I’m on a roll here. Many blog updates in a row! Wow. Shame not many people read this anyway, but that’s alright…
Anyway I was talking to a friend at work about movies, and he mentioned that he’d recently seen Romeo Must Die. I said that never made my cut of movies to see, and then I had to explain how my movie filter works.
When I see a trailer for a movie, or even hear about a movie and who is in it, I will automatically place the title of that movie in a mental hierarchy, such as this:
1. See as soon as possible in the theater/cinema, preferably opening night – this covers good 3D movies like Avatar, action movies like Zombieland and Sherlock Holmes, epic movies like The Lord of the Rings, etc. Probably going on the DVD/Blu-Ray wish list as well.
2. See in the theater before it stops showing – this includes movies I’m sure I’ll like such as Coraline.
3. DVD wish list for future ownership, but not necessary to see on the big screen – movies like 40-Year Old Virgin, The Hangover, