| Rotten Tomatoes | Rotten Tomatoes has gone through several changes over the years, but it remains one of the best resources for movie reviews. Seven million monthly readers flock to Rotten Tomatoes to read more than 850,000 movie reviews, which are aggregated from various media outlets such as Hollywood Reporter, Newsweek, and Variety. Film buffs can also get their daily fix of movie news, movie trailers, photo galleries, and more. Currently in beta, Rotten Tomatoes will expand its site to include more video, a faster-loading homepage, and a better assortment of photos. Each film is scored by the Tomatometer, which Rotten Tomatoes describes as a system that summarizes the opinions of respected film critics into an easy-to-use percentage, from fresh to rotten ratings. Worst Feature: Some elements of the site load slowly. |
| RogerEbert | There is no more thorough and honest film critic than the Pulitzer Prize-winning Roger Ebert. On his own comprehensive Web site, Roger Ebert shares his more than 5,500 reviews written for the Chicago Sun-Times. Every other Sunday, Ebert looks back at films that he deems Great Movies, and re-reviews them. |
| The Four Word Film Review | What's unique about this movie reviews site is that no more than four words can be used. Some example reviews of Kung Fu Panda are: Slacker Black repels attack, Bear is grasshopper, and Saving Valley? Panda fu! The site has over 272,000 reviews and features over 25,000 films. An amusing element of the site is the clue balloon in the upper right hand corner. From the four words provided, guess which movie it is describing. Click on Clue if you need some help. |
| Film.com | Owned by media service provider RealNetworks, Film.com is a tabloid-like site for movie fans. From the latest entertainment news and gossip, to fun articles like Adam Sandler's best movies, to Film.com's audio movie reviews, it's easy to spend a whole afternoon on the site. Peruse the DVD section for what's new on DVD, what's coming soon, and which DVDs the staff is talking about. If you're a TV buff, get all of your TV news here, too. |
| First Showing | A 2007 PC Magazine Top 100 Undiscovered Web site, First Showing is offers a complete list of movie release dates, movie news from various sources, and an archive of reviews written by the FirstShowing.net staff. Interviews with the likes of director Peter Segal and actor Ben Stiller also make the site an interesting read. Best Feature: Stay on top of movie releases by adding them to your Google Calendar. Worst Feature: The list of theater events is restricted to the Colorado Springs area only. |
| MovieMistakes | At first glance, MovieMistakes.com isn't much to look at, but look deeper, and you'll see that the site is chock full of the worst movie goofs in recent history. Did you know that there are already 66 found mistakes in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? For example, "In the chase scene around the campus, Mutts' motorcycle has a belt drive. Harley Davidson did not make belt drive bikes until two decades later." Currently, Apocalypse Now holds the record for the most goofs, with 396. There's also a list of the "best" movie mistakes, the most mistakes of 2008, movie trivia, best movie quotes, and even TV mistakes. Best Feature: Who knew laughing at someone else's mistakes would be so entertaining. Worst Feature: The underwhelming site design. |
| IMDb | No site can match the extensive information that the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) provides its 57 million monthly users. Moviegoers can look up film release dates, watch trailers, and read movie news. But most fans use IMDb to search for films and learn about the cast and crew, nominations and awards, trivia, recommendations, and more. Best Feature: The breadth of information available. Worst Feature: The addition of celebrity news. I don't want gossip mixed with facts! |
| Apple Movie Trailers | Want to watch movie trailers without news and reviews taking up screen real estate? Apple's Movie Trailers site offers a slew of current and upcoming movie trailers, including the comedy Get Smart, the Disney/Pixar film WALL-E, and the drama August. Sort by Just Added, Exclusive, Just HD, Most Popular, Genres, or Movie Studio. Users can view the trailers on their computer screens or download them to their iPods. Best Feature: All the movie trailers you can handle. Worst Feature: All the movie trailers you can handle. |
| The Movie Spoiler | Warning: Unless you don't have the time to watch this summer's blockbusters, or you're crazy enough to read about a film's ending before seeing it, The Movie Spoiler will definitely spoil the ending for you. Relying on user-submitted content, the site is broken down by weekly box office film earnings and a plot-by-plot guide of that particular movie. Visit the archives for even more spoilers from 8 Mile to Zoom. Best Feature: A simple, albeit ugly, site to navigate. Worst Feature: Ads galore. |
