On the face of it the new Criticker looks like just another ho-hum movie recommendation service. But dig under the skin a little and you learn that it’s actually a great way of identifying which newspaper and magazine film critic has tastes similar to you (using something called a TCI or Taste Compatibility Index), which means you can actually rely on their recommendations when you read them. Because that’s the problem, isn’t it? We simply don’t know which critic to trust most of the time? Once you register and sign in, you get a choice of comparing your taste with professional media critics or site users, which is pretty neat too, as over time you will build up a selection of random people who you should be able to rely on completely. The buddy system here goes one step further than the MovieLens site (where I’ve rated 450 films over the years), in that all this is done automatically.

Anyhow, ignore the slightly dated design and spend a little time on the site and you’ll find a bunch of useful features. Like Amazon special offers, video trailers, eBay auctions for movie DVDs you like and a handy sidebar with professional critiques per film.  The developers have clearly spent a lot of time putting this together and it shows. Oh and it’s pretty useful as a standard movie recommendation site too. Throw in a Wish List function like MovieLens and some synch functionality with email and your mobile phone (so you could see your recommendations while in a video store or standing outside a theatre) and it would be awesome. As it is, it’s still a great resource, although I do wish it had a slightly more modern Web 2.0 UI to go with all the Ajax loveliness.