One of the worst family “committees” is movie duty.
It’s 7 p.m., everyone is home and the decision is “We should watch something.”
That’s OK, but this is typically followed, by a protracted discussion on what.
The guys want action – maybe not a solid two-hours of explosions, but there should be running and probably a car chase.
The girls want to see something mushy and there’s kids around so don’t forget the anti-profanity league.
Needless to say whenever my family gets together to watch a movie it has to meet certain qualifications and the back of the DVD case is often more vague than realistic.
That’s probably why we turn to the web.
My favorite site is the International Movie Database or www.imdb.com. Want to know Gene Kelly’s birthday? He was born yesterday, but in 1912.
Your buddies don’t believe Brad Pitt was raised in Missouri?
It’s got a bio.
What’s that piranha movie all the reviewers are calling trash?
Yup, the whole enchilada is right there – movie trivia, actor backgrounds, and previews.
I love this site because it also indexes historical movies.
If I want to watch something from back in the day I know there will be an entry here and probably some user reviews.
If there is a spoiler they are usually hidden behind the jump and labeled so no one stumbles across them. It also has a wide base of international movies.
Now my kid brother adores www.rottentomatoes.com and his recommendations usually come as “tomatoes.” Hint: The green icons mean the film is “rotten,” the red ones are good.
The kid sister insists that the site is dominated by male reviewers and she doesn’t like it.
It does have a more populist take on movie reviews instead of the hoity-toity insider tone found on some reviews.
For folks with kids who worry about a little too much skin or a rash of bad words try www.pluggedin.com. Note: This site is not for people who hate spoilers.
To help parents get a balanced idea of what goes on in the story it often has a few reveals.
And, of course, there’s www.fandango.com for tickets and www.movies.com, but sometimes I’ll just jump to www.yahoo.com on their movie tab for some quick information or local showtimes.
Speaking of local shows, you can visit B&B at http://www.bbtheatres.com/neoshodetails.asp and if you click through to their showtimes the movies will link right to their official websites.
So what are we watching tonight?
Amye Buckley is a staff writer for the Daily News, and writes a weekly column.