| Criticker | With Criticker, rate movies on a 1 to 100 scale, and you'll be matched with other users who share the same cinematic interests. In order to give each film you've seen a rating, page through the randomly generated lists of movies or search the site for specific films. Once you've ranked at least 10 films, you will generate what the site refers to as The Taste Compatibility Index (TCI): a measure of the similarity between two users' tastes in films. Best Feature: The Facebook, MySpace, and iGoogle widgets to show others what films you dig and don't dig. Worst Feature: The site's TCI ranking system is a bit confusing. |
| Flixster | Just over two years old, the social networking site Flixster has grown into a vast online database of over a billion user-generated movie ratings. To rate a movie, simply click on the Rate Now button next to that particular film. Amuse yourself with the quiz questions, polls, actor bios, photos, movie trailers, and more. Create lists of movies to share with friends, or vote on the top news stories of the day. Best Feature: Flixster Wiki, which lets you add or edit content on the history of movies. Worst Feature: Some users may be wary over the site using their e-mail account's entire address book in order to send a Flixster invitation to all of their contacts. |
| /Film | Launched in August 2005, this popular film blog offers news, news, and more news for cinema-obsessed fans. |
| FEARnet | Raised from the dead on Halloween 2006, FEARnet is the ultimate destination for horror flick fans. Peruse the site's news and reviews, movie library, online games, and free Web movies, such as Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror and Evil Dead 2. |
| Just Watch | JustWatch organizes titles in dozens of ways, including by genre, what’s highly rated or trending, and what’s new to a service. It can even offer selections based on what mood you’re in. Now that many movie theaters are open again, JustWatch also shows you the top five movies currently playing, and provides alerts when they become available for streaming on one of your services. JustWatch now has a Play on TV feature, which lets you choose and play content for your television right from the smartphone app. You need to have JustWatch apps on both your smartphone and the TV for that to work, and they both need to be signed on to the same WiFi network. You choose the program or movie on the smartphone app, tap Play on TV, and the JustWatch TV app launches the selected streaming service. The TV app is available for Android and Google TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, LG and Samsung smart TVs, and Xbox consoles. It also works with Roku devices using the smartphone app by itself; you don’t need the JustWatch app on the Roku. You can access JustWatch using a web browser on your computer and through Android and iOS phone apps. One app exclusive is that it can give you daily deal updates on rentals and purchases. The service also lets you follow shows and movies. For TV shows, click “Track Series" on the show’s product card to build a lineup of unwatched episodes. For movies, click the “Want to See” button on a title to add it to a watchlist. Your “Watch Next” section will let you know when new episodes or movies are available. Another great option if you want a smartphone app to track shows and quickly play them on TV. Similar to Reelgood, JustWatch lets you plug in the services you use then displays shows and movies across a variety of categories, including what's popular and by genre. One great perk on JustWatch's app is the New section, which alerts you to all the new content added to your subscribed services. You can check whether you've seen it, like or dislike it to fine tune recommendations or add it to your watchlist. When you're ready to watch, you can either click the icon of the subscription service to view on your smartphone or choose "Play on TV." If you have a Roku, the process is pretty straightforward. It also works on smart TVs like Samsung, and available on Fire TV and Apple TV. |
| Reel good | Reelgood’s Play to TV feature lets you play anything available on the Reelgood app directly on your smart TV just by clicking on the icon. Right now this feature is supported on Android, Fire TV, LG, and Roku smart TVs. When you select a program, it shows you a list of supported devices on your WiFi network, and you simply tap the one where you’d like to play it. You can use the app as a basic TV remote control. You can access Reelgood online via its website, and it now has apps for both Apple iOS and Google Android smartphones as well as for Apple TV (tvOS), Android and Fire TVs, plus LG smart TVs. There’s no Roku app yet, but you can use the Reelgood mobile app on your phone to play content through your Roku player or TV. The app has two main sections: Watchlist, which has the shows and movies you track, and Upcoming, which lets you know on a calendar when the next episodes or seasons of shows you’re tracking will be available. In addition to tracking programs and movies and finding out where to watch them, you’ll get recommendations for content based on what you’ve