March 2008 News Posts
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MovieMentor
review by David Eaton |
Date:
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19/08/2003
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MovieMentor
How many times have you driven past a theater
sign or looked in your Cable or TV Guide and seen the name of a movie - only to
remark, "I've never heard of it" or "I wonder what that one is
about…" How many times have you started telling someone about some
movie you've watched and suddenly found that, although you can remember the
plot and the actors, you couldn't remember the name its name? Well, MovieMentor
has come to the rescue.
MovieMentor is a subscription bases service that
will provide you with weekly updates for $11.95 per year. While I don't
ordinarily recommend software that requires subscriptions, I was very impressed
with the amount of data that is constantly updated. This takes a lot of effort
and it's only fair that they get paid for it!
It's easy to get started with the program. Simply
download and install the 30-day
Free Demo and run the
executable file. It will require 2 hot syncs (and a live internet connection)
to get the program installed and movie data installed. Once you have it up and
running, you can begin having fun. (If you like it, and I'm sure you will, just
follow the Subscription link at the bottom of the main page.)
The very first thing I would do once you start
the program (unless you're at the ticket window trying to decide which movie to
see…) is to go into the preferences screen (accesses by tapping on the
Menu button) and adjust your preferences. As you can see, the amount of data
you download is controlled by these preferences - very important since the
program will only run if the movie database is located in RAM. The selections I
made on mine (as seen above) take up a little more than 1.2 Mb.
Speaking of selections, you can select to
download 3-14 weeks of theater listings or new videos, and old movie data as
far back as 1930. You can also choose how this data is ranked (either 1-5 Stars
or 1-99) and whether it is sorted by rating, by year, or alphabetically.
The program not only gives you the chance to
search based on Title, Pilot, Director, Cast, or Notes, but also lets you sort
the 12 different databases based on genre as seen in the following screen
shots.
One very nice feature is the ability to add notes
to a film listing, mark it as one that you just have to watch (or one that
you've seen already), or mark it as a favorite. You can then pull these up as
categories which can then be sorted by genre as well!
The synchronization of the program is seamless.
Every week the program downloads a fresh week's worth of data and a new
"welcome screen" advising you of box office news for the week. Tap on
the "OK" and it will take you to the main screen where you can select
how the movies are sorted or search for one in particular.
Opinion: While I don't often get the
chance to sit down and watch a movie, I do often find myself looking for
information on movies or discussing them with friends. As such, I found this
program to be an absolutely wonderful database of movie information that was
easy to use, easy to sort, and easy to sync. The only drawbacks I found were
the fact that it did not take advantage of HiRes+ screen size and the fact that
it needs the database to be kept in RAM. I would recommend this program
heartedly to anyone who enjoys movies as much as I do.
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