I thought for my first column here, a quick review of 5 excellent movie-related sites wouldn't be in poor tastes, especially since the summer movie season is almost over. So enjoy, and I hope to have a new The Electronic Fringe up every week. I hope you enjoy!

The Internet Movie Database - http://www.imdb.com/ 

Basically, this is the best starting place whenever you want to know something about a movie or television series. I call it the "Bet Settler," as it usually has the answers such statements as "I know Drew Barrymore was in Taxi Driver!" with uncanny accuracy. I mean, the amount of information on this site is staggering, and it comes in too many categories to list beyond the usual actor/director writer stuff. I once did a search for movies that were filmed in a random town in Iowa, and it was actually able to give me results. I was very impressed. Only real problem with the site is it doesn't give you thorough and unbiased reviews. So that means you have to go elsewhere for that type of content.

Rotten Tomatoes - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/ 

Speaking of reviews, here is a good place to start when you are trying to figure out what to see at the video store or at the theatre this weekend. The basic premise is that many heads are more likely to give you a better perception of how good a movie is rather than one. Based on the reviews of numerous national and local critics, each film is assigned a rating on "freshness", which is the percentage of critics who liked the movie. 60% is generally considered a passing grade on the site, and if you want to do a bit more reading, each of the reviews that contributed to that rating are available for view from the site.  

But these two sites are a bit on the well-traveled side, so let's start getting off the beaten path to some other sites you might have missed.

Kung-Fu Cinema - http://www.kungfucinema.com/

If you love Kung-Fu movies, or you've always wanted to become familiar with the genre, this is the site for you. This is a site by people who know their Shaw Brothers from their Shaolin, and each review seems to be written by people who truly love this kind of cinema, and its that kind of labour of  love which makes reading the reviews that much more interesting. They don't skimp on the words... and they give an honest appraisal to a film, even if they didn't like it. They also give an extensive amount of information about the different versions of the movies you can get, which is always a good feature for a site like this. 

The Spinning Image: Cult Movie Review List - http://www.thespinningimage.co.uk/cultfilms/reviewlist.asp 

A collection of odd mainstream movies that didn't really connect, blockbusters that went over huge and developed impressive followings and low-budget movies that are gems in the eyes of their collectors, this site has something for almost everyone. Though not as deep in its subject matter is Kung-Fu Cinema, or as broad as the IMDB, it does present a nice cross-section of movies for those who like their cinema on the weird and twisted side. I also like the fact that they don't really pull their punches. If it is a cult movie, and its bad, well, they let you know that... almost immediately. But it is also apparent that this is a work in progress, and as such, there are some rather noticeable gaps in the list which I am sure will be rectified soon enough. This one naturally leads me to the final site in the column....

The Agony Booth - http://www.agonybooth.com/

The makers of this site revel in bad film... even if it made a lot of money, and I have to respect that. And they don't so much review bad movies, but RECAP them... they tell you everything about them, and make funny comments as they are doing it. Great relish was put into ripping into the bad and the really bad here, and in one of my favorite subsections, they list people who are "Repeat Offenders", or actors/directors/writers who were responsible for putting their unique stamp on multiple films. Pure Class all the way.

QUICK BIT: Movies that would be better with Leatherface. Is that a question that really needed answering?

Well, I hope these links have given your web life a bit more variety. Come back next week when I will be reviewing a few more sites that are off-the-beaten path.