The Studio System

Paramount
http://www.paramount.com/ homemp.html
What's there: Flavorless home page leads to hollow puff for The First Wives Club, sites for A Very Brady Sequel and Mission: Impossible, place-holder pages for to-be-launched The Ghost and the Darkness. Unintended message: We don't care about the Net, but we're covering our butt here. Corporate hubris: Want to buy a polo shirt with the Paramount logo? Cool thingie:Groovy Brady desktop patterns. Lame thingie: Page for next Star Trek movie shunts you to Microsoft Network's Star Treksite. Useful thingie: Studio job postings. B-

Sony Pictures
Entertainment http://www.spe.sony.com/Pictures/SonyMovies/
What's there: Gadget-heavy sites for Fly Away Home, The Fan, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday. Unintended message: Our Web budget is as bloated as Mark Canton's golden parachute. Corporate hubris: The Fan trivia contest and Foosball game — do you get to go berserk like De Niro when you lose? Cool thingie: Shockwave games for most films. Lame thingie:Shockwave games take forever to load; Java animations crash your computer. Useful thingie: Fly Away Home site has politicians' E-mail addresses, so you can bug them about the environment. B+

20th Century Fox
http://www.fox.com
What's there: After a radical redesign, the only movies flogged here now are That Thing You Do! and Romeo and Juliet. Unintended message: Video division (www.tcfhe.com) is Internet savvy; movie division is Internot. Corporate hubris:They've removed the link to the virtual-reality chat Palacesite. Cool thingie: Neat, pannable 360-degree backlot set photos — unlinked, but the page is still there at www.fox.com/stours.htm. Lame thingie: Mindless That Thing You Do! trivia game (''In 1962, Robert Zimmerman changed his name to...?'') gives winners the chance to...supply Fox with demographic info. Useful thingie: Tom Hanks Internet postcards, for the Forrest Gump freak who has everything. C-

Warner Bros.
http://www.movies.warner bros.com/
What's there: Witty, chockful sites for old goods like Tin Cup, Eraser, Twister. An ambitious Space Jam site is now in operation. Unintended message: Our webmasters are more creative than our filmmakers. Corporate hubris: The Executive Decision button used to lead to a billboard for the ''WB Studio Facilities'' site. Well, I suppose that is an executive decision. Cool thingie: Pro golfer Gary McCord on playing with Kevin Costner: ''The first time I saw him tee it up he looked like a clubfooted carpenter trying to hammer a nail in the floor with Rollerblades on.'' Lame thingie: Boring A Time to Kill site. Useful thingie: Tornado info and safety tips on the Twister site. B+

Universal
http://www.mca.com/universal pictures/
What's there: Promo sites for recent (The Frighteners) and upcoming (The Chamber, Daylight) releases. Unintended message:Our summer movies may have tanked, but the megabytes linger on. Corporate hubris: Site repackages the same film clips, PR copy, and pictures under four categories, assuming we'll be too dazzled to notice. Cool thingie: Link to scrumptiously designed Tales From the Crypt site (www.cryptnet.com). Lame thingie: Frighteners virtual-reality chat room and Java-animated game — you'll need a Pentium PC and a T1 corporate Internet connection to even think about seeing these babies. Useful thingie: None. B-