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Journal nizo's Journal: Are you a movie recommender or an anti-recommender? 33

Journal by nizo

As blinder reminded me, I put people into two categories: people who recommend good movies (and warn me away from bad movies) and people who apparently have the exact opposite tastes in movies as I do. My brother fits into the "anti-recommender" category; if he loves a movie I have learned to avoid it like the plague, and if he really hates it I add it to my must-see list. So are you a recommender or an anti-recommender?

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Are you a movie recommender or an anti-recommender? More

Are you a movie recommender or an anti-recommender?

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  • See, I may be a Lifetime member of Cinema Seattle, which puts on the Seattle International Film Festival, and have gone to the Venice Film Festival in Italy (cool) and the boring one in Cannes (France), but I'd say I tend to see good movies.

    Over the years I've developed a sixth sense for movies - having seen many thousands - and I steer away from ones that smell bad.

    Not that I don't enjoy a bad movie - heck, I enjoy some of those, even if my filmgoing buddies don't.

    So I tend to recommend movies that I think
  • Of entertainment. As in- if it ain't 6 years old and on TV, or at least on the new rack the 3 times a year I go to Hollywood Video, I haven't seen it.
  • I don't see many movies, but some I saw recently (movies may be dates I only saw them recently) ones that I liked were The Ring, Saw, and the first movie I've seen in a theatres in a long time Cars. A funny one to check out is Super Troopers.

    If you watch those and hate them, then I guess I fit into the anti-recomendation category. :-p

  • I don't know what you like. Sometimes, I'm not even sure what I like.
    I don't like a lot of films that are critically acclaimed, and I like few that are trounced.
    I'll tolerate many crappy stories with animals or kids or scenery, but few with violence or gore or terror, no matter how expertly executed.

    This is why I always try to explain why I like something, when I do.
    This is also why hardly anyone asks, more than once :)

    Oh yeah, I'm a sponsor of the USA Film Festival, too. But I haven't gone to any events in
  • I went into my vote history on IMDB. Here are the ones I rated a 10:

    Atanarjuat (2001)
    Balance (1989)
    Bambi Meets Godzilla (1969)
    The Big Snit (1985)
    Casablanca (1942)
    Magnolia (1999)
    Ryan (2004)
    Tous les matins du monde (1991)
    Violon rouge, Le (1998)
    Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers (1993)

    Here are the ones I rated 9:

    50 First Dates (2004)
    The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
    Airplane! (1980)
    Amadeus (1984)
    Blade Runner (1982)
    Boot, Das (1981)
    The Cat Came Back (1988)
    Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
    Fargo (1996)

  • I think pretty much everyone would say they are a "recommender" -- very, very few people want to admit that they have a poor taste in movies or films. They are obviously out there however -- how else could it be that Rob Schneider has a career in the medium?

    You can decide for yourself:

    Click on the "Movies" link at the top to isolate the VHS tapes and DVDs in my library.

    Okay, before you decide, two comments:

    1. I recently purchased "Schindler's List", but haven't updated the website
    • Anyone who owns Red Dwarf DVDs has got to be in the "recommender" category :-D

      • Look again -- those aren't the DVDs, those are all on VHS. And yes, it is the entire series. I bought them in the mid-through-late 90's, the vast majority before I owned a DVD player (and all of them before they were available on DVD).

        "Upgrading" my collection to the DVD boxed set might be a consideration in the future (although I may also be tempted to get a video encoder and make my own based ont he VHS tapes, just to avoid being forced to pay for the same thing twice :P).

        Yaz.

  • I try to be a big tent filmgoer. I see a fair number of movies and a lot of them I know only I'll like. I usually try to find out someone's tastes and cater suggestions to them. Of course I still will mention what I like, usually in evangelical language because, well, I'd think it was great if people liked more stuff.

    The whole trouble comes if I find the person to have perplexing or idiotic rationale for liking/hating a movie. Reasons I've heard that I can't stand: I liked it because the plot wasn't co
    • Mostly I hate it when people won't give a movie a chance.

      Whenever my SO sees anything that might be remotely related to a comic book she always says in a snooty voice, "this isn't a movie about a comic book is it???" And yet she seemed to like V for Vendetta, though she refuses to see other "comic book" movies. Yes a large portion of movies based on comic books are crap, but hello some of them are actually pretty good.

      I can't even talk about the "perplexing or idiotic rationale" stuff you mentioned or I wil

      • Roger Ebert has a funny ancedote where he was stopped in front of a theater in '73 by a couple who asked him for a recommendation. I think they might have known he was a critic. He told them "See Cries and Whispers-"

        "Ok."

        "- I think it's the best movie of the year."

        "Oh. Well we wouldn't like it then."

        It's like carving off a leg to avoid ever stubbing a toe and justifying it by saying "Well I work in an office." I think people need to qualify what "sort" of movie it might be. If its something mindless or
    • sielwolf is a recommender. But be prepared to think. I'm still wading through the list i *asked* for and some are great and some make me think and others, well, i don't like them, but not for the reasons listed as terrible, so i guess i'm doing oke.

      I'm a baby recommender. I can watch a movie, know what i like about it, know what i don't like, and still not be able to carry on a conversation with any of our resident film experts.

      • sielwolf is a recommender. But be prepared to think. I'm still wading through the list i *asked* for and some are great and some make me think and others, well, i don't like them, but not for the reasons listed as terrible, so i guess i'm doing oke.

        Might I ask what you've seen of the list so far? That list is more about a bredth of movies. But I also think there's also a tangental list of Overlooked Movies: the ones that, for some reason, fall off the radar, never get a big splash but always develop a fo
      • Wow where is this list? I just read his reponse and I wanna see the thinkin' movie list! :-)


        He is right about there being plenty of good movies that died a premature death (Gattaca is a great example) due to any number of reasons (in this case, coming out at the same time as Titanic and Men in Black probably didn't help Gattaca much).

        • i emailed him and asked him for some ideas on what to watch, having not seen most cultural icons of the twentieth century, and he was good enough to put up with the pestering of a noob. You didn't miss a JE or anything, and as far as i can tell, they're movies that everyone on the planet other teh dagron has seen. :/

          • they're movies that everyone on the planet other teh dagron has seen.

            Mmm. I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. I doubt most people, especially under the age of 45, have seen a lot of those movies. Outside of The Wizard of Oz and animation, most folks haven't seen anything made before 1970 (and that's a shame, because the 60 years of film really build up to that moment). Some might have seen one Italian movie (Beautiful Life probably), or one French movie (Amelie) or a remake of a Japanese movie... but few
  • My all-time favorites: Apocalypse Now, Casablanca, Nosferatu.

    Movies I've really liked in the last few years: LotR, Cars, Mulholland Drive, Amelie, The Incredibles, Hotel Rwanda, War of the Worlds, Minority Report, Capote, Memoirs of a Geisha, Walk the Line, Sideways, Lost in Translation, The Cooler.

    Movies I've really not like in recent years: Syriana (Traffic-wannabe coulda been better), History of Violence, King Kong, Closer, Girl with a Pearl Earring (zzzz), the Hours (mega-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz).

    Wow, I've s
  • Movies? oh yeah, I remember having time to see them. :)
  • My favorite movie, at the moment, is The Usual Suspects.

    But then, I also liked both the second and third Matrix movies.
  • But I really did like that movie where Tom Cruise plays the cocky young guy. Only he's got this older mentor type. He's also involved with a woman that seems to take away some of his focus but he wins out in the end. Loved it.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

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