Anthony's Film Review - Happy 30th Birthday, IMDb!

Quick question: what is the biggest, most popular, and most useful online movie resource in the whole world? If you say anything other than the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), you are either living under a rock or paid by a competitor. (Just kidding. I won't hold it against you if you are affiliated with a resource other than IMDb.)

There is no denying that IMDb is a powerhouse movie website. Today, it celebrates its 30th birthday. Over the years, it has grown from a low-key website to a massive corporate entity. Like its current parent company Amazon, IMDb is practically everywhere. It's on the radar of so many Internet users. You cannot do a lot of things without coming across some connection to IMDb. Even though IMDb has competitors, it is so monumental that they have a virtual monopoly in the business of online movie info.

This is no way a bashing of IMDb. Quite the opposite. I love the site so much that I thought I'd post this commentary describing what the site offers. I want to finally share why I have loved this site for many years. I also want to urge the few movie lovers who still haven't visited the site to finally do so. And what better time to do all of this than on IMDb's 30th birthday? It's time that I finally pay tribute to the greatest movie website on Earth.

(Note: My descriptions and accompanying screenshots of the IMDb website below are based on the full desktop version of the site. Certain features may not appear if you visit IMDb on a mobile device.)

History of IMDb in a Nutshell

So here's a real brief history of IMDb, based on tidbits about it in two online encyclopedias: Britannica and Wikipedia.

IMDb was launched by Col Needham (pictured below) on October 17, 1990, in Bristol, England. A few years before, he went to an online group for movie lovers and shared a list of every movie he had ever seen. This activity expanded with more movie-related lists, created by Needham and others. Eventually, the compiled lists constituted a movie index, which soon made its way to the World Wide Web and became a website on October 17, 1990. Eight years later, Amazon purchased the site. IMDb is now a mega website run by the Amazon subsidiary corporation IMDb.com, Inc., in Seattle, Washington, although Needham remains as its CEO and still works out of his office in Bristol.

My Memories of Using IMDb
Like many people, I didn't discover IMDb from the very beginning. In the 1990s, I pretty much never heard of IMDb at all. There may have been a moment when I stumbled upon it, but really didn't think much of it because the site looked rather primitive and it couldn't possibly be the only movie-related website out there.

It was only later that I became a fan of the site. I would say that it began in the early 2000s, like maybe in the year 2000 itself. I began recognizing how huge this site was and how it was practically overshadowing all online movie resources. A few years later, a friend once suggested a different movie website to check out, but I never bothered to. IMDb was the ultimate movie source.

Around 2005, I wrote my own movie reviews for fun and shared them with some friends. After doing that for a while, I reposted those reviews as user reviews on IMDb, adopting IMDb's 10-star rating scale, and continued to do the same with movies I watched subsequently. Eventually, sometime in 2007, I decided to launch my own website, Anthony's Film Review. It took a while for me to decide on the simplistic design of my website, import every one of my IMDb user movie reviews to their own individual web pages, and find images of the movies' posters to include in the pages. At last, the site debuted in 2008 (in the month of February, I think).

Since then, I would always consult IMDb whenever I write a review for a movie I have just seen. Plus, I link back to the movie's IMDb page from my review page, because I want people to visit the site and let people know that it's where they can get more info about the movie. By simply providing that link, it gives me the freedom to focus entirely on putting down my thoughts and feelings about the movie, without having to be a movie data repository myself.

Cool Features of IMDb: Basic Info

As a movie resource, IMDb gives you all the basic information you need. If you open an IMDb page for a specific movie, you'll get things like a list of the main cast and crew (the full list is also accessible through nearby links), running time, genre, release dates, taglines, and a blurb on what the movie is about. You can also see a list of all of the awards the movie has been nominated for or won. It's cool that it lists every known award, from the top-level ones like the Academy Awards to smaller and more specific honors. In some cases, you can also see a list of filming locations for the movie, if you're really curious about where it was shot.

Besides movie-specific pages, there are people-specific pages. On such pages, you find a list of every work that person has acted in, produced, directed, composed the music for, or did other things for. Plenty of people in entertainment will have longer listings for one category than another, because they are more known for one type of work in the industry than others. Along with all of this, there's other stuff about the individual, like biographical summaries and a list of trademarks this person is known for.

Another Cool Feature of IMDb: Trivia
There are plenty of extra features besides the basic info about a work or person. But let me start with my favorite one: Trivia.

This is the section of a movie or person page on IMDb that list all sorts of fun facts contributed by users. For movies, they can be behind-the-scenes tidbits, records being broken, interesting firsts, connections to other movies, or early casting considerations, just to name a few. And if it's related to a spoiler in the movie, it'll be shown at the bottom of the list, in a subsection that has a spoiler warning. Similarly, the Trivia section for people pages on IMDb will list stuff related to frequent roles, people frequently collaborated with, Hollywood stars they're in relationships with, and so much more.

To illustrate the diversity of trivia posted, the following is a long list of interesting trivia on IMDb I randomly came across, copied verbatim. In light of IMDb's 30th anniversary, I am including 30 items in the list.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - This film confirms through dialogue that the Death Star can travel through hyperspace (though it is never seen entering, within, or emerging from hyperspace).
Quentin Tarantino - Was at one point in his life considering to become a novelist. He said that he tried writing two chapters of a novel about his experiences working at the Video Archives in Manhattan Beach. As can be immediately seen, novelistic narrative techniques bear a strong influence on his distinct filmmaking style.
Airplane! - For the argument between announcers concerning the white and red zones at the airport, the producers hired the same voice artists who had made the real-world announcements at Los Angeles International Airport. At the real airport, the white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only, and there's no stopping in the red zone (except for transit buses). They were also married to each other in real life.
Humphrey Bogart - He was of English, Dutch, as well as German, distant French, and remote Belgian (Walloon) and Welsh, ancestry. His surname was of Dutch origin. On both sides, his family had lived in the U.S. since the 1600s.
Mrs. Doubtfire - According to director Chris Columbus, Robin Williams improvised so much that there were PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 edits of the film (though always intended to be released as PG-13).
John Goodman - Was friends with Bruce Willis during their New York City days as struggling actors.
Hot Fuzz - Sandford is the name given to the town used for most UK police training scenarios, the street plan of which is based on the street plan of Dundee, Scotland.
Steven Spielberg - When Spielberg received his undergraduate degree (about 35 years after he had first entered college), the orchestra played the theme from the "Indiana Jones" series of films as he walked up to and across the stage.
RoboCop - When in full RoboCop costume, Peter Weller would remain in character between takes, only responding to director Paul Verhoeven's instructions when properly addressed as "Robo." Verhoeven found this too funny to take seriously and dropped this after a couple of weeks.
Scarlett Johansson - Italian artist Francesco Clemente included a portrait of Scarlett in his deck of 78 custom-painted tarot cards, with her portrayed as the Queen of Swords.
Sin City - Jessica Alba did not know how racy the images of her character Nancy were in the comic until after she signed on for this movie. The script originally had several nude scenes for the character, but Alba refused to do any nudity. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller didn't think it was important for there to be nudity, so they didn't care.
Eddie Murphy - The first actor to receive $1,000,000 for his first film.
It's a Wonderful Life - The set for Bedford Falls was constructed in two months and was one of the longest sets that had ever been made for an American movie. It covered four acres of RKO's Encino Ranch. It included 75 stores and buildings, a main street, a factory district and a large residential and slum area. Main Street was 300 yards long--three whole city blocks.
Audrey Hepburn - The US Postal Service issued a 37 cent commemorative stamp honoring her as a Hollywood legend and humanitarian (2003).
Reservoir Dogs - The budget wouldn't cover police assistance for traffic control, so in the scene where Steve Buscemi forces a woman out of her car and drives off in it, he could only do so when the traffic lights were green.
Julia Roberts - Whenever Julia is unavailable to re-record her dialogue on film, fellow actress Amy Landecker regularly substitutes by providing her voice for ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement). Many of Roberts' movie trailers also feature the voice of Landecker.
BlacKkKlansman - John David Washington has said that the toughest time on set was filming the banquet scene. He later called Ron Stallworth to ask how he had contained himself amid such hatred when dealing with the actual KKK.
Kathryn Bigelow - As of 2018 she was the fifth woman to be nominated for the Directing Academy Award. The other four were: Lina Wertm??ller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola and Greta Gerwig. Bigelow ended up becoming the first woman to win the award.
The Exorcist - The scene where Regan projectile vomits at Father Karras only required one take. The vomit was intended to hit Jason Miller in the chest, but the plastic tubing misfired, hitting him in the face. His reaction of shock and disgust while wiping away the vomit is genuine, and Miller admitted in an interview that he was very angered by this mistake.
Patty Jenkins - She attended the director's program at the American Film Institute.
Dirty Harry - Such was the success of this movie that Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel found themselves invited to address police gatherings.
Jake Gyllenhaal - Before success as an actor, he worked as a lifeguard. He never had any life-saving incidents, but did perform one lesser rescue. A swimmer had been stung on the leg by a jellyfish, and Gyllenhaal helped relieve the pain of the stings by urinating on the swimmer's leg.
Barbershop - The cast spent a month training at a barber college to prepare for their roles. Only Troy Garity had had previous hair-cutting experience.
Jessica Chastain - Her grandmother took her to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when she was just 7 years old, sparking the early acting bug in her. Her grandmother, Marilyn, was introduced to the world when she accompanied Jessica to the 2012 Academy Awards.
Kingsman: The Secret Service - If you go to 11 Savile Row on Google Maps Street View, you can actually walk inside Huntsman and Sons. Before you enter however, note the "Kingsman" symbol in the right bottom corner of the front window, and when you go directly to the back of the shop, on the wall in the left hand corner is a picture of Colin Firth, wearing their suit.
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Parents feared he was gay when he was a teenager because he worshipped bodybuilders. His mother Aurelia phoned a doctor because she thought her son was 'turning south' due to all the pictures of oiled up males on his bedroom walls.
Spaceballs - This movie "predicted" Disney buying Lucasfilm Limited, the production company behind the Star Wars film franchise, which this movie parodied. When the Dinks find and rescue Lone Starr, Princess Vespa, Barf, and Dot Matrix in the desert, Lone Starr says "When did we get to Disneyland?"
Tiffany Haddish - When Tiffany was nine, her mother was in a car accident that triggered her schizophrenia. When she was twelve, she and her four siblings were placed into foster care.
Titanic - When James Cameron was writing the movie, he intended for the main characters Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson to be entirely fictitious. It was only after the script was finished that he discovered that there had been a real "J. Dawson" who died aboard the Titanic. This "J. Dawson" was trimmer Joseph Dawson, who had been born September 1888 in Dublin, Ireland. His body was salvaged and buried at Fairview Lawn cemetery in Nova Scotia with many other Titanic victims. Today, his grave stone (#227) is the most widely visited in the cemetery.
Charlize Theron - After winning her Oscar, she returned to great celebrations in her native South Africa, and she even met former South African President Nelson Mandela. When he praised her for putting their country on the map and gave her a hug, Theron broke into tears (she was guest of honor at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg on March 11, 2004).

Every time I watch a movie, I often find myself going to the Trivia section because there could be neat stuff about it I didn't know before. It gives me a greater appreciation for the movie, a better understanding of it, or both. The more I consult IMDb trivia, the more I feel that the site puts all other movie trivia sources to shame.

Other Neat Features of IMDb Movie Pages

There are plenty of other cool features on an IMDb movie page. Here they are, one by one.

First off, the Goofs section. This is a list of movie mistakes that viewers noticed and, like much other IMDb content, submitted for inclusion on IMDb. They are also labeled according to the type of movie mistake, like continuity errors and factual errors. This is a good section if you enjoying laughing at all the mistakes movies make, even the movies that are hailed as classics.

Next, the Quotes feature. If you are looking for memorable quotes from a particular movie, just follow the Quotes link from the IMDb page of the specific movie. You are bound to find the movie quotes you're looking for, because they, like much of the information on IMDb, are user-submitted.

Here's an interesting feature you may see on some movie pages: Crazy Credits. If, at the beginning of a movie, the opening credits and/or the display of the studio logos do something interesting or unusual, the Crazy Credits will list those details. It could be something as simple as the use of an older version of a studio logo for a new movie that is expected to show the new logo. Similarly, if the movie's end credits have something interesting or unusual, or something funny, the Crazy Credits section should mention it. That means mid- and post-credits scenes are noted, along with jokes in the credits themselves.

