Web 2.0 a boon for movie fans


14 Jul 2008

A new website run by cinema fans for cinema fans, Movies.ie, has been launched and is already getting one million page impressions a month.

A sister site to Movies Plus magazine, Movies.ie started beta testing in March of this year and thanks to the web 2.0 back-end has built up a loyal user-base who contribute to the forums and write reviews for all the latest movies.

Some high-profile people working in the Irish film industry currently write blogs on the site, including the Irish film censor and well-known directors.

“We had so much content we couldn’t fit it all into Movies Plus magazine, so Movies.ie lets us bring all of our extra features to film fans. We’re able to update the site every day, meaning visitors get more than just cinema times and they return daily for the latest articles,” said editor Vincent Donnelly.

Movie fans eager to write their own reviews are visiting the site as soon as they’ve seen a film. There are multiple discussions in the Movies.ie forum area that cater to both casual film fans as well as enthusiasts. Some film fans have even created an offline group for going to the cinema once a week.

Another area worth looking at is the monthly Movies.ie TV show, which is a video podcast available on itunes and Youtube featuring interviews with Hollywood stars such as Pierce Brosnan, Jack Black and Meryll Streep. It regularly reaches the top 10 in the itunes podcast chart, according to Donnelly.

Other features include daily movie news, cinema times for every cinema in Ireland, trailers and Facebook integration, with Bebo integration coming soon.

By Sorcha Corcoran

Pictured: The latest installment from the Disney/Pixar stable, the environmentally conscious Wall-e