A complete lack of political correctness is alive, well and ongoing on the IMDB discussion boards (imdb.com)

Member Name: worst_trip

Product:	imdb.com
Date:	05/08/09 (16 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More film and TV related info than you can shake a stick at.

Disadvantages: Replaces 'Halliwells Film Guide' so effectively I wonder why they still bother printing it.

IMDB - the Internet Movie Database - is a great site, which gives detailed info on all sorts of screen-related topics. You can look up your favourite old films, or see cast and crew lists for upcoming productions, to find out what's new and coming up at the cinema and on TV.

IMDB is extremely user-friendly: it has an in-house search engine which generates a clickable list from any keywords you put into it; surprisingly many films, for example, all have the same name and so the subsidiary information that's given following any search - such as the date the film was made - lets you home in on the exact match you want. Once you've accessed the particular entry you're after there is tons of additonal info - from ratings info, plot synopses and trivia, to details on any awards the film / person has been awarded. All in all it's quite a formidable resource, really.

The great thing about IMDB is it's all (largely) cross-referenced, again generating clickable links, so if you're looking up one particular actor, director or screenwriter it's very easy to check back and see what else they've done in their career. There are brief plot synopses for most of the dramatic entries, related pictures available in a lot of cases (for actors and directors, usually pics of them at film openings on red carpets for some reason) and also discussion pages for each entry.

Regarding the discussion pages, you can obtain an IMDB user ID for free, which lets you post new topics as well as replies to other IMDB users. Many of the most frequent or regular posters on the IMDB discussion boards, I have to say, appear to be total head-cases however (have a look at the 'Quantum of Solace' discussion board, or for postings by some of the more rabid Johnny Depp fangirls, if you want to see what I'm on about), and as emotions tend run very high on the boards it is perhaps better to sit back and watch the arguments progressing (and insults flying) rather than to get personally involved. In fact these 'heated discussions' are a great deal more amusing for third party readers than the majority of postings, which tend to run along the lines of 'actor X looks like my geography teacher' (indicating a trend in user demographics that perhaps explains why so many IMDB posters get so emotionally involved with their subjects.) There do appear to be many sane and normal people who also frequent the discussion boards though, and it is quite possible to get reasonable and useful answers to genuine questions about films that may've perplexed you for ages; discussions of character motivations during the final gunfight scene in 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' for example, being an excellent example of this.

The IMDB boards do seem to be moderated and so the most inflammatory of discussion topics / statements are routinely weeded out (perhaps following other users' complaints) - but it's certainly eye-opening to see some of the extremely worrying or dodgy opinions that have been expressed which do successfully escape censorship. This must be what people are talking about when they say the internet is a deeply scary place.

Summary: Excellent, internet based resource. Discussion boards - slightly less so.