Movie Website Reviews for Weekend of August 15, 2008
August 16, 2008
Not a good week for movie sites with more than a few that are missing, broken, or even worse, MySpace. That said, Tropic Thunder's Official Site is top-notch and worthy of the Weekly Website Award.
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer - Official Site
Bachna Ae Haseeno - Official Site
Fly Me to the Moon - Official Site
The Girl Cut in Two - No Official Site
Henery Poole is Here - Official Site
Mirrors - Official Site
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Official Site
Tkaronto - Official Site
Tropic Thunder - Official Site
Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Official Site
Site's broken. Don't know for how long, nor do I know when it will be fixed.
Like so many Bollywood films, this site has a heavy focus on the music. No only are there several background songs, but you can listen to the songs on their own as well. If you like Bollywood films, and have seen many sites down for Yash Raj Films, then there's little on this site that will surprise you. But this is not a bad thing.
All of the usual features are here (synopsis, cast bios, image gallery, and trailer). The image gallery is even in 3-D, which is cool. There are also some coloring pages and puzzles to print out for the kids. However, there's not enough here to really set it above.
No official site for the North American release, but the original site is still up for those that speak French.
MySpace. I hate MySpace.
All the usual features are here, as well as a few extras. The usual features include the synopsis, cast & crew bios, production notes, image gallery, and trailers. The extras include simple things like clips from the movie being used as intros to each section. There are also a couple additional clips from the movie, and two featurettes. There is also a side site that discusses the mythology of mirrors, and a strange interactive section devoted to Little Anna.
Part of the overall Star Wars site and it feels like it, as the site spends a lot of time giving background information on the many characters in the movie, even on some of the planets. It seems very much geared towards hardcore fans of the franchise (those that read Wookieepedia on a regular basis), than enticing newcomers. On the other hand, I do like the number of video clips on the site, most of which are not just clips from the movie, but also featurettes that are very well done.
A lot of information, a whole lot of information, but not a lot of style. This is typical of low-budget limited releases, doubly so for low-budget Canadian limited releases. There is a huge amount of information here, including several text based interviews, the background on the name "Toronto", a small Blog, several video clips, as well as all of the usual features.
An excellent site that really hits the right notes trying to spoof the big testosterone driven action war movies, right down to the overly loud background music. All of the regular features are here (synopsis, cast & crew bios, production notes, image gallery, and trailer), as well as several extras. Extras include common features like movie clips and audio clips, and there are things like character bios as well. Actually, there are the characters' character bios as they talk about the characters the characters are playing in the movie-within-the-movie. Confused? There is even a game where you have to put together an M-16 in 60 seconds while under enemy fire (the parts keep shifting around). Fun game and worth playing more than once. Overall, this is the best site on this week's list, and easily worthy of the impeded Weekly Website Award.
The site locks up when I try and look at it. Can't review it if it doesn't work.
Filed under: Tropic Thunder, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Mirrors, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Fly Me To the Moon, Bachna Ae Haseeno, La fille coupée en deux, Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer