How about sharing the way you decide what movie is next on your list?
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I'm the blogger, Tom Blake
I live near Seattle and am retired and watch movies on DVD and some streaming through the public library, and also via cable TV including Amazon Prime. Over the years I have seen thousands of movies and my tastes have narrowed based on my experience and personal preferences. Documentaries and foreign films continue to interest me more than the kinds of movies shown in US movie theaters.
In my college days I discovered foreign art house films and did a lot of reading about movie making. I used to fantasize about becoming a director, but never got beyond the home movie level.
I like to watch a movie and then talk about it with my viewing companions, but nowadays I watch a lot of movies alone. When my daughter Anna used to watch with me, we usually got into a discussion, so she suggested I start this blog as a vehicle for on line sharing and dialogue.
In the last couple years this blog has morphed into more of a place for me to keep a record of what I have been watching, with my personal rating and a brief summary of the movie.
In my college days I discovered foreign art house films and did a lot of reading about movie making. I used to fantasize about becoming a director, but never got beyond the home movie level.
I like to watch a movie and then talk about it with my viewing companions, but nowadays I watch a lot of movies alone. When my daughter Anna used to watch with me, we usually got into a discussion, so she suggested I start this blog as a vehicle for on line sharing and dialogue.
In the last couple years this blog has morphed into more of a place for me to keep a record of what I have been watching, with my personal rating and a brief summary of the movie.
I throw all kinds of movies into my netflix cue based on all kinds of recommendations. I like how metacritic.com displays the breakdown of its ratings by showing each reviewer's score on a 1-100 scale, along with a snippet of the actual review that's available if you click the link. I certainly keep the netflix predictions in mind, knowing that many of the predictions will be inaccurate. I try not to watch any previews online (but love those packaged with the actual DVD), and prefer to steer clear of well-intentioned paternal figures with a penchant for recommending a movie while giving away critical elements of the plot (call me old fashioned!). I once ordered Seth's entire cue (when it was our shared cue) by clustering movies according to country or genre. I do all this, but when it comes down to which movie gets put in the ship-it-to-me-now slot---it's a crap shot dependent on the momentary mood of the household, as well as what we've been over or under watching lately. Nothing really predictable. Last night I tossed season 1 disc 4 of The Wire to the top of the heap since we got hooked on the momentum of the plot and don't feel like slogging through the two films out on Seth's cue before getting to continue the story. Some day I will have more ambitious viewing projects involving case studies of directors or cinematographers.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned, there is also the library. Unfortunately for us in Alabama, the local library has a 1 week non-renewable policy on its DVDs. Let's just say Anthony Bourdain is worth the fines.
I should pay more attention to Metacritic, to which I have just now added a link on the sidebar of this blog. I like to watch previews on line. I don't think previews give away too much, and sometimes,like when the jokes in a preview for a comedy are really bad, it can be helpful to reveal a movie stinks.
ReplyDeleteI try to avoid plot spoilers in making recommendations, but have to admit I sometimes could be more careful. I am less concerned about plot spoilers when I am on the receiving end of a recommendation, probably because I watch so many movies I get them confused and the time between getting a recommendation and actually seeing the movie is usually enough to allow my short term memory loss to come into play.
I have tried different ways to order my Netflix queue, but found them too tedious and better handled using my own database. I wish Netflix would make the queue capable of being sorted by Netflix prediction (in decimal) and genre, and that they would add columns for year and length.
Ordering Netflix and library movies by mood or whim runs the risk of mood changes in the interval before receiving them. This did not happen when we used to get them from the video store and then go right home and watch them, which can also be done with kiosks like Redbox (which brother Larry says is doing well enough financially to bother competitors and prompt Netflix into readying its own kiosks).
I hear "The Wire" is quite good, but I have been avoiding police series. Bourdain may be marginal for me, but I could give him a try. Both would probably be more enjoyable and memorable than a lot of what I have seen lately.
I usually look at my list and depending on what my mood is usually determines what I'm going to watch next. Or... if I think I'm going to have my movie watching companion with me (Bill), I will choose something that interests the both of us. We agree on suspenseful/drama type stuff. Bill likes sci-fi... I don't care too much for it. I'm a sucker for romantic comedies, and comedies in general because I enjoy a good laugh.
ReplyDelete(I hope this actually posts... I've had trouble in the past.)
~Rake
Hi Reiko,
ReplyDeleteGood to see your post on the movie blog. Looking forward to your participation.Do you just use your Netflix queue for your list,or do you keep another on paper or on your computer? Since we are Flix friends, I can see your queue there is about the same size as mine. Comedy is a good topic for a future blog article.
Sorry about posting problems. To post on the movie blog you should not need an account. Select profile "name/url", then put your name in as you would like it to show on your posts, e.g. "Rake". That way your posts are distinguishable from any other "anonymous" posts. Then whenever you post, pull down and click on the name profile and either reenter your name or, if all goes well, "Rake" will appear as an option on your profile list. The box for entering comments does not seem to enlarge and sometimes it might lose your comment, so for anything other than a brief comment, I suggest writing in your word processor and then pasting in the comment box.
Thanks for the information, Tom. Prior to having NetFlix (and NetFlix did exist, I just hadn't joined) I did have a list on an Excel spreadsheet. Now that I have NetFlix, the list is no more and just on NetFlix. There were alot of times when I would think of a movie I wanted to see and wasn't near a PC and I would forget the title. Right now I just add it to my NetFlix list.
ReplyDeleteCare to do a write up on Christmas films? There are a lot of Christmas films I have not yet viewed. The one I have seen, are more current vs. the classics.
~Rake
Talking about Christmas movies is a good idea. I'll work on it.
ReplyDeleteI pick what to watch based on what goes well with my work schedule - I have found that I enjoy watching a series while I am doing "homework" (finished Six Feet Under and am now into the Wire). I watch more foreign films while I am on breaks from school. I don't bother trying to sort my Netflix queue, I just scroll through looking for what feels right (documentary, drama, ...). I don't generally experience a problem with changes of mood with the short Netflix turnaround. I also keep an "other list" of films not yet in my queue, sorted by my own categories of geographic region, director, "lighter" stuff, etc.
ReplyDeleteWelcome Teresa. I have not been able to effectively combine any other activity with movie watching. In fact, even when I try to concentrate, especially if I am watching alone, a movie often triggers my thoughts off elsewhere and I have to repeat what I missed.
ReplyDeleteI probably spend too much time trying to sort my Netflix queue. When I am ready to mail one back, I usually move something to the top of the queue anyway based on my mood, since as you say, they do usually show up before a mood change. I usually try to watch foreign films when I feel more alert and able to follow subtitles.