(updated 5/27/2000)

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There are so many links to informative, intriguing, and in some cases downright bizarre film pages that you could spend all your time looking at them and not have any left over for important things such as eating, sleeping, and personal hygiene. Not to mention not having any time to see any real movies. Nevertheless, I'll help support your habit with the following movie-link suggestions:

Crazy Movie Credits (updated 4/30/98)

For those of you who can't wait to get out of the movie theatre when the closing credits start to roll, here's a list of all the nutty stuff you've missed -- including the Hot Shots! "Topping for Brownies" recipe, the "You're still here? It's over. Go home." quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the entire "A moose once bit my sister ..." dialogue from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Maybe you won't be so quick to head for the exits next time.

Internet Movie Database: Search

The IMDB is the Mac Daddy, Ne Plus Ultra, Mama Grande of all movie databases. If you can't find information about a movie, a star, a director, a screenwriter, etc., etc., then you probably only dreamed about it. I even found a complete filmography for an old girlfriend here.

And there are more goodies at the IMDB than you can shake a bag of buttered popcorn at. For instance: if you've ever wondered which movie luminaries were legally spliced (however briefly), then check out "Famous Movie Star Marriages".

MovieLens: Movie Choice Predictions

So, with all the movie choices out there, how do you decide which ones to see? Your wordy and opinionated Tío M. long ago gave up on the judgments of most "professional" reviewers, about the time both Ebert and Siskel thought the Chuck Norris stinker Lone Wolf McQuade was destined to become a "modern-day classic." (Although it did eventually beget the TV show, Walker, Texas Ranger -- for what that's worth.) Besides, these professional pundits almost all think it's oh-so-sophisticated to give away every shred of a movie's plot: apparently, a true movie connoisseur focuses on things like camera angles, the oeuvre of the French New Wave directors, and the feminist deconstruction of the opening credits; only a rube would be concerned with such plebeian matters as plot.

Harrumph. Now, where was I? Oh yeah: how to choose your next movie. Well, one way is to ask all your friends; if you share similar tastes, you can get a better-than-average idea of what's hot/what's not. However, even with a biological clone, you'll probably get differing opinions on Blue Velvet. Which brings us, finally, to the point of this link: the MovieLens database is a collection of thousands of movie ratings by hundreds of people who have logged on to the site. After you log on and rate a couple of dozen movies, it compares your ratings with people who have had similar reactions. Then, based on their ratings of films you haven't seen, it predicts which of those you will like. Interesting and fun. And, if MovieLens doesn't give you your fill, you can find similar sites at Yahoo!'s Entertainment:Movies and Films:Reviews:Personal Predictors category.

Find A Video

Face it: most of the movies we see these days are in the cocoon of our own living rooms, rather than at the mega-multiplex. If you're like your lovable Uncle M., however, you'll often find your mind going blank as soon as you walk into your local video store; those "must-see" recommendations from friends have gone bubbling out your ears, and all you can think of is Blazing Saddles or Splash. Now with the help of this well-organized site, you can make a list to take with you on your next visit. Reviews are organized by typical categories ("Best Comedies," "Best Dramas") and not so typical ("Eve at The Movies: A Woman's Outlook"). Win a free video by sending them email describing the movie you've most enjoyed in the past 30 days, or play their entertaining version of the "Six Degrees" game by building a chain of actor/movie links between two stars. For example: Sharon Stone to Wesley Snipes in four moves (Sharon --> The Specialist --> Sylvester Stallone --> Demolition Man --> Wesley). There's a new game every day to get your movie wits sharpened.

Official Home Page of Cinema Seattle

Here is the home page of Cinema seattle, year-round sponsor of the Seattle International Film Festival (or SIFF), one of the world's largest audience-driven film festivals. More than 250 films were shown at the year 2000 festival, including a number of world and North American premieres. This page also has a links to The Screenwriters Salon, an ongoing public forum provided for the development and nurturing of Pacific Northwest writers.

SIFF 1997 Award Winners (Including Uncle Mike's Personal Picks)  

This link will take you to a listing of the Golden Space Needle audience awards handed out on the Seattle International Film Festival's final day. I have also included my personal faves, because, well, it's my page.

Scott Larson's Movie Comments

Scott is another former Microsoftie who also happens to be gaga about film. Check his home page for his entertaining opinions of films he has seen ("Recent Movies That Don't Suck"), as well as reviews of all 88 flicks he saw at the 1997 Seattle International Film Festival (easily surpassing his 1995 total of 78, and equaling his personal record set in 1996). I saw only 50 movies myself before my eyeballs short-circuited. Scott is a movie-going god; I have no independent confirmation of the rumor that he actually had a stainless-steel rump insert surgically implanted so he can sit through that many hours in darkened movie theatres.

Movie Clichés

Does it bother you when you're watching a movie scene inside a car and the driver turns to the passenger and carries on an extended conversation without once looking at the road for 15, 20, 30 seconds at a time? How about when an obviously athletic heroine always falls when being chased by baddies? (Then has to be helped to her feet and dragged along by a guy, even if he's built like a honeydew melon -- and even though both will necessarily run more slowly that way?) Then this page is for you. You can even add your own pet peeve if you're feeling particularly testy (say, you've just seen another Joe Esterhazs screenplay, or perhaps Friday the 13th, Part XXI). In fact, after perusing this list, you may say to yourself (to paraphrase Slim Pickens in Doctor Strangelove), "Hell, a feller could write himself a purty good script with the stuff that's in here."

The Movie Sounds Page

A nicely organized selection of digitized sounds from the movies, plus lots of links to other web sites with movie-sound collections. Customize your own PC so Colin Clive screams "It's alive!" whenever you reboot.

Movie Poster List

Beaucoup movie posters offered for sale, including many old classics and foreign movies. All posters viewable as thumbnails or in larger image versions.

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