You may also like the Alternate Versions section. If there is more than one version of a movie, such as a director's cut, an updated edition, or a version edited for content and running time for airing on television, then this section lists each version and the differences among them.

Another IMDb website feature for movies: Connections. This section provides links to other IMDb pages of movies that are connected in some way. The links are labeled as sequels, prequels, and remakes, as well as movies that directly or indirectly mention this movie, and vice versa. Kinda cool, if you ask me.

One more for now. The IMDb movie page's Soundtrack feature lists the songs that are part of the movie's soundtrack. So if you liked a song heard in the movie and you're curious about it, you can access this section to see who wrote and performed it.

The above features, along with the Trivia feature, are listed in a section of the movie page called "Did You Know?" (see screenshot below, which shows the "Did You Know?" section on the IMDb page for Avengers: Endgame).

Other Neat Features of IMDb Person Pages
IMDb pages for people have similar features. If you scroll to the middle of it, you will see the "Personal Details" section, which contains things like the person's works other than movies, citations of articles about that person, and other names the person goes by. Beneath that is the "Did You Know?" section with stuff like trivia, personal quotes, and trademarks. Believe it or not, IMDb even mentions the person's astrological sign and height. As an example, the below screenshot shows what these sections look like on Robert De Niro's IMDb page. All in all, it's like what the movie pages have.

Useful Feature of IMDb: Upcoming and Current Movies
IMDb isn't just a place for movie lovers to check out fun stuff. It can also be a practical and useful resource.

Although the movies I review for Anthony's Film Review can be whatever random titles I come across, I have been increasingly finding myself planning ahead for new releases. IMDb's Coming Soon feature lists upcoming movies, in order of release date, that will be released over the next few months. I check this from time to time to see what movies I want to see and review once they come out. It gives me stuff to look forward to.

Once the movie comes out and I am ready to see it, I check IMDb's Showtimes and Tickets feature. First, I enter the zip code of my location and the date I am heading to the theater. Then I can choose to list movies currently playing or the theaters within a 50-mile radius from the entered zip code. Either way, I arrive at the page for the specific movie, theater, and show date to check showtimes.

These features are another reason that IMDb is my go-to source for movies. Forget Fandango, MovieTickets.com, and similar sites. IMDb is where it's at! (No offense if you still prefer other sites, because I appreciate the fact that everyone can decide for themselves.)

Impressive Comprehensive Features of IMDb: User and External Reviews

Now, let's talk about how IMDb keeps track of feedback about films. There are essentially two groups of reviewers: IMDb users and anyone else outside the website.

Users can rate movies from 1 star to 10 stars, with 1 being really bad and 10 being really good. The ratings are then presented as a single calculated average rating that can be anywhere from 1 to 10. (On a humorous note, the maximum rating for This Is Spinal Tap is 11. Don't believe me? Go to the IMDb page for that movie.)

In addition, users can also write their own reviews of the movie to supplement their star ratings. They vary widely in length, style, and depth, reflecting the wide diversity of movie lovers from around the world. So that's the first group of reviewers.

The second group of reviewers is accessible via the IMDb movie page's External Reviews section. It is simply a list of links to reviews anywhere outside IMDb, and I mean ANY reviews. It's not necessarily every single external review, because, like many IMDb contents, links to external reviews are submitted by users and approved by IMDb. Still, there's a wide variety of them out there.

Having submitted my reviews to many of IMDb's External Reviews pages, I notice a pattern in the listing. There seems to be three tiers of external reviews:

As the first tier, reviews on RogerEbert.com are listed at the top. Ebert has been such a beloved critic that his reviews and Great Movies essays are always listed first. With his death, RogerEbert.com critics' reviews and film festival essays are also placed at the top of the links list.
The second tier is for certain other reviewers who have developed a strong reputation with movie reviews. They include James Berardinelli's ReelViews, MaryAnn Johanson's Flick Filosopher, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, and plenty of others.
The third and last tier is for everyone else, regardless of the degree of popularity or content quality. They could be reviews written by other professional critics or amateurs with blogs. Even video reviews on YouTube are listed. Because there is no particular order, they are simply listed alphabetically. Chances are that you'll spot Anthony's Film Review easily near the beginning of the list.

Whichever reviews you choose to read, whether by users on IMDb or anyone else from outside, IMDb has compiled so many to pick from. It's amazing.

Some Other Noteworthy Features of IMDb

The features of IMDb that I have described so far are the ones I have typically explored and visited over the years. There are others I don't normally check out, but they are there for those who are much more interested. Here are some examples.

For those of you who have young kids, the IMDb movie page has a Parents Guide section. It mentions the age-appropriateness rating for the movie, by country. Yeah, it's not just the Motion Picture Association's ratings of G, PG, PG-13, R, and NC-17 in the United States. It's also whatever other countries use to rate movies by age-appropriateness. In recent years, the MPA rating is accompanied by a brief mention of why that rating applies, and IMDb states that, too. Still, if you want the specifics of moments in the movie that are inappropriate for children, the Parents Guide section of the IMDb movie page will explicitly spell them out.

Besides pages for cinematic works and industry individuals, users can create IMDb pages specifically for fictional characters. These pages display stuff related to the character in the movie, like quotes. Basically, expect to see stuff similar to a regular IMDb movie or person page, but in relation to the specific character. Honestly, I cannot think of another movie website that goes this far. It's incredible.

There is still plenty of other stuff you may notice on IMDb movie pages. You can check out photo galleries with film stills, pictures of behind-the-scenes moments, and publicity shoots. There are also movie trailers if you like watching them. And in case I didn't mention it before, the page also has a user-created Frequently Asked Questions section and a Details section with things like the movie's official website links, country of origin, budget, box office gross, production studio, and even technical specifications. It's unbelievable how much info there is!

IMDb is Also a Television Resource!
Despite its name, IMDb is also a useful online resource for people who love television. After all, many movie actors also appear on TV somewhere, and it would be a shame to not allow IMDb entries for TV programs.

Now, I don't know precisely when IMDb started listing entries for television shows. It would have to be sometime around the early 2000s, because I think that was when I first noticed the TV entries on IMDb. I also recall that, before, each TV program had only one IMDb entry page. It was still possible to note which episode of the show the performer appeared in if that person was just a guest star. But fast forward to today and you'll see something much grander.

Now, on IMDb, every EPISODE of every television show has its own entry page, with pretty much the same features as an IMDb movie page. When you look up a TV show on IMDb, you start at the main entry for the show. From there, you can access an episode guide, which gives you the original air dates and titles for all episodes, grouped by season, and each episode listed has a link to take you to the specific episode page. This is a good format in my opinion. Actors' credits on IMDb can list individual TV episodes, grouped together by show, whether they are regular cast members or one-time guest stars.

Best of all, this format accommodates all kinds of reviewers of television shows. Just like with the movie pages, the TV show pages have External Reviews sections. However, they can be found with all episode pages, not just the main show page. Reviewers of TV shows can submit external review links to any of those pages depending on whether they review the show as a whole, specific seasons of the show, or each episode.

With such a vast amount of information on TV shows, you might as well have a separate site and call it "ITVDb" or something like it. Then again, IMDb is an established brand with a nice ring to it. Plus, cinema predated television, as well as another major form of visual entertainment that I shall talk about next.

Even Video Games Get the Spotlight on IMDb!

I know what you're thinking. Why would IMDb also list video games? Television is one thing, and watching TV is like watching a movie. But video games?

The answer is simple. Video games have gotten sophisticated over the last three decades. Game historians may recall the dawn of CD-ROM computer games in the 1990s that could feature voice actors bringing video game characters to life. Now, video game voice acting is so common that, in my opinion, it should be taken seriously like movie and TV acting. Plus, playing video games is like watching movies, except the audience member is also controlling the action.

