ffering reviews of cult and horror movies, anime films, video games and even graphic novels—not to mention a host of feature articles about the entertainment industry—Monsters at Play is a slick and eminently readable site. Serious but never stuffy, this webzine covers offbeat projects and blockbusters with equal enthusiasm.
The monsters mentioned in the site's title are the regular writers for the page, and their devotion to film is obvious. The features section covers a diverse range of topics: There are horror soundtrack reviews, several interviews, accounts of film festivals and shooting reports from the sets of various horror films. A recurring column called Indie Digital Buzz delivers exactly what it promises: the latest scoop on smaller horror movies, even some with budgets as low as $100,000. Increasingly, these pictures are being released on DVD; fans who want to know whether to snap up a film with bargain-basement production values—or to run screaming into the night—will want to check this column faithfully.
Monsters at Play takes justifiable pride in offering reliable, up-to-date content. Their list of horror links is long and offers considerable fun for web surfers, and their forum topics include Asian cinema, game reviews, cult and exploitation films, to name just a few. The site also offers regular contests and giveaways. Its archive of DVD and video reviews is selective and thoughtful. What's more, the resident Monsters post intriguing new articles and reviews almost every day, so dropping in regularly to visit is highly recommended.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—September 29, 2003
his "Farmer's Almanac of Celebrity Worth" is dedicated to keeping track of a subject near and dear to many a fan's heart—how popular are a site visitor's favorite celebrities ... and are they moving up or down the success register? Reducing beloved and belittled Hollywood actors to contestants in a high-school-style popularity battle, Fametracker offers humor, film news, reviews, satire and plenty of delightfully snarky commentary.
Fametracker covers the entire entertainment industry, not just SF. Its best is gathered in its Galaxy of Fame, which includes updates and special fametracking editions in a number of categories—Emmy Awards coverage, the California gubernatorial recall election, upcoming television seasons and a special American Idol edition, to name just a few. The site conducts fame audits of various stars, most recently Bill Murray. In its 2 Stars 1 Slot section, Fametracker defines niches of stardom (check out Battle of the Cruise-Alike Heartthrobs-in-Waiting!) and chronicles the struggles of various actors competing to fill these celebrity voids. Meanwhile, the Hey! It's That Guy! area tracks the rise of barely identifiable actors as they struggle to move beyond being bit players and become household names. (SF fans will be pleased to see articles validating the existences of Adam Baldwin of Firefly and The Lord of the Rings cast member Sean Bean here.)
This site has its share of celebrity gossip and current Hollywood news, of course, and offers forums where interested readers can argue with Fametracker's assertions. The true appeal of this Web page, though, is its writing. Whimsical, witty and irreverent, it never loses sight of the fact that its chosen subject matter is essentially unimportant ... and yet at the same time is hotly debated, online and in real life, by thousands of people.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—September 22, 2003
hinking of writing an SF movie? Curious about what might have been done differently with a favorite film—or a flawed one? Check out the blueprints for a wide range of SF movies at Sci-Fi Scripts, a site that boasts a wide collection of screenplays for the greatest (and the not-so-greatest, as the site itself notes drily) genre movies ever made.
The experience of reading the script for a beloved and often-seen film is frequently surreal, revealing notable divergences between script and finished product, shedding light on the screenwriter's intentions and goals. A site that offers many scripts in one place is therefore a treasure. And the library of material on offer at Sci-Fi Scripts is extensive, though it does have a distinct lean toward more recent films. Classics like A Clockwork Orange and Invaders from Mars do appear in its lineup, but the large majority of the movies currently available on Sci-Fi Scripts date from the '80s or later. Big franchises like The Matrix, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies are represented, of course, as are lesser-known films, camp classics and a host of box-office disasters. What's more, there are multiple versions of many film scripts, not all of them the final shooting drafts—there are rough drafts, directors' revisions and even scripts for as-yet-unproduced films. (Spoilerphobes beware!)
This Web page maintains a tight focus on providing scripts and not much else; it fosters a small community of loyal fans by printing letters and links, but does not have discussion forums. Visitors looking for movie reviews, photos or backstage information on an SF movie will have to get them elsewhere. Instead, Sci-Fi Scripts delivers endless reading material for anyone interested in the path that a story idea takes while on its journey from the plain white page to the local multiplex.
— A.M. Dellamonica
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