Let's set up a scenario. Suppose that you heard a rumor (actually it's a fact) that there is a new Alien movie coming out. Being about the biggest fan of the Alien movies in northeast Ohio, you want to know more. One of the features of the IMDb is that it usually contains information on movies to be released in the near future. You fire up your browser and go to http://us.imdb.com.
Once you're there, click on the link to "Search the Database". You'll see some selections that you can make to guide your search. You can enter the full or partial title of the movie or TV show (limited TV coverage). You can specify the name of anyone involved in a movie, or limit your name to match only actors, actresses or staff and crew. You can also do word searches against the database. We want to find only the latest Alien movie. You could enter the word "Alien" and specify a partial title, but you would probably get a lot of hits, and might not know which one was your target. One thing you can probably count on is that Sigourney Weaver will in some way be in the movie. So you click on the radio button that says that you'll be entering the name of an actress and, not knowing for sure how to spell "Sigourney", you just type "Weaver".
There are a lot of actresses named Weaver, but fortunately just one named "Sigourney". She's number 24 on the list. Click on the hyperlink for her and you go to her filmography page, including films soon to be released. There you see it: "Alien: Resurrection" (1997) aka "Alien 4"! Now at this point, it's easy to be distracted by the rest of the filmography. You could jump to the info screen for the first film she is credited with ("Annie Hall") or her first major role ("Alien" of course) or one of her movies which garnered her awards nominations (several) or even one of her weak movies ("Half Moon Street" aka "Escort Girl"). Or you could jump to her biography page and from there to links to pictures, Sigourney Weaver websites, on-line videos, etc. But you're true to your purpose; you click on the link for the new Alien movie.
The entry for this movie isn't as complete as for most movies. There's no plot section, for instance, since it hasn't been released yet. But there are hyperlinks, including an 'official' site and there is already a critics section. You look at the rest of the cast: Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman and Brad Dourif. You know who Winona and Ron are; Brad's familiar, but you just can't place who he is. Click on his hyperlink and you'll find out.
He has 52 movies (as of today), including a few future ones to his credit, movies you've seen like "Dune", "Ragtime" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". You do remember him from the latter, but not by name. Going down farther, you see his TV credits. Mostly sci-fi, "Millennium", "Babylon 5" and "Star Trek:Voyager". You read the listing for "Voyager". Bells go off; you know him as the violently insane crewman "Lon Suter" from "Voyager"!
You can go on and on, following link after link, from actor to movie to actor, to movie... . You can look up the stars whose birthdays match yours. You can search for movies that actors have been in together. You can search the blooper database. You can find out whether a movie you fancy is available on videotape or laserdisk, and can often buy it, if you wish. Searching by genre and character name is supported. This database lets you search for so much. And it's easy to use.
Not much sense in talking about it any more. Go there; play with it; get hooked.
CATBAR - Brain Candy 2 - The IMDb / Brian Rock / July 21 1997