Movie Website Updates for December 30 - January 5, 2007

January 6, 2007

Big list as I try to catch up after the holidays. I think I caught all the updates. Not only are there a lot of sites on this week's list, several of them are potential award winners with the best of the best being Smokin' Aces - Official Site.

Alpha Dog - Official Site
The full site is up and there's a lot of information and animation. However, after exploring the site and watching the five clips, it still feels generic in a way. Specking of the clips, the volume was too low, either that or the volume of the music was too high.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters - No Official Site
First of all, yes, that is the real name. Secondly, you can find a teaser trailer of sorts here. If you like the show, you will probably like the trailer, but if you've never seen the show, this will make no sense whatsoever... Actually, it makes no sense regardless.

Blood and Chocolate - Official Site
The full site is up, but it feels too small, too crowded. There are some extras here including background information and a place to share your secrets. (Quite a few are just people bad mouthing the movie.) On a side note, I don't like the transformation seen in the trailer. Too much CG and way too fast. Really good werewolf transformation scenes should look painful; the body is being twisted and deformed horribly into a new shape. It should be torture for the person.

Bridge to Terabithia - Official Site
Some more of the regular features were added as was a game. It is sort of like minesweeper. I found it frustrating; too often there were exploding pinecones next to monsters and that cost me points.

El Cantante - Official Site
Just the teaser trailer.

Code Name: The Cleaner - Official Site
All the usual features are here, but it is the extras, (female fisticuffs and bubbles and lingerie), that prove to me that I am not in the target audience. I'm not sure who is, but I am not.

Firehouse Dog - Official Site
Just the trailer. It looks like a really cute family film.

Fred Claus - Official Site
Just the teaser trailer. I'm not sold on this project, I want to be, but I'm not. Perhaps after I see the full trailer I will be happier, but until then this one is not on my to see list.

Freedom Writers - Official Site
All the usual features are here, but the heart of the site are the video clips. There's the usual trailer and TV spots, but also clips, behind-the-scene featurette, interview clips, and two music videos, (it’s the same some, but with a live performance as well). It sells the movie well, but still has a hard time distinguishing itself from other similar films.

Ghost Rider - Official Site
Three more blog entries, including two video clips. One is on the extensive CG and the other is on the history of Ghost Rider.

God Grew Tired of Us - Official Site
Not much here and the trailer crashed my browser.

Gray Matters - Official Site
Just the synopsis and cast & crew bios with the trailer marked coming soon.

Grindhouse - Official Site
There's the usual features plus an interactive tour of the Grindhouse movie theatre. Unfortunately, that section is mostly marked coming soon. However, it does hold a lot of promise.

Hairspray - Official Site
Just a rather long intro and the blog, which hasn't had much updates recently.

Happily N'Ever After - Official Site
Not a lot here; in fact, the bios are still marked coming soon. There's a couple of games, but I can't see the site selling the film well, even to its target audience.

Highlander: The Source - Official Site
Another Highlander movie? I'm a fan of the franchise, but even I think this is a bad idea. However, I'm not going to right off the project without at least seeing the trailer.

The Hitcher - Official Site
The image gallery was added to the site.

Hostel: Part II - Official Site
New look but no new content.

Hot Fuzz - Official Site
There's a whole new look to the site as well as a new Team Site. The team site is your typical viral marketing campaign that usually gets the base really excited, but has trouble spreading the word. So far there's not much on either site, but there's plenty of reason to be optimistic.

Indiana Jones 4 - Official Site
The four movie is officially underway! Tee hee hee.

Iron Man - Official Site
Nothing.

Live Free or Die Hard - Official Site
Just the teaser trailer, to which I say, 'Heh.' I don't like teaser trailers, they almost never tell you enough to form an opinion on the movie, even a tentative opinion. And this one is no different.

The Lives of Others - Official Site
The usual features are here, except for the image gallery.

Lonely Hearts - Official Site
Synopsis, production notes, image gallery, and the trailer.

Lucky You - Official Site
All the regular features are there, (minus the production notes, which are marked coming soon). There's also a game marked coming soon. However, the site feels like an overdeveloped placeholder site and not a full site.

Meet the Robinsons - Official Site
Synopsis, trailer, and a clip. I thought the clip was funny, but it doesn't sell the movie very well.

The Messengers - Official Site
There's a new look to the placeholder site, but the full site hung on me. I'll try again later. ... Nope, still down.

Number 23 - Official Site
There's a whole new look to the site, but the previous 23s are still there. I know what the creators of this site are trying to do, I'm just not drawn in yet. Perhaps as I learn more about the movie I will be.

Primeval - Official Site
There's a series of 'clues' hidden on the main part of the site, but I collected all seven and nothing happened. I was expecting at least some bonus clip from the film.

Reno 911: Miami - Official Site
Just the trailer so far. The transition from TV to movie is rarely a smooth one, but based on the trailer, I am optimistic.

Seraphim Falls - Official Site
Just the synopsis, image gallery, and trailer.

Shooter - Official Site
Just the basics, but the trailer has me intrigued.

Shrek the Third - Official Site
New trailer. Or should I say teaser trailer. I'm waiting for at least the full trailer before I make any judgement call on this one.

Smokin' Aces - Official Site
The full site is online and there's a lot to do here and it takes a long time to explore it all, but that's to be expected for a movie with such a large cast. The usual features are here, (synopsis, cast, crew, & character bios, image gallery, and trailers), and there are extras like two games, one of which is marked coming soon. The game that is online at the moment is a target practice game that is all about timing. Be warned; it's addictive. Besides the second game, there are production notes marked coming soon and room for several clips. One last note, there are clips on the placeholder site that are marked 18+, but since I'm not American, I can't see them. I've seen softcore porn on network TV up in Canada, but I can't see clips from an R-rated movie because I don't have a valid US driver's license? What is up with that? Hopefully the missing features will flesh out the site nicely, but as it is, it tops this week's list and wins the smoke and mirrors Weekly Website Award.

Spider-Man 3 - Official Site
Production blog on some of the weapons for the Golbin.

Stomp the Yard - Official Site
All the usual feature are here, but the site does not do a good job at selling the movie.

Surf's Up - Official Site
The site's up, but there's not much here in terms of regular features. There is a map of surfing hot spots, but the humor there was hit or miss.

Thr3e - Official Site
Not much here, not even all of the regular features.

The Transformers - Official Site
Video Q&A were added to the site since it was last here. I was a little concerned that the writers wouldn't get the heart of the Transformers, (that sounded even geekier than I intended). But it's true, I was worried that the writers wouldn't know what made the Transformers such a great show in the first place and would just try to shove them into a generic action movie. (Which I think was a plot to one of the episodes of the cartoon. Post movie, if I recall.) These clips really put me at ease. If the film still sucks, I will blame Michael Bay and not these two.

Wild Hogs - Official Site
Just the synopsis and the trailer, neither of which sold me on the movie.


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Filed under: Movie Website Updates, Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Transformers, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Wild Hogs, Live Free or Die Hard, Hairspray, Ghost Rider, Meet the Robinsons, Bridge to Terabithia, Fred Claus, Stomp the Yard, Surf’s Up, Shooter, Freedom Writers, Smokin' Aces, The Messengers, The Number 23, Grindhouse, Hot Fuzz, Reno 911!: Miami, Hostel: Part II, The Hitcher, Happily N'Ever After, Firehouse Dog, Das Leben der Anderen, Primeval, Code Name: The Cleaner, El Cantante, Lucky You, Blood and Chocolate, Thr3e, Seraphim Falls, God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan, Lonely Hearts, Gray Matters, Alpha Dog, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters