Deciding what to watch (1 Viewer)

[Kirby]

Do any of you ever have trouble deciding what movie to watch? It's easy to say "I watch what I'm in the mood for" but sometimes don't you look at your collection for a half hour and everything looks like a good choice. Just wondering if anybody has anything that helps them to decide. I use to make it a point to only watch films that I hadn't seen in at least a year.

 

[Ben Silva]

I have this problem all the time. With a collection nearing 1200 titles it is hard to pick just one. Sometimes I'll just pick up the first one I haven't seen in a while. Other times I just pick at random.

 

[Dick]

Yeah, I go through this. I usually find that, if I can't determine just what mood I'm in and what film to watch, I'll go for the classics, especially noir and horror from the 40's. Or I'll go to one of the two hundred commentary tracks I haven't yet listened to.

 

[Ricky Hustle]

My wife and I (or friend, or whoever is at the house) use the following method:

If it's only my wife and I, one of us will pull 5 movies that we would not mind watching. Then the other one of us, puts three back on the rack, narrowing the choice down to two. The one of us that picked the original 5, then chooses between the two remaining films. (We alternate who starts out picking the 5).

If a friend is over to watch, we always let them choose the first 5 movies, then my wife and I will do the narrowing down.

This method has never failed us.

 

[Mikko Rasinkangas]

I used to have a randomize button on my movie database software and it picked a movie for me, but it always selected something that wasn't interesting at the time.

Now I'm back to manual selection which takes 1 to 30 minutes, but sometimes the selection takes too long and I start browsing the dvd forums.

 

[Mike Wadkins]

arrrg i have a week off and am going through this now i have 12 still shrink wraped and am watching old stuff
trying to choose between:
the fog, bad boys and 2, panic room with comentary on, r3 black hawk down superbit, id4, or small soilders any help?

 

[Evan S]

Ricky, that's a great method, but what if you don't have a significant other OR a wife? Then what? LOL

 

[Zen Butler]

We blindfold one of the houshold members, spin 'em around real fast and have him pin a donkey tail. Works great. Pin the tail.. kits are cheap

 

[Ricky Hustle]

Err, umm. Hmmm. I guess my method is useless in that scenario.

 

[Greg*go]

Alphabetical order works for me. I just go over the list and pick the first one I haven't seen in a while. It makes sure I watch most of my movies at least once a year. Of course, this doesn't work if you have 1000 movies. But it works well with my modest collection. It also helps me get rid of movies I always skip past.

 

[Bryan X]

Often I'll spend quite a while looking over my collection (a relatively small one of 300 titles compared to most here) and finally decide there's nothing I want to watch.

We've used a method similar to your's Ricky. One of us (or both) will pull out a minimum of 5 movies (usually 10 or so) and then we'll each take a turn pushing one back in until there's only one left.

 

[WillKTaylor]

eenie meenie, minie moe ...

Realistcally, it just does happen to be whatever mood I seem to be in. Then again, that's why as of late, I've been averaging 3-4 purchases per week. It helps narrow the choices.

If there's more than just I that needs to decide, sometimes we will do the actor/ress game. Basically, someone initiates the game by naming any (1)actor/ress and a movie .. then the next has to pick another (2)actor/ress that was casted in the same movie as the first, but name an entirely different movie that the (2)actor/ress appeared in. The movie loop, if you will, continues. It's difficult to explain, but essentially the end result is due to a road block. Example: Sigourney Weaver/Aliens. The next response could be Bill Paxton/True Lies. The next could be Arnold Swarznegger(spelling)/Predator. .. and so on. There's a continuous link. So, when there's a movie reached where noone can continue, that movie will be watched .

Unfortunately, depending on the crowd .. I never get to foreign titles (which I enjoy) or past mainstream blockbuster nonsense. Oh well ... it's just a thought that does work from time to time!!

 

[george kaplan]

I actually have a detailed algorithm for selecting a movie, but without going into gory details, we essentially just cycle through the movies. They're all in an Excel file and when it's time to watch a movie we pick the top one and then move it to the bottom of the list. New dvds are of course moved to the top of the list.

While that's the basic principle, it varies somewhat depending on whether I'm watching a movie alone, with my wife, with my wife & son, or with company. When I watch with others, they are given a 'menu' to pick from which still pulls from the top of the list (i.e., consists of those films I haven't watched in the longest time), but also institutes a variety of genres, and takes into account interest of the selectees. For example, when it's my 4 year old son's turn to pick, I just show him two children's movies and he picks one, but they are ones we haven't seen for the longest time.

 

[Brent M]

Bryan,

I sometimes go through the exact same thing. For instance, last night I spent about 10 minutes looking through my DVDs trying to decide on a movie to watch. Turns out I wasn't really in the mood to watch any of them so I just popped in the 2nd season of The Man Show on DVD and watched a few episodes of that.

 

[DanRevill]

The other night I was feeling like a comedy so I picked something that makes me laugh all the time...South Park!
Usually I just go with my gut choice...I have upwards of 270 now so that's hard enough. I can't imagine what 1200+ is like. :S

 

[Scotty_McW]

My problem is I'll sit and look through my collection for about 10 minutes, pick something out, watch the first 10 minutes, decide I'm not in the mood for that movie, take it out, go back to looking through my collection for another 10 minutes, pick something out, ect, etc, etc.

Sometimes this process takes most of the night and usually I'll end up watching whatever I started watching in the first place.

 

[Chris Bardon]

I'll usually start with what I haven't watched yet, since at this point I think there's 15 or so of those (some of which are movies I've never seen). The only problem is that I don't always want to commit to 2+ hours for a movie, and I've found that the TV discs usually end up being finished much faster because of shorter run times.

My wife and I also use the short list though-I usually just let her pick, since she still hasn't seen everything I own (and may never get to at the rate I buy DVDs).

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Yeah, I've played that game before, too. Frustrating, isn't it?