I don't know when IMDb started listing video games, but I was glad to see it in the early 2000s because of the acting involved in games at the time. What's cool is that some even older games are listed, like the Terminator 2 arcade game because Arnold Schwarzenegger recorded a few lines for it. Now, practically every video game ever made has its own IMDb page. Even the 1985 Nintendo game Super Mario Bros. has a page! Even better, many games today have voice acting and voice actor likeness, so actors can be credited as being in it, not just providing a voice. Recent Rockstar Games titles like Grand Theft Auto V and L.A. Noire are great examples.

Basically, IMDb pages for video games are just like IMDb pages for movies and TV shows. Gamers can now rejoice just like the movie and TV fans.

Top Movies and TV Shows

Let's say you're in a mood for watching a movie, but you don't want to waste time with a bad, or even average, movie. You want a really good one to see. But you don't want to just skim reviews to find the entertaining ones. You want to go straight to the best movies, the ones that so many have praised highly. Fortunately, IMDb has just the thing for that.

IMDb's Top Rated Movies list ranks the top 250 movies as rated by IMDb users. With so many films listed, you have plenty to pick from. You have the #1 movie, The Shawshank Redemption, which I noticed had been #2 for quite a long time before it overtook the previous #1 movie, The Godfather. You can also find all three movies of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as The Dark Knight, Goodfellas, Seven Samurai, Alien, and so much more. Just open the list and check it out!

If you look on the side of the Top Rated Movies page, you'll find links to a few other list pages. There's the Top Rated English Movies list that is like the Top Rated Movies list but excludes non-English-speaking films. There's even the Top Rated Indian Movies list, which is nice given that Bollywood in India practically rivals Hollywood in California. Then if you want the opposite end of the spectrum, IMDb also has the Lowest Rated Movies list, featuring the bottom 100 films as rated by IMDb users. Something you might like if you also enjoy watching the Golden Raspberry Awards, also known as the Razzies.

Going back to the best of the best, the same is done for TV shows. IMDb also has a Top Rated TV Shows list of the top 250 shows as rated by IMDb users. Upon first glance, I notice that many entries in the list tend to be relatively new shows, rather than old TV classics. It may have to do with the fact that this list was created fairly recently. Still, it's great that IMDb has this list for TV lovers.

Here's something cool to note about these lists. The lists for top rated movies and TV shows also have, on the side of the page, links to the top movies and TV shows within a specific genre. So for those of you who consume particular types of entertainment and are looking for the best, these genre-specific lists are for you.

IMDb Originals

After being purely an online info resource on movies, TV shows, and video games, IMDb has taken a bold step forward in the new age of original web programming. Just as web series have been developed and launched by the movie streaming services Netflix, Hulu, and Crackle, as well as the ecommerce giant Amazon and the video sharing site YouTube, IMDb has its own line of original programming. Much of it, though, is associated with its niche in providing info about movies and TV. In fact, here is the list of IMDb's movie-related programs that I saw a while back on the IMDb Originals page of the site (program descriptions copied verbatim):

The IMDb Show - Celebrity Interviews at the IMDb Studio
IMDbrief - Trending News and Fan Obsessions
IMDb Cheat Sheet - Recaps of TV Series and Movie Franchises
IMDb at the Oscars 2020 - On the Ground Coverage of the Red Carpet and More
IMDb at the Golden Globes 2020 - Exclusive Coverage of the 2020 Golden Globe Awards
The IMDb Studio at Acura Festival Village at Sundance - Exclusive Coverage of the Sundance Film Festival
Evolved - Movie and TV Tropes Over Time
Unmade - Hollywood's Rejected Scripts Brought to Life
IMDb Me - Big Stars Reflect on Their Careers
Casting Calls - Stars' Near-Misses on Big Roles
What We Know... So Far - Everything We Know About Upcoming Hits
IMDb at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 - Celebrity Interviews and More From the IMDboat
IMDb at the Emmys - Coverage of the Red Carpet, Winners, and More
IMDb at Toronto 2019
No Small Parts - Actors??? Careers Over the Years
Weekend Box Office - A Weekly Look at the Biggest Hits
Celebrity Watchlist - The Shows and Movies Stars Love
Director's Trademarks - The Signature Style of Top Directors
Trailer with Commentary - Stars and Creators Breakdown Their Trailers

Besides these programs, there are two original IMDb shows that are original entertainment: You're Not a Monster ("Our First Original Animated Series") and Special Skills with Jay Pharoah ("Jay Pharoah Learns From the Experts").

