WWWiz Goes to the Movies

by Bill Miller

Many movie Web sites are glitzy, slick, and full of the marketing hype generated by the studio, but the sites lack insight into what the cast and crew were trying to convey to the audience. The viewing public is a bit more discerning than the studio would like to believe. In the same way that Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert have been educating movie audiences for the past 20 years, magazines like WWWiz are teaching people how to be more discerning on the Web.

IMDB: Mississippi US is one of the more comprehensive search engines on movie and television subjects. It is an excellent site for getting background information on the people in front of, as well as behind, the camera. I had done a search on Sherry Jackson, an obscure TV actress from the 60s. From the search, it seems her career was more significant than I remember but in my opinion, not enough to warrant a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Miramax has distributed some of the most critically acclaimed films of the 90s, such as The Crying Game, Smoke and Red, but their Web page is absolutely unworthy of representing these fine films. When looking at the Web pages for these films, I got no feeling for what the films were about, or what the cast and crew had to say...and the graphics were dull. Why would anyone want to rent these films after visiting their site?

To the opposite extreme is the site for October Films, a small film distributor. Their films appeal to the art house crowd and do not get a very wide release. Their site has incredible graphics, in-depth biographies on the stars, writers and directors.

The Sony site is the perfect marriage of a good-looking site from a company that presents well-made films that are considered accessible to the public. The link to the Jumanji page talks about star Robin Williams doing his own stunts, links to video/audio files and offers a biography on the film's director. The graphics for the To Die For page are as haunting and mesmerizing as the film itself.

As a film, Toy Story is the "Steam Boat Willy" of the 21st Century. The Web site offers fairly quick-loading graphics and lots of items to download. The site is supposedly updated weekly with new insights into the film, and should be a joy to children. Nevertheless, it is a little boring for grown-ups.

Bill Miller (wmiller@speed.net) is a freelance writer and devoted cyber-surfer living in Laguna Hills, CA.

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