Searching for Movies

Numbers aren't the only types of information available via a Google lookup. You can also use the standard Google search box to look up movie reviews and showtimes. All you have to do is enter the word movies followed by the name of the movie. For example, to find out when V for Vendetta is showing in your neighborhood, enter movies v for vendetta, as shown in Figure 10.13.

Figure 10.13. Searching for movie information.

Google now displays a movie information section at the top of the search results page, as shown in Figure 10.14. This is where the fun starts.

Figure 10.14. Google's gateway to movie reviews and showtimes.

To view a list of reviews for this movie, click the movie title. As you can see in Figure 10.15, this reviews page not only lists a plethora of reviews from professional movie critics (along with a brief summary of each review), you also have the option of showing only the positive reviews, or the negative ones, or even the neutral ones. You can even search within the reviews, if you like.

Figure 10.15. An extensive list of reviews for a specific movie.

Back to the search results page, to find out showtimes at a theater near you, enter your ZIP Code and click the Get Showtimes button. This displays a list of movie theaters near you, as shown in Figure 10.16, with today's showtimes for the movie listed. To view showtimes for another day, just click the day link at the top of the listings. You can even view any theater on a map (or get driving directions), by clicking the Map link next to a theater's name.

Figure 10.16. Today's showtimes for the movie in question.

Tip

To avoid entering your ZIP Code every time you search for a movie, check the Remember This Location option.

Tip

If you want to find pictures of movie posters and other images from a movie, go to the Google Image Search page (images.google.com) and enter your movie: query from there.

And if you can't remember the name of a given movie, you can use Google to figure it out for you. Just enter the movie: operator, followed by whatever information you do knowan actor's name, the movie's director, a plot detail, or whatever. As you can see in Figure 10.17, Google returns a list of movies that match your search criteria, along with reviews for each movie listed. Click the movie title to view more reviews for that movie.

Figure 10.17. Searching for movies by actor.