Those who love tearing apart movies as they play will be overjoyed to know they can now engage in the hobby online with other likeminded cineastes.
We Talk During Movies, found at www.wetalkduringmovies.com, is the three-week old creation of John Brooks Pounders, a senior majoring in advertising.
Pounders said he's not new to designing and running Web sites, as his first venture was a Florence-based plant-selling Web site, AnythingGreen.com.
He said he also produced a Web site that sold cases for Rio MP3 players and an online sale-finding Web site, among others.
Calling himself a "serial entrepreneur," Pounders said he has created a decent number of Web sites for a variety of niches and said he also has other designs and ideas in the works.
We Talk During Movies is his current pet project, and he said he's having a good time with it so far.
"I've always really liked the idea of an at-home 'Mystery Science Theater 3000,'" he said, referring to the cult television program which featured bad movies played with humorous commentary from its robot hosts.
The premise of the Web site is easy to get behind. All viewers simply start up the same movie at the same time and talk to each other during it through a voice- or text-based chat service.
The chat service used is called TalkShoe, and users can sign up at TalkShoe.com.
New movies are on every Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
He said those that miss the movie can immediately download a podcast of the chat after the movie is over, so they can listen in when they get the chance.
The Web site has grown mainly due to word of mouth, because he hasn't spent much money or time advertising it, he said.
Pounders said the first movie had about 10 people online, but interest has grown since then. He said the maximum number of hits he had in a day so far has been about 200.
The first movie We Talk During Movies showed was "Speed," he said, and the second was the 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes."
Pounders said he and his friend Todd Bryant decide which movies to show. Bryant is kind of like the co-host of the movie chat, Pounders said.
"Todd and I debate about it a lot," Pounders said.
He said the way viewers can watch the movies is also a factor in which movies they choose to play.
The easiest way to watch, Pounders said, is to use www.netflix.com's streaming movie player, a relatively new feature which allows Netflix members to simply sign on to the service and watch the movie completely integrated into the We Talk During Movies Web site.
When choosing to watch the movie, viewers simply click to load the week's movie. Those who have Netflix accounts just need to sign in, and those who don't are taken to the signup page for the service.
"It's a lot easier if you're a Netflix member," Pounders said.
However, there are other ways to watch the movies, he said.
"We have a good list of movies we want to do, but time is a factor," he said.
The tone of the movie also gets consideration, Pounders said.
"If it's too serious it's hard to talk during it," he said. "I wish we could just do 'Speed' every week."
For Halloween, he said they've decided to show four episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Two of the episodes will be from the 1950s version of the show, and two will be from the newer series, including one directed by Tim Burton.
The time for the Halloween episode might be around 7 p.m., he said, and viewers can simply check the Web site for updates.
He also said that since Netflix now has some television episodes for instant viewing, he might try to do the same thing with episodes of TV shows like "Heroes."
"It's a lot more fun than you would think," Pounders said. "[We're] trying to recreate that feeling of being with lots of people [who like] that movie."
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