I will admit that, because I am busy with other things, I have not gotten a chance to explore any IMDb Originals program. I might check out something in this section once in a while down the line. But for now, I will say that all of this is really cool. IMDb has the creativity to expand into new territory.

IMDb TV

Not too long ago, IMDb launched a new section called IMDb TV. It's another way for the site to align itself in the new world of video streaming. Besides producing its IMDb Originals, IMDb is providing a free ad-supported streaming service that lets visitors watch select movies and TV shows, without paying a subscription. The various IMDb Originals programs can also be accessed through IMDb TV. Now, because I haven't used IMDb TV once so far, I can't comment on it much. I will say that this is an option for me if I want to watch a new random movie to review for my website, but there is nothing interesting in theaters and I have no other option.

Miscellaneous Stuff on IMDb
So far, I have covered a lot of what IMDb has to offer. There are still a couple of other features I have not yet brushed on. Let's go over them briefly here.

For you serious professionals in the entertainment industry, there's IMDbPro. It's essentially the professional version of the IMDb website, providing inside details that are not available to the general public. Although regular users can see basic stuff about box office results and production companies, any further details would be found through IMDbPro. I myself have not used IMDbPro because I have no reason to, given that I am not connected to the entertainment industry itself. Even if I knew what IMDbPro actually looks like, I wouldn't be allowed to share details anyway.

Anyway, let's check out the dropdown menu at the top of the regular IMDb website.

A lot of items in the menu are things I talked about already. But there are a few other interesting IMDb site features that you might like.

If you love Indian movies and television, IMDb provides spotlights on them. You can also check out the latest news about movies and TV shows by sources outside IMDb. Basically, the IMDb news pages provide links to those external articles. IMDb does the same thing for celebrity news. And speaking of celebrities, IMDb also keeps track of celebrity birthdays.

Earlier, I mentioned entertainment awards on IMDb. Well, IMDb has a page that lists all such awards and honors, and each award has its own page. Like I said, you can find stuff on the biggest awards as well as the lesser known ones.

On IMDb, Everything Is Awesome!
IMDb has undergone an amazing evolution over three decades. From an activity within an online user group to a megasite run by a corporate Amazon entity, it's been an incredible ride. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who could convincingly argue that the website will ultimately see its end, let alone experience a decline in visitors. IMDb will continue to dominate and grow. Mark my words.

A big reason for that: the users. IMDb may be a website based in Seattle, Washington, United States of America, but its appeal is global and universal. Visitors from all over the world come to IMDb to get information on their favorite movies, and perhaps contribute new information to the community. The site is user-friendly, and it enables language customization for anyone anywhere on Earth. And of course, IMDb indexes virtually every movie, TV show, and video game in existence. It's got it all!

So if you have never visited IMDb, what are you waiting for? Check out IMDb today!

And Now, My Heartfelt Message to IMDb

To all the wonderful people at IMDb,

For more than 100 years, motion pictures have captivated the hearts and minds of people around the world. And for 30 years, IMDb has been there to unite us all around this common passion.

As a user, the website has given me much joy over the years. Whether it gives me info on a movie before seeing it the first time; further appreciation of something I have already seen; or details that I need to get correct when I review a movie, TV show, or video game, IMDb has always been there. I also love how IMDb has provided enjoyable experiences for my friends who love movies. For all of this, I would like to say, from the bottom of my heart, "Thank you very much."

I also want to thank all current and former staff at IMDb for helping the site constantly grow and evolve. I imagine that a lot of time and effort went into website design, programming, content, and quality assurance, plus whatever else is needed to run such a grand website. In addition, the creativity you put into improving the site has truly paid off. Kudos for all the incredible work you do.

Lastly, I would like to express a special thanks to Col Needham, the founder and CEO of IMDb. Sir, what you have launched is beyond amazing. It's truly a monumental achievement. Both the Internet and the entertainment industry can marvel at this phenomenal website that is both helpful and fun to use. For that, I salute you.

Happy 30th birthday, IMDb! Long live the Internet Movie Database!

Best,
Anthony
Webmaster of Anthony's Film Review (and IMDb fan)