watched. Once you mark a show as watched, you can rate it or attach an emoticon to it, and indicate which are your favorite characters. Using the Discover feature (called Explore on the website), you can get program recommendations based on the shows or genres you’ve already watched, or see which movies and series are trending among other users of the service. A “Discover More” section lets you filter your search by genre, status, and more. You can also see which shows or movies have been watched by your friends, and what other fans of the show are saying without getting spoilers. You can earn various “badges” for your profile by commenting and interacting with the TV Time community. When you make a selection, you’ll get sent to the streaming app, but there’s no option to play it directly on your TV as you can do with other services. Of all the apps on this list, Reelgood is my favorite. Once you plug in your subscribed services, the app displays all the available programming in a variety of categories, including what's popular, "Academy Award Best Picture Winners," and more. You can track movies and TV shows you want to watch, which will appear in the "Watch Next" tab. When you see a show or movie you like, tapping it will show you the various services where it's available, either as part of a streaming subscription or for purchase digitally. So why is Reelgood, well, real good? The seamless transition from finding the show or movie to watching it on your TV or smartphone. When you pick "Watch on TV," it will automatically find the streaming device connected to your Wi-Fi network and start the program. It worked effortlessly testing on my Roku Ultra. It can also automatically direct you to the app on your smartphone and start playing. If there's a movie or show not streaming anywhere, you can have the app alert you when it does become available. The app is available on iPhone and Android, as well as Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and LG Smart TVs. You can use it on web browsers, too. |
| TV Time | TV Time is a more streamlined app that allows you to set up watchlists and search for new movies or TV shows. You start by not only picking shows and movies you want to watch but where you left off on a TV series. So, if you watched only Season 1 of "Ted Lasso" but not the second season, you can note that in the app. When you pick the show, it will start you where you left off. Like the other apps, it provides options on where to buy or stream via subscription. And although it automatically shifts to the streaming app when you make a pick, there's no option to play on the TV. |
| Watchworthy | Like the other services, Watchworthy lets you limit your results to see shows only from services you have access to. You can filter shows by air date, streaming service and genre, or even by MPAA rating if you have kids. There are also curated content selections organized around themes such as The Weekly Buzz, Workplace Comedies, Funniest Shows, or British Sitcoms, organized by their worthy score. Once you’ve selected a show you want to watch, you can start watching it either directly from your device or by casting it to your TV. Although the company has promised it will be adding movie recommendations to the app later, so far that hasn’t happened this year. Right now, Watchworthy is available as either an Android or iOS app, but the company says later this year it will add apps for additional devices, including Amazon Fire, Apple TV, and Roku streaming players. The approach of Watchworthy is different but still gets the job done helping you find what TV shows or movies are streaming on which platform. You start by plugging in the services you use, then any TV shows you like. The app's home page features buzzworthy shows or ones that have recently premiered. Then there's the Worthy section, which takes your recommendations and likes and forms a list of shows they believe are worthy of your time based on what you like. For example, based on the shows I liked, the app said "Game of Thrones" would be 99% worthy of my time (lucky for me I still haven't watched it). Two things hold it back compared to JustWatch and Reelgood: First, it's only TV shows, so you can't look up movies. Second, there's no "play on TV" option, although you can jump straight to the first episode from the app. |
| Qewd | Like other apps, Qewd keeps track of what you watch and like so that it can recommend movies and shows it thinks you’ll like. But to get recommendations from family and friends for the “What Your Friends Are Watching” section, you’ll have to share access to your contacts with Qewd—something we imagine not everyone will be comfortable doing. Other features of the app include the ability to collect videos from anywhere on the internet—Reddit, Twitter, or any website you want—and save them in your playlist for playback later. You can also curate personal watchlists and share it with friends, family members, and colleagues, or on your social media sites. |
Or, one may use Google with the word WATCH, as
watch Casablanca