didn't impress me. Never been a fan of Paul Walker's work. He just doesn't seem have any range or the ability to show real emotion, and it doesn't look like this film will change that opinion.

The Longest Yard
I have no idea how long this flash site has been active because the site dropped off my list again. Overall this is a good site with most of the regular features (some still marked coming soon) and several extras including two mini-games, but it is the video clips that make this site stand out. It has the regular teaser trailer, full trailer, TV spot, as well as interviews, behind the scenes clips, etc. Not only are they fun to watch, but they help sell the film. The only really major complaint I have is the speed; this site takes forever to load. It's painfully slow. It's taking several minutes just to load the teaser trailer. It's so slow that normally that would prevent the site from winning the weekly website award. But since this is a slow week for new sites, it wins the synchronic Weekly Website Award.

Look at Me
The movie opens tomorrow but the trailer is still marked coming soon.

A Lot Like Love
Two of the extras were added to the site, a F.A.T.E. calculator and a compatibility quiz.

Mad Hot Ballroom
The trailer was added to the site and it looks like the movie will have the same feel as Spellbound and could find the same level of success.

Monster-in-Law
Pretty standard site with all the usual features. There are a couple of points on interest, firstly there's a Monster in Law survival guide marked coming soon and while there is background music, it is so quite that it's almost worse than having none.

The Perfect Man
Standard Universal movie placeholder website with just the synopsis, cast and crew, (no bios), image gallery and trailer. Looks like your typical romantic comedy with a better than average cast. (I'm a big fan of Chris Noth and there's fellow Canucks Vanessa Lengies and Caroline Rhea.)

Red Eye Just the trailer so far, which does an excellent job at setting up the movie without giving away any details.

Roll Bounce
Typical Fox Searchlight placeholder site with just the synopsis, cast and crew, (no bios) and the teaser trailer. The teaser trailer doesn't tell you enough about the movie to really judge, but I get this bad You Got Served on Roller Skates vibe.

Sin City
The movie opens tomorrow and most of the rest of the site has been added. (Only the Soundtrack is still marked coming soon.) This is one of my favorite movie site right now, very stylish but not in your face and overwhelming. There's a lot of information besides the usual feature that could prove invaluable to people who haven't read the comics the film is based on, information like the timeline / connections section. One side note, there are five games available to play, (including Old Town Rumble, which is my new favorite movie website game.) However, I swear when the site first launched there were six games marked coming soon. Drive, Escape, Shoot, Swim … Hide, they're missing Hide. Perhaps it didn't work out as they planned.

A State of Mind
A simple site with all the features that a documentary should have, but there's little to hold a surfer's attention.

Stealth
The flash site launched but at the moment it is mostly a case of same content, different format. The only real change is a short video clip purportedly of the stealth plane caught on film somewhere over Arizona. It's actually pretty well done and does help the site set a certain mood.

Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party
Simple site with plenty of information. There's even an 11 minute long audio clip of Stephen Tobolowsky telling a story of his date with a stripper. If that doesn't get you to the site, nothing will.

The Year of Yao
Yet another new flash site this week. This one not only has all the usual features (synopsis, cast and crew bios, etc.), but extra information on the documentaries subject, Yao Ming (details on his NBA career, etc). There is also a jigsaw puzzle to put together, but be warned, on the hard level you must rotate the pieces and it is possible to rotate the piece right off the game, and if you do that it makes the puzzle impossible to finish.


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Filed under: The Longest Yard, Fantastic Four, Monster-in-Law, Sin City, The Interpreter, Cinderella Man, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Fever Pitch, Beauty Shop, Stealth, A Lot Like Love, Into the Blue, Roll Bounce, The Perfect Man, Mad Hot Ballroom, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Comme une image, Dust to Glory