movies

If there’s one thing we like around here at Windows Phone Central is unique and useful apps. We like it even more when the developer supports Windows RT as well so that we can share the experience across our screens.

‘How to Watch’ is such a case and it is similar to ‘Can I stream it?’ in that it displays if a specific film is on your preferred streaming movie service like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc. You can simply enter in the movie you want to see and check the corresponding service that it is on, including links directly to that service for that movie. Likewise, you can just browse recent additions for new movies.

Movielator is a Windows Phone app that was designed to help you decide on finding a movie to watch. It was a decent movie finder of an app but needed a little fine tuning. Enter Pick My Movie.

The developer tweaked the appearance, interface, made a few under the hood adjustments and gave the app a more straight forward title. Pick My Movie breaks down the movie genre a little more and has more of a Metro or Modern UI appearance.  It's a nice renovation and not a bad app for when you just can't decide on what movie you should watch.

The official AMC Theaters app for Windows Phone 7 was always a half way decent effort by the company to woo users from Fandango/Flixster to going through AMC directly. Initially, the biggest gripe we had was the lack of AMC Stubs support (their ticket rewards system) but that was evidently added back in October.

A few days ago though, AMC released a second version for Windows Phone 8 users. That’s a cool deal because it means the 7.x version can still be updated separately (most devs want to have just one app to maintain, not two). The Windows Phone 8 version though is quite fantastic for a few reasons..

Crackle, a digital network and studio, has released an official app for Windows Phone. The service offers commercially supported streaming of video content in Flash format. Owned by Sony Pictures, its primary collection is Sony's library of films and television shows. Crackle (crackle.com) provides its content through a web syndication network, which includes YouTube, Huhu, AOL, MySpace, and mobile service providers.

Without requiring to signup and register an account, Crackle enables Windows Phone owners to enjoy content for free from its expansive collection. According to the company, twenty new movies and television episodes are added monthly. Genres include the likes of action, comedy, crime, horror, thriller, sci-fi, and anime. There's bound to be a title for everyone.

AMC Theaters, who were just sold to Wang Jianlin, a Chinese multi-billionaire, has finally jumped on board with Windows Phone by releasing an official app. AMC has been around since the 1920's and it swallowed up many theater chains along the way including Loews Cineplex and Sony Theaters to become one of the largest distributors in the US.

And truth be told, it's a fairly nice app.

Well designed and fast loading with a gorgeous layout the app is well done. Focusing on movie posters for graphics with stripped down text for areas, the app gives you a wide assortment of features including:

• My Profile where you can store your favorite theaters and movies
• Get synopsis of the latest films including watching previews
• Pin movies and your favorite local theater to your Start screen
• Get offers (there were none when we tried)

You can buy tickets but it just launches IE9 and pushes you to Fandango which is a little rough for our likes. We would have preferred to buy our tickets directly. Heck, you can't even manage, use or interact with AMC Stubs, their rewards program, which is a bit of a let down.

But for a version 1.0 it's not too shabby. Being free also helps so if you frequent AMC you'll want to certainly pick this up. Or just use the Fandango app.

Pick up AMC Theaters for Windows Phone here in the Marketplace. Thanks, Jose, for the tip!

Hot on the tail of the Dark Knight Rises app for Lumia phones comes Nokia Trailers. The app pulls no punches as it is what it sounds like--an app for viewing all the latest trailers and teaser clips from the latest Hollywood movies.

The app though goes beyond just streaming by allowing you to also download the trailer for offline viewing. In addition you get a cool Live Tile to alert you when new trailers are added to the system so you can keep up on all the latest Hollywood blockbusters. Other features include:

• Watch list - Set reminders for movies you want to see
• Share your favorite trailers with friends
• Locate local theaters nearby 

We'll be honest, we've been looking for such an app for a long time on Windows Phones and this fits the bill nicely. We're big movie fans around here so being able to stream and watch the latest trailers with no garish ads, having reminders for movies and being able to share on our social networks are all pretty cool features. Nice job, Nokia.

Pick up Nokia Trailers here in the Nokia Collection Marketplace. Thank, mrfu55y, for the link

Update: You can see the "shared" link which shows off the Nokia Trailers app.

If you listened to this week's podcast, you may have heard me mention my new favorite app, remembeReel for Windows Phone.

I'm a big fan of movies and tend to watch between 3-5 a week, even while working two jobs. One of my problems though is remembering all the things I've watched, especially since I often take forays into international, independent and odd little motion pictures, hence my need for this app. (By the way, check out a film called 'PontyPool' on Netflix, really interesting). remembeReel is free, has no ads is fast and fluid and well thought out.

remembeReel simply allows you to type in the movie you're watching (or watched), it checks it against Rotten Tomatoes (site) and pulls down the info for you. With one tap, you save it to your list. A few more taps and you can add it to your 'favorites', add notes, punch in the date and share it via Twitter, Facebook, Live, etc. Not only can you share it but it'll provide the URL for the listing on Rotten Tomatoes so others can quickly read-up on what you've just watched. Brilliant. You can also sort by title or date-viewed which is convenient.

One of the coolest aspects though is the SkyDrive integration. With a simple tap you can back up your whole catalog to the cloud for safe keeping (or if like me, so you can sync it with your other phones). I'm glad to see more developers taking advantage of the SkyDrive APIs and hope to see more of this type of backup solution for other "catalog apps" in the future.

The app even has a Live Tile, flipping around to show you the last movie you entered into the database. While it wasn't necessary, we really dig these little aspects.

If I could request any improvements, it would be to have a calendar function where I can see my entries or if possible, Live calendar integration for saving. Another recommendation: instead of a single star for "favorite", maybe a rating system so we can give a more refined personal review e.g. five-stars.  Finally, perhaps add in some store links so if I just watched a film an entered it I could quickly buy the DVD on Amazon, eBay, etc.

Of course that's just icing on the cake. For a version 1.1, remembeReel is a fantastic app and my Editor's Choice for this week. Pick it up here in the Marketplace for free.

Updates for the official IMDb app are few and far between, heck we're just hitting v1.3 now, but at least it's a significant improvement. The popular movie and film database has been out since day one on Windows Phone, but it's missed a lot of the cool new Mango things, including a Live Tile. Version 1.3, which just went up today, fixes this along with other reported issues:

• Bug Fixes
• Search integration via App Connect
• Social sharing of Movies and People
• Live Tile support

Not too shabby and it feels a bit zippier too. We still find ourselves swiping when we should be tapping and vice versa on occasion, but the ability to share on social networks, the Bing 'App Connect' feature and Live Tile go a long way. Speaking of, we're still waiting for our Live Tile to update so we're not entirely too sure what it does nor looks like, but we're sure to see in the next hour or so.

Pick up the official IMDb app here in the Marketplace for free. Thanks, Nicholas M., for the tip!

It's been nearly a year since the Fandango app received an update (seriously, it was November 25th, 2010). So it's with great surprise and fanfare that they've finally updated the popular movie ticketing app for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango.

Unfortunately, there's no super great additions here, just some basics of fast-app switching and deep-linking, meaning Bing movie searches will make buying tickets that much easier, since you'll be taken to this app to purchase directly. We also notice it both loads and scrolls much faster, making it even nicer to use. Finally, there seem to be toast notifications on board, though we're unsure what for as of yet.

That's cool for us. So if you use Fandango or have thought about it, now may be a good time to grab it. Pick up v1.3 here in the Marketplace. Thanks, Jay, for the heads up!