Movies: From the Web to the Silver Screen

Rotten Tomatoes compiles reviews from popular media outlets and online film societies, tracking the consensus of opinion with the "Tomatometer": good reviews are rated as "fresh" and bad reviews are "rotten." This site is a great way to get a quick snapshot of what lots of reviewers think about a particular film. Alternatively, through the other end of the telescope, you can find out what one reviewer thinks about lots of different movies, and see if that critic's taste matches yours.

The National Society of Film Critics was founded in 1966, and its members write for publications such as Time, The Boston Phoenix, and The New Yorker. You can search the site by movie title or reviewer. Alternatively, readers short of time can just look for the overall movie score, which is calculated from an aggregate of all the site's reviews for each film.

Ebert & Roeper is the online version of Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper's movie review television show. The site contains video clips of the show as well as a number of online exclusives.

Roger Ebert writes for the Chicago Sun-Times, is the co-host of a popular TV show (see above) and, for better or worse, probably the best-known movie critic in the United States. This site contains reviews, commentary, and a mini-film glossary. You can also visit the blog of the site's editor, Jim Emerson.

The Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE) provides a searchable engine of all published movie reviews. Search by movie title or by category.

The Movie Mom is the online identity of Nell Minow, a concerned parent who assesses how suitable movies are for kids aged 2-18. New theatrical and DVD releases receive letter grades for the ease of moms and dads who haven't got time to read reviews. Each movie is also listed with appropriate age group and MPAA rating.

Kids-In-Mind grew out of a now-defunct site called Critics.com. The surviving kids' site compares itself to a food-labeling system: it provides objective data about the components of movies so that parents can make informed choices about what their children see.

Box Office Mojo contains things other than box office information (reviews, features, discussion forums, and so on), but mostly this is a site about the film industry's bottom line. It is an up-to-date, comprehensive source for daily and longer-term box office figures and DVD sales.

The Numbers rejoices in an explanatory name and is a source of in-depth current and historical market analysis for the movie business.

Zagat began its rating service by compiling restaurant reviews from the collated opinions of ardent gourmands. Now in its bid to critique the entire world, Zagat has produced a movie guide for 2008, covering 1,950 titles under headings such as Chick Flick, Oscar Winner, and Remake.