Entertainment Advisory: Book, Movie, and Television Reviews and News on the Web

By McDermott, Irene E

As media morphs and prolifer- ates in our technological age, it be- comes increasingly difficult for us to decide what we actually want to spend our leisure time watching or reading. What’s worse, anyone with an Internet connection can express an opinion about leisure-time offer- ings on blogs or other social net- working sites. It’s getting to the point that we need reviews of reviewers to find resources that suit our tem- perament and give us quality infor- mation about what to read or see. These various resources can help us and our patrons choose enter- tainment wisely.

Media Portals

These sites offer a broad overview of entertainment options in a vari- ety of media.

Entertainment Weekly

http://www.ew.com/ew

The Web counterpart to the mag- azine covers aspects of many tradi- tional media: books, theater, movies, video games, and music. It offers print and video reviews, behind- the- scene news, and interviews with the “talent.” If you feel out of touch with popular culture, this is a great place to get yourself up-to-speed!

Zap2It

http://www.zap2it. com

Here’s a portal for those who love both movies and TV Read blogs here that cover the news about television series: their shuffling schedules and even plotlines. Critic Picks features movie reviews from the members of the exclusive National Society of Film Critics. See their rankings of the latest releases, and browse a collection of their thoughts. Find movie showtimes and TV listings, too

JAM

http://jam.canoe.ca

Canadians, get an overview of show business from a Canuck perspective.

Books Librarians know how to get the skinny on newbooks: We have to buy them – with other people’s money! We check Library Journal [http:// www.library Journal.com] and Publisher’s Weekly [http:// www.publish ersweekly.com], The New York Times Book Review [http:// www.nytimes. com/pages/books] (free with registration), and Booklist (corresponding print subscription required), among others. We will even read Amazon, com for its concise aggregations from major review sources and even some of the “real people” reviews. Still, the more thorough among us may dig even further online.

LibraryThing offers book suggestions based on reader-supplied tags.

Overbooked.org

http://www.overbooked.org

Ann Chambers Theis, collection management administrator at the Chesterfield County Public Library in Virginia, maintains this fiction selection and review directory as a labor of love. Browse her links to information about new and notable general and genre fiction.

BookWeb: Book Sense Picks

http://www.bookweb.org/booksense/ seventysix/6977.html

The American Booksellers Association, the professional group representing all your quality independent bookstores, assembles monthly picks and reviews of its favorite releases. Here are links to its lists for the last year and a half.

The New York Review of Books

http://www.nybooks.com

The current magazine appears here with its novella-length intellectual articles and reviews. The NYRB mostly covers nonfiction, as befits its air of gravitas. Still, the site does offer reading group guides for recent literary fiction: http: // www. nybooks.com/nyrb/rgg.

London Review of Books Online

http://www.lrb.co.uk

Say, the entire current issue is right here, with its interesting, if lengthy, articles. Subscribers to the print publication can register to find archives back to 1998.

ReadingCroupCuides.com

http://www.readinggroupguides.com/ findaguide/index.asp

This site very handily compiles reading group guides originally put online by the books’ publishers. Browse by title or author, or view books by subject category (“Books into Movies,”"Mystery & Thriller,”"Men’s Interest,” etc.).

The Beat Books

http://www.kucw.org/programs/ thebeat_books.asp

Public radio station KUOW in Seattle hosts podcasts of book reviews by librarian Nancy Pearl.

Bookreporter.com

http:// www. bookreporter. com

Volunteers review current adult fiction. Sister sites, Teenreads.com and Kidsreads.com, offer reviews for the younger set.

LibraryThing

http:// www. librarything. com

Portland, Maine, denizen Tim Spalding has established this online library catalog for private collections, loin for free or pay a modest fee to match authoritative catalog records to your books and store your bibliographic records online. Click on the “Book Suggester” tab to enter a title that you like. The Suggester will scour its description tags to find read-alikes. Members also supply book reviews. Very Web 2.0! [For a thorough review of this super- readers site, read Iennie Starr's Webmastery column on pp. 25-32.]

The Modern World

http:/ www. themodernword. com/ themodword.cfm

This attractive yet mysterious site is actually a directory of links to information about authors of important 20th-century literature. Explore Beckett and Borges, Pynchon, Joyce, and even Cormac McCarthy. Very useful for literary book groups and students.

Movies

Since 1911, the best thing to do on a hot summer afternoon is to slip into a dark, cool movie theater {The History of Air Conditioning, Air- Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute [http:// www.ari.org/consumer/history]). Should you see the latest Hollywood blockbuster? Or a dark piece of Mexican magical realism? Check movie reviews online to help you decide.

