IMDb
Film fan's feast
Android App of the Week If you're a fan of the movies then this app should be right up your aisle. Not only can IMDb tell you just about everything you could ever wish to know about just about every film ever made, but it has all the information you need to plan your movie-going night out too.
Film opening dates, show times, the location and contact details for your local cinema - it’s all here at the touch of a screen, though that’s nothing to get excited about these days and it’s not why I like this app.
Find out what's on near you now (left) and what's coming up (right)
Nor is it the way that the opening page has the dozen most recent film trailers pinned to it so that you can swipe from one to the next or the reviews by both critics and punters.
No. For me the big deal is the watchlist. A single tap of any title you come across adds it to your list so you never forget that interesting-looking movie or documentary that may only get a limited release or for whatever reason not ever make it to the big - or small - screen.
Make a note of what you want to see
I’ve lost count of the number of films I’d never have seen either at my local arthouse cinema or on DVD had I not pinned the title to my watchlist when I first stumbled across it on IMDb. The most recent was the 2011 American apocalypse horror flick The Divide with Michael Aliens Biehn.
Thanks to an option to either sign into IMDb with a unique account or with your Facebook ID, you can keep everything synced between all your Android devices. That’s useful because good though the app looks on a 4.3in phone it looks even better on a 10.1in tablet.
All the details you could possibly want
Of course, that’s not to knock the value of the IMDb database. Being able to discover how many films Wes Anderson has directed or who starred alongside Brendan Gleeson in The Guard - surely the funniest film of 2011 - is pretty useful for any movie fan.
There are also a selection of genre-specific most-popular lists to develop and expand your appreciation of the silver screen. I was surprised to see the 1931 classic M top the film noir list ahead of The Third Man, Sunset Boulevard and Double Indemnity.
Don't know what to watch? Check out genre faves (left) and past Oscar triumphs (right)
For the less committed there is a list of all the movies that have won Best Film at the Oscars and a Top 250 list as rated by IMDb members. Top of the pile currently is The Shawshank Redemption which was rather predictable, but The Good, The Bad and The Ugly appearing at number five was a pleasant surprise.
The only quibble I have with the app is that there’s no option to get UK rather than US box-office results when the former are easily available on the IMDb website. ®
Size 7.5MB
Apps2SD Yes
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COMMENTS
All the details you could possibly want
.. not.
OK, I'm in a charity shop and I see a copy of Capricorn One on DVD. Great film, but wait! It's a 4:3 picture on the disc. I don't think that's how it was released, let's look it up on the IMDb application...
First it wastes my bandwidth by downloading some crap I am not going to want to look at, but doing a search comes up with Capricorn One. Go to the listing.,, Title, rating, length, plot summary, release date, genre, some of the cast, some of the crew, links to reviews, trivia, quotes and goofs. But not the aspect ratio.
OK, tap on 'view on uk.IMDb.com'. More of my bandwidth limit goes. Less info, but I can now enable Facebook sharing, so that people I don't care about can know I am interested in this film.
In fact, I need to get the phone's browser pointing to IMDb, then tell it I want to see the desktop version of the site (more bandwidth goes) and only then can I see it was indeed originally in widescreen.
The other critical bit of info neither the application or mobile site tell you is about the existence of any alternative (i.e. usually censored but sometimes extended) versions.
Put DVD back on the shelf and uninstall the IMDb app.
True story, unlike Fargo :)
I use the watchlist to make a note of what films I plan to pirate at some point
Very cool app!
Now, I can't comment on the Android version but the authors are apparently well aware of what's going on in the market and also provided a version for the Windows Phone, and it is indeed quite cool. Not too intrusive, all the info you want and very clear warnings when you're about to enter a part which contains spoilers.
What I also consider very cool is that they managed to maintain the looks and feel of the original program (as can be seen in the screenshots in this article) and basically converted it into the style for the "other" platform.
Writing a program for one platform is one thing. Believing in it and trying to make it available on /all/ platforms, that deserves some respect too IMO.
Update fail
Firstly, I love IMDB. Its one of my most visited sites (after El Reg natch...) and was really keen on the idea of the mobile app for my droid.
And so it was lovely.... for a few months and then they changed it to a bloated POS that became more and more intrusive and less and less useful.
The author of this article only had to read the marketplace (sorry "play") reviews to see everyone saying the same thing.
Nope, this one is staying firmly uninstalled.
imdb
I seem to remember having an offline copy of the imdb way back when. I'm sure it may of even been on a couple of floppy disks or something.
And in other news...
What I want from an app like this is a Soundhound/Shazam type feature that listens to the movie audio or even takes a short movie segment via the camera, profiles it, and tells you what the film is. Mainly because Im a feckless boorish oaf, but also because I like reading some of the more technical detail around the film, seeing what else the actors have been in, the mistakes etc.
