The 48 Best Movie Apps

Total Film

What do you mean, fix? The Total Film app gives incredibly smooth access to all the latest news, reviews and features on the best film magazine website in the world, and also does trailers, locals cinemas and screening times into the bargain.

If you’re smart you’re reading this feature through it right now. See? Amazing!

IMDB

The daddy of movie info archives and, along with Wikipedia, one of the two sites making magazines is pretty much inconceivable without. The app is slick, subtly branded and official.

Wikipanion

Wikipedia is amazing – so much so that it often has info on your favourite film not included on IMDB. Simply put, wikipanion is a totally free and super-easy way to navigate the constantly updated data-fountain, and the best no money at all you’ll ever spend.

SlashFilm

Still our favourite movie blog, and now even easier to read bleary-eyed first thing in the morning thanks to this quick-loading site reader.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a huge online file storage system – users upload files from home, and access them from anywhere. And, if those files are .mov, .mp4 or .mv4 video files, and you have this app on your iPhone or iPad, it means you can watch movies on your phone wherever you can get wi-fi. The possibilities are huge .

LOVEFiLM

Handy freebie to access, add to and rearrange the endless list of stuff you’ll probably never really get round to watching on your LOVEFiLM queue. Does trailers and reviews.

Twitter

Obviously Twitter’s not just about movies, but with scores of verified stars, screenwriters and industry types micro-blogging their every move it’s an incredible source of film info.

Why not follow our favourites @simonpegg, @edgarwright and @nickjfrost to get started, and try this list to find more.

B-Movies

This free app gives you access to the Internet Archive's Moving Images library of freely available streaming films, which include out of copyright classics like Broken Blossoms, The Lodger and His Girl Friday.

Sadly the app’s temperamental about serving up viewable links, but it’s easy enough to find the films through the website if it’s playing up.

Snaptell

Insanely cool free app which can identify just about any DVD you throw at it just using a snap of the cover or barcode, and can instantly give you a list of online prices. Magic impulse buy enabler.

RunPee

So that ‘Horse Bladder Bursting’-sized bucket of pop seemed like a good idea at the time but now it feels like someone’s inflating a spiky balloon in your lower abdomen from the inside.

How do you make sure you don’t miss a crucial part of The Chipmunks move? This app, that’s how, which tells you when you’re clear to disappear.

Movies

Geek-friendly catalogue app which records and displays the films from your collection.

Entering films is as simple as scanning the barcode (or entering the number when the picture’s too blurry), and you can use the iTunes coverflow system to browse your DVD mountain while making smug, satisfied noises. Mmmmm.

Orange Wednesdays

To accompany Orange’s queue-ruining weekly 2-for-1 ticket offer, this app will send you the voucher to present at the cinema as well as providing listings of local cinemas and even directions and maps.

The Movie Map

Smart idea – an app that uses iPhone’s GPS capabilities to show you the real-life position of movie locations. Users can search by film, explore the satellite images, and submit their own location finds.

HAL 9000

Simple freebie that turns your phone into a mini-HAL, the super-intelligent and eventually insane computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Includes a sound board too, in case you have a friend called Dave that you really want to annoy.

Scene it? Movies

The huge board game in less huge app form. Still has tons and tons of questions, with clips, quotes and credits teasers all adding up to the best movie quiz we’ve found yet.

iPlayer

Like TVCatchup, this isn’t strictly an app, but an iPhone and iPad optimised version of the BBC’s pretty amazing online content viewer. After a showing on the BBC loads of films now linger on iPlayer – it’s a must-have home page addition.

Harry Potter Spells

Pretty ingenious wand-duelling Potter tie-in. There are 20 spells in the game, activated by drawing on the screen or tracing a shape in the air, and they can be fired at other players over Bluetooth. Amazing fun – colour us stupefied.

Variety

Variety is Hollywood’s daily newspaper and general industry bible. This app is a free reader which pulls the top stories, reviews and photos from the website – it’s best used daily, as it doesn’t store content, but it’s quick and smooth.

iTimeLapse

Very tidy piece of software that turns your phone into a time delay camera. Record a day of the office, an evening at the pub or, more unsettlingly, a night of your next door neighbour sleeping.

Leonard Maltin Movie Guide

The best beard in film criticism – and a man we’ll always love for his appearance in Peter Jackson’s Forgotten Silver – offers a huge database of film reviews and information, with a handy Netflix hook-up if you live Stateside.

TVcatchup

Not actually an app, but an iPhone and iPad optimised website that streams all Freeview TV channels live. It works best with wi-fi but holds up on a 3G signal, and means you can catch that ITV2 Bond movie wherever you are. Also has a ready-made home screen icon, which makes us happy.

Movie Genie

An excellent IMDB reader with arguably better presentation of the site’s main draws than the official app – trivia and bio sections – but that comes at a price.

Six Degrees Of Separation

Based on the sociological theory put forward by Frigyes Karinthy and, more obviously, on the ‘Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon’ game film nerds have played for years. The app throws up two star names, and you have to connect them in six moves.

Tron

We’ve avoided most film promo apps because they’re rubbish and date quickly, but this Tron effort is different, with a updated version of the classic Tron Arcade tanks game that lights up your lap with super-nostalgic blue neon.

Movie Quotes

A huge library of over 1000 movie quotes arranged by type – romantic, funny, inspirational and, rather worryingly, villainous – that will stop you being bored for at least an hour.

Celebrity Star Finder

Not so handy if you’re walking the glamorous streets of, say, Orpington, but should you find yourself in Tinseltown this app will guide you to the star of your choice on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

Night Of The Living Dead

One of several out-of-copyright films which are available on the Store as standalone apps.

If you look hard enough with the B-Movies app you’ll find most of them (including this one) but it’s still way cheaper than buying films from iTunes.

Celtx

Tie-in app for longstanding screenwriting software Celtx with shortcut buttons for prompts a dialogue types, and a synch function for when you stop typing on the iPhone after five minutes of agonising cramps and go back to your netbook.

HollyTweets

If you can’t be bothered with the whole Twitter deal, here’s a handily pre-baked alternative, offering an aggregated selection of tweetage from a range of Hollywood stars.

Terminate Me

Another fun free app for those times when you’re the first one in the pub and you need to look busy with your phone. The basic idea: take a picture of yourself, make it look like you’re a terminator. No scalpel to the eyeball though, please.

Perez Hilton Vs. TMZ

The free TMZ app is only available in the US, so if you’re desperate for easy access to the latest and nastiest Hollywood gossip there, this paid-for alternative brings together the best from both TMZ and rival site Perez Hilton. We need a shower already.

Tricorder TR-580

Insanely detailed interface which mimics the ubiquitous tricorder scanners from Star Trek The Next Generation. It’s basically playing dress-up with lots of buttons and noises – it doesn’t really detect Borg – but it does scan for other local users on the same geek-wave.

E! Online International

Free news reader from the E!, delivering their trademark river of gossip, celeb headlines and pictures.

Movie Slate Clapperboard

As the price shows, this is not a toy. It’s a professional-standard tool that can log shots, track timecodes (across multiple iPhones via Bluetooth) and even makes that cool clapping noise.

Cult Movies In Sixty Seconds

Originally a book, this no-frills app adaptation is basically a guide to 100 of the best cult films of all time, with a quick synopsis and new searchable content list.

It might seem steep at a fiver, but the Kindle price is twice as much.

DVD Ferret

DVD price comparer, with quicksearch options for just about all the big retailers, including Play, SendIt, Amazon, LOVEFiLM and HMV. Also it has a picture of a ferret on the icon, which is good.

Videocalc

Just like Audiocalc, but for visual setups, helping you to measure and optimise everything from projector luminescence to the correct seating angle.

Audiocalc

For serious audiophiles only, this app measures the sound frequencies of your home audio setup and helps you to position speakers in your living room in the optimal location. Party time.

Lightsaber Unleashed

It’s just a fluffy promo app for a paid-for Star Wars game, but it’s also awesome. With Lightsaber Unleashed you can design your own lightsaber – handle, colour – and then wave the phone about to make that noise. It’s even got the music. The music!

Hollywood

Flimsy but free app which rounds up the latest Hollywood celeb tattle along with reviews and news from around the web into a handy package.

Robocop Soundboard

Soundbites from the metallic ‘80s classic at the touch of a button. All the big quotables are here – “CAN YOU FLY, BOBBY?” – with the exception of our favourite and yours: “Bitches, leave!”

Movies Now HD

A bit like Around Me for movies, this app determines your current location then grabs cinemas and screening times from the local areas, and allows you to book online and view trailers.

Sky+

Sky+ program guide that does two very cool things. Firstly, when turned horizontally it becomes a mini EPG in your hand (gasp!) and secondly if you sync your user details with your iPhone or iPad it can record programs while you’re out of the house, which is basically magic.

iPhlix

One for US readers only – this app lets you manage, reorder and search through your Netflix queue, as well as sharing recommendations with friends and looking at pretty pictures.

Home Theather Glossary

Jargon-busting dictionary for those wanting to go full-nerd with their in-house cinema setup but have no idea what half the words in the instruction manual mean.

Cineworld

Handy cinema finder and schedule guide for the multiplex chain, that also allows you to book tickets and view trailers with your phone.

Star Trek Phaser

Promo bumf for the recent big-screen reboot that comes in the form of a pretty terrible free game. That’s not the real draw, though – the real draw is being able to make your phone make a noise like a laser gun every time you touch it.

Movies

Actually this app is way better than #49 but we thought we'd start with a treat. Owned by social networky film site Flixster, Movies hands users listings for current releases and DVDs with an instant Rotten Tomatoes rating, plus it adds in time-swallowing stuff like a friends list, movie ratings and quizes.