Movies: From the Web to the Silver Screen
Whether you're looking to go to a movie, learn about the movies, or add to your home collection of movies, the Internet can provide the tools you need. Find current listings and buy movie tickets; read and compare reviews, track the box office, and view trailers online; track major and minor film festivals or explore movie history and trivia; buy or rent movies on DVD. Whatever your film needs, you can find what you're looking for on the Web.
It's certainly still possible to find show times and theaters the old-fashioned way, by picking up ... read more »
Perhaps you trust a certain national reviewer above any other film critic, or like to compare ... read more »
Whether you're a movie fanatic or just like to dip into Hollywood gossip now and then, there are ... read more »
Film festivals used to be the preserve of industry professionals, but recent years have seen the ... read more »
There's an enormous amount of film history, movie trivia, and industry facts available on the Web. ... read more »
The high picture quality, relatively low price, and ready availability of DVDs mean that a lot of ... read more »
It's not only movie trailers that you can watch online these days. Many sites now enable you to download entire films directly to your computer or to watch streaming movies via the Internet.
- The slower your Internet connection speed, the longer the download time for movies. And streaming video will be constantly interrupted by a substandard connection. As mentioned elsewhere, dial-up is not an option if you want to watch videos from the Internet on your computer.
- Expect most services to have a subscription or per-use fee. Any site that lets users download or watch streaming versions of movies from the studios without charging a fee is probably breaking the law.
- Legitimate sites such as apple.com enable you to download movies for approximately the same price as a DVD and, of course, you don't have to wait for the movie to arrive in the mail.
Amazon.com
permits you to buy or rent downloadable movies using its Unbox system. To do so, you first need to download a free Unbox video player. (Currently, this application only works in the United States on PCs running Windows XP.) Once that's done, you can rent or buy movies to view on your PC, on some portable devices, or on a television with a TiVo subscription.
Netflix
includes an online viewing service with all its monthly DVD rental plans. Its "Watch Instantly" service requires the download and installation of a free Netflix movie viewer (compatible only with Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista), and allocates one hour of viewing time per dollar of the monthly plan. For example, a standard $17.99 monthly fee for DVD rentals comes with 18 hours of online viewing.
MovieFlix.com
is a streaming video site that allows members to watch movies using RealPlayer. The free basic membership provides unlimited access to the free (public domain) library. The MovieFlix Plus plan ($7.95 a month) grants access to the entire library.
HollywoodOnline.TV
hosts streaming video content including movies, documentaries, and more. Users can subscribe for free or use a pay-per-view service.
Folkstreams.net
exists both to archive hard-to-find independent documentaries about American life, and to make them widely available to a public that would generally be unaware of them otherwise. No membership is required.
MoviesFoundOnline.com
does not host videos on its site. Rather, it provides links to free media that are legally available elsewhere on the Internet. MoviesFoundOnline.com describes its selection as "100% handpicked content chosen to inform, shock and entertain you.
Undergroundfilm
is a repository of free, mostly short films. Its goal is to accumulate a wide breadth of content and distribute it freely. The site includes an area to
upload your own short films.
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