Pick the freshest films at movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

MRQE: Movie Review Query Engine

http://www.mrqe.com

Stewart M. Clamen’s search engine lists current releases of movies and DVDs along with links to international reviews on the Web in English and other European languages. Find showtimes for current releases in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. Registered users may participate in the site’s “forums,” or message boards.

Rotten Tomatoes

http://www.rottentomatoes.comIn 1998, cinephile Senh Duong founded this movie review aggregator with the marinara metaphor. A good review gets a fresh tomato. Bad reviews equal rotten tomatoes. When a film receives more than 60 percent positive reviews, it is rated “fresh.” Otherwise, it goes into the compost. “Certified Fresh” films have been positively reviewed by at least 75 percent of 40 or more critics; the wisdom of crowds implies that these movies are worth seeing. Track box office here, too, and find showtimes. Or, publish your own thoughts about movies on The Vine. This is a great allaround movie portal.

Internet Movie Database

http://imdb.com

Who doesn’t love the Internet Movie Database? I use it at the reference desk all the time to answer questions about movies and old TV shows. Register at the free site for online space to list favorite films and gain access to the discussion boards. Professionals can buy access to contact listings for celebrity representatives, as well as in-depth box office and production charts for only about $13 per month.

Ebert and Roeper

http://bventertainment.go.com/tv/buenavista/ebertandroeper

My hubby hates to miss this movie review show on Sunday nights on ABC. But now, it’s no problem if he does, because the whole thing is here, online!

Yahoo! Movies

http://movies.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Movies is an attractive multimedia movie portal featuring trailers in Flash format, showtimes and tickets, gossip, and box office numbers. Registered Yahoo! members can keep personal lists of film titles here, too.

IndieWIRE: Movies

http://www.indiewire.com/movies

Independent film aficionados will want to visit this site to read reviews of current esoteric cinema.

FIPRESCI: The International Federation of Film Critics

http://www.fipresci.org

Foreign film lovers, visit this site to get international film festival news and reviews ranging from Palm Springs, Calif., to the Indian city of Trivandrum!

Ain’t It Cool News

http://www.aintitcool.comYou ain’t cool unless you read Ain’t It Cool News, a blog covering movies, TV, and comic books. AICN is the brainchild of Harry Knowles of Austin, Texas, who believes that readers should clearly understand the personal biases of the movie reviewer in order to comprehend the context of the review. Knowles and crew cover older films from time to time. They emphasize that they never spoil a moviegoer’s experience by revealing the ending of any movie.

Box Office Mojo

http://boxofficemojo.com

From the heart of movie production land, Burbank, Calif., Brandon Gray posts film reviews, interviews, and box office numbers. Pull up lists of movies and movie makers to see how much money they have brought in! Harvest the information every day with your RSS reader.

Movietone

http://movies.aol.com

It’s not a telephone service anymore, and it was bought by AOL, yet Moviefone still serves up the reviews, trailers, and showtimes for all current releases.

Fandango

http://www.fandango.com

On your computer or mobile phone, read reviews, find showtimes, and purchase tickets for the movies playing at many major theater chains. There is a “convenience charge” of up to $1.50 per ticket for this service.

Television

Maybe it is too hot outside even to drive to the movie theater. Instead, let’s go to the computer to see what’s worth watching on FV Then, it’s onto the couch with a cool drink in one hand and the remote in the other.

TV.com

http://www.tv.com

TV.com, formerly TV Tome, offers summaries of all the major television shows, listed by category (action, comedy, drama) or popularity. Find episode guides going back to the pilots, along with photos, videos, reviews, and even a trivia guide. Registered users can personalize the portal with a free blog space and automatic newsfeeds about favorite celebrities. From CNET Networks Entertainment. TVGuide

http://www.tvguide.comNow that the Los Angeles Times has stopped publishing a weekly magazine of television schedules, the citizens of the second-largest city in the U.S. have no choice but to turn to TVGuide, or its corresponding site, for listings and articles about what’s on the telly. The site also reviews movies currently in theaters: http:// www. tvguide. com/ Find-Shows-Movies-/-Movies-/In- Theaters.

Television Without Pity

http://www.televisionwithoutpitycom

Do you like your TV reviews with attitude? This site is a virtual snarkfest. Get summaries of the major television shows delivered with unbridled sass.

TV Barn

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/index.html

From the heartland comes some of the best reporting about television available on the Web: Aaron Barnhart’s TVBarn, a service of Missouri’s Kansas City Star newspaper. Barnhart, a native of Montana, offers no-nonsense, middle-of-the-political-road television analyses and reviews. He’s also got podcasts.

Yahoo! TV

http://tv.yahoo.com

Find listings, gossip, and television show clips.

AOL Television

http://television.aol.com

In addition to reading news about television, you can watch entire episodes of selected shows, including 24.

Screens

http://screens.blogs.nytimes.com

Television and online video can be considered a converging art. Read Virginia Herffernan’s blog to stay current on the latest dovetailing.

Reality TV Rules

http://www.tvrules.net

Fans of reality television can visit this site to find detailed summaries and blogs about shows that make stars out of unskilled Americans. Reality show casting notices appear here. Perhaps you too could be the next American Idol – or The Biggest Loser.

Gossip

Peter Bogdanovich once observed that celebrities fill the modern function of what mythological figures were for our ancestors. Their giant screen images fill our minds and become part of our lives. Bogdanovich confesses that when he met Cary Grant for the first time, he thought, “This is a person I have known since I was five, but he didn’t know me at all” [http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/ listings/2004/10/airtalk_20041025.shtml].

With the advent of movies and television, Bogdanovich notes, “This is the first time in the history of the world where mythological figures were based on real, namable human beings.” Hence, our fascination with the personal details of the lives of the famous: They don’t know us, but our brains think of them as family.

People

http://www.people.com/people

Here is the online counterpart of the most respectable of gossip rags. Get pix of famous folk in the news. Peruse “Stylewatch” to see what you should be wearing. (Buy it here, too.) Get the RSS feed to be first-in-the-know with the latest news on “Kate,”"Nick,” and “Paris.” Or, use the alpha index [http://-www.people.com/people/ celebri ties/0,,,00.html] to find the latest on your favorite celebs. The only catch? You do have to know their last names.

TMZ

http://www.tmz.com

If something bad has happened to someone famous, you can be sure that you can find about it first on TMZ (a.k.a. “Thirty Mile Zone,” referring to the area around studios in which entertainment worker union rules differ from those for production outside the zone). This kind of gossip makes it clear that fame is a curse. Still, with photos and videos of gaffes of the rich and famous, it’s hard to look away.

Perez Hilton

http://perezhilton.com

Blogs are great for celebrity gossip, and Perez Hilton is the Hedda Hopper of this new medium. Search “Hollywood’s Most-Hated Web Site” by “category,” i.e., celebrity name.

E! Online

http://www.eonline.com

This mainstream gossip portal offers celebrity, movie, and fashion news, along with video clips from the television show.

HELLO!

http://www.hellomagazine.com

Tap into gossip about British as well as Hollywood royalty.

The Hollywood Reporter

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/index.jsp

Want an industry perspective on entertainment industry news? Get it here, along with movie and TV reviews.

Get Back to Work!

We’ve spent so much time exploring how to spend our leisure time that we have used it all up! And I haven’t even begun to list all the entertainment information available on the Web. Still, it should be enough to keep you amused and occupied until you finally have to get back to work.

OCIO: LEISURE, IN SPANISH

Many of our patrons may prefer their entertainment news en espanol. Here is a sampling of sites to get them started.

Aloha Criticon

http://www.alohacriticon.com/viajeliterario/index.php

Read book, movie, and music reviews in Spanish.

Spanish-language readers explore literatura at LibrUSA.

Libi-USA

http://www.librusa.com

This Miami-based publication offers news and reviews of Spanish- language writers, written in Espanol.

Cine en Yahoo!

http://es. movies.yahoo.com

This handsome site offers news, reviews, and Flash previews of films, all in Spanish.

Cine.com

http://www.cine.com

Visit this Barcelona-based hub designed to support Spanish independent film production There are some serious cinema reviews here too.

Fotograma.com

http:// fotograma.com

From Argentina come movie reviews and celebrity write-ups. This is no puritanical American site. Click “Postales” in the left sidebar to see seminude photos of your favorite female stars.

Inicio: People en Espanol

http://www. peopleenespanol. com/pespanol

This online guilty pleasure comes with a Latin flavor. Muy bueno1.

Now that the Los Angeles Times has stopped publishing a weekly magazine of television schedules, the citizens of the second- largest city in the U.S. have no choice but to turn to TVGuide . . .

by Irene E. McDermott

Reference Librarian/System Manager

San Marino Public Library

Like any true Southern Californian, Irene E. McDermott pretends that she is too cool to care when she spots a celebrity out shopping or noshing near her home in Pasadena, Calif.

Copyright Information Today, Inc. Jul/Aug 2007

(c) 2007 Searcher. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.