Edg, as you can probably tell, I...uh...watch a lot of films. :-) I'll tell you how I do it, but you must understand that it is a system that is based on me being an eyepatch-wearing Pirate.
I can't see English-language films here in Sitges. If I were to wait for them to come out on DVD I would be waiting six months to a year for each of them. So I download them from the Net, using a wonderful BitTorrent client called Miro. Miro allows me to "subscribe" to "channels" that are defined via an RSS feed. It's like "subscribing" on Tivo to record every episode of one of your favorite TV shows. Anyway, two of the best "channels" are called Timo's Movie Trailers and Timo's HD Movie Trailers. Literally every trailer for every movie released appears on them. So I glance at the description of the movie, and if it sounds interesting I down- load the trailer and watch it. If it looks like a film I'd enjoy watching, I add the name of it to a list I keep called "Films To Watch For." Then I wait to see if they appear as torrents, and when they do, I download them. That's it. Takes only a few seconds. I never read movie reviews before watching a film. The only reviewer I read is Roger Ebert, and that only after having seen the film myself, to see if he liked it, too. Again, this a technique that works for us pirates, but might not for those of you who have the luxury of being able to get the movies you want to see on your cable box or from Netflix. Yo ho ho and a big bag of popcorn... --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <no_re...@...> wrote: > > I'm using too much time to manage my film addiction. I watch a lot of > films, but I'm spending a lot of time just doing the research to know > what to watch next. > > I'm hoping someone here has a better system than me. > > I have a Netflix account, Charter Comm's premium and HD channels. > > Every day, I scan the next 24 hours of cable-channel films looking for > anything new and then setting up my DVR to record. That's hundreds of > titles must be scanned, and there's about a 30% repeat dynamic, so my > eyes have to see, say, the title "Monkeybone" five times in the day's > scheduling, and I hated that film so much that it's a drag to have to > have it -- even that briefly -- be brought to my attention. That's five > times I have to be reminded of two hours of my life having been utterly > wasted. > > I consult RottonTomatoes.com for all the new stuff coming out on DVD and > theaters. > > And, best I can do most days is > > 1. find a film that I haven't seen in a while and bear another viewing, > > 2. get lucky with a new DVD release coming out for a major film -- one > so hot I have to rent it from a local video store NOW NOW NOW! > > 3. find an oldie at Netflix that I've somehow missed > > 4. have a new release that simply must be seen now even though it means > going out to a theater. > > I see about 10 - 15 films a week at home, but it takes something special > to get me into a theater -- I have a 52" flat screen with a nice sound > system, so I'm in heaven, but I do see the thrillers on IMAX -- the > latest Batman was mind blowing. > > My problem is that it is such a time-consuming and boring chore to do > all the research necessary to keep on top of media offers. Scanning > ahead costs me about 20 minutes of very dull work -- basically I'm > seeing the titles of films and have to have them all memorized like > flash cards so that I don't have to click on them to get a plot summary. > When I see a title that I don't recognize -- yay! -- but more often than > not I see a title that I'm fuzzy about and have to click on -- only to > find that this is a film I have decided never to see (or see again) but > had not memorized the title well enough yet to avoid the clicking. This > is a serious drag. > > Netflix's recommendation engine fails me in that its reviews are all > bias and try to make the film sound much better than it is -- trying to > get me to rent the thing, see? So that sucks. And, of course, > anything hot will be on a long waiting list. > > RottonTomatoes.com is very helpful, but this is another 20 - 120 mins > per week to scan the new stuff coming out and picking which reviews to > read. > > There's so much dross out there that takes up my head-space -- for every > film I really want to see, there's 20 others recently released that > require me to have to comb through them enough to rate them as viewable > or not. > > Help! Is there a system that doesn't cost so much time used in > reconnoitering? > > Edg >
