From a podcast that reintroduces the classics to publicly voted lists, check out these new ways to quickly find a movie to watch.
Modern digital life has too many streaming services, too many movies, and too little time. It’s no wonder that there are new movie recommendation spaces popping up so often, not to mention old ones that get facelifts. Whether it’s a quick search for similar film titles or a way to watch bad movies that you’ll enjoy, try out these new ways to find a film worth watching.
1. Cinemate (Web): Movie Recommendations by AI
Cinemate is a free web app to quickly find movie recommendations based on AI. The system is based on over 100 million user ratings, the developer says. So while it isn’t clear, it likely borrows from the best movie ratings sites. Technically, it’s machine learning, not technically artificial intelligence, but it works quite well.
Search for a movie you have seen in the main dialog box and give it a rating from 1 to 9. The AI will recommend movies with a similar rating by others. Use this system for multiple films, assigning low ratings for the types of films you want to ignore and high ratings for those you want to watch to create a user profile of your current tastes.
The nice part is that you aren’t doing this for perpetuity. If you’re in the mood for a particular type of suspense thriller but usually prefer lighter movies, you can now find the kind of film you currently want to watch without affecting your overall profile.
2. Pick A Movie For Me (Web): Answer a Short Quiz to Get Movie Recommendations
Pick a Movie for Me (PAMFM) is a neat little app to find movies by answering six short questions.
- Start with your mood, choosing between happy, neutral, or sad.
- Choose the occasion, like a movie date night, watching by yourself, watching with family, or watching with friends.
- Choose genres you’re interested in.
- Establish how old the movie should be, whether in the past year, three years, five years, 10 years, 20 years, or if it doesn’t matter.
- Choose an age-appropriateness rating.
- Select from PAMFM’s specialized categories like true stories, movies set in New York City, films based on a book, a movie with prequels or sequels, and so on.
Based on your answers, you’ll get a list of recommendations. Each title comes with a poster, basic description, and a trailer.
The difference here is that PAMFM’s catalog of 707 films is hand-picked and manually tagged by its team of film connoisseurs. So these movies already come with a tag of quality-control that you won’t find on other sites.
3. Unspooled (Web): In-Depth but Light-Hearted Look at Classics
Like many of us, actor and comedian Paul Scheer hasn’t watched some of the most well-known and critically appreciated films even though everyone keeps telling him to. Film critic and co-host Amy Nicholson is taking him through the classics and icons of cinema in a hilarious podcast called Unspooled.
Each episode is roughly between an hour and two hours, as Amy and Paul analyze what made the movie great. They take a look at both the technical aspects as well as its impact on popular culture, and why the film stands the test of time.
Most importantly, it never gets too serious. Movies are to be enjoyed without getting scholarly about them, right? Do yourself a favor and watch (or re-watch) the movie before listening to the episode. If there’s anything on the list so far that you haven’t seen, it ends up serving as a wonderful way to find movies to watch.
If you like Unspooled, check out Scheer’s other podcast How Did This Get Made?, where they dissect bad movies. It’s one of the best movie podcasts for film fans, and especially lovely if you enjoy watching campy B-movies.
4. So Bad It’s Good (Web): Movies So Terrible That They’re a Must-Watch
We’ve all seen a few movies that we would describe as “so bad that it’s good.” There’s a fun factor to watching these train wrecks, especially in a group as you pass comments and wisecrack. If you’re looking for a film like this, here are two resources.
Wikipedia’s List of Films Considered the Worst is a fascinating compilation of movies that got universally panned by critics and audiences alike, from Roger Ebert to the Razzies. The chronological list is broken down by decade, but doesn’t have clear rankings. But rest assured, everyone here is a loser.
If you’re looking for a ranked list, our sister site ScreenRant has a guide to the 15 most beloved so-bad-they’re-good movies. Their Rotten Tomatoes score is but a mere indication of how terrible they are, but you’d be crazy not to watch them.
And in case you think you’re alone in enjoying such fare, don’t worry. There’s an entire community of people like you at the subreddit r/BadMovies. It’s time to celebrate the worst that cinema has to offer.
5. FilmAffinity (Web): Best Movie Lists for Film Recommendations
FilmAffinity is a movie catalog that builds a profile of your tastes, and then recommends films based on it. That sounds pretty standard, but the website does a better job than most others, not to mention it’s easier to browse.
So what makes FilmAffinity good? For starters, you can browse recommendation lists based on new releases in the theaters, streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, Apple+), or lists like Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, etc. Within each list, you can find ways to match tastes or filter the movies.
But the most interesting thing is the Collective Voices page. FilmAffinity makes generic lists like “My favorite 2020 movies” or “My favorite 2020 series” and encourages all its users to make that list. That way, you also get an overall ranking. For example, most people added Soul to their top 10 movies of 2020, and so it features first in the Collective Voice. It’s a nice way to find movie lists without relying on ratings.
Don’t Forget Independent Movies
The bulk of these new movie recommendation engines focus on streaming services like Netflix. And that’s natural given how it’s the new way to consume videos, not to mention how Hollywood has embraced these. But you might be missing out on awesome but little known flicks.
