metacritic.com

imdb.com and metacritic.com are my two favorite movie db-type sites. the former has almost everything you've ever wanted to know about film but didn't know you could ask, and the latter (just found it thanks to kottke) gives films a "metascore," which the site describes as "a weighted average of all of the scores assigned by individual critics to that movie," that ranges from 0-100 with more poorly reviewed movies in red, mixed reviews in yellow and the smash-bangs in green (they also score video/dvd, music and games). they justify giving a "weighted average" b/c they "assign more significance, or weight, to some critics and publications than we do to others, based on the overall stature and quality of those critics and publications." they won't tell us why some sources are more heavily weighted (consternation of consternations!) but they do list some 40 or 50 sources, including the globe, chicago trib, entertainment weekly, la times, ny times, rolling stone, slate, time, usa today, variety and the washington post. both are worth a look, and they're of inestimable value when sitting @ home w/ wife/hub/other watching a flick and wondering just where in the world you've seen rose rose in the cider house rules. didn't know that "call tyrone" lady could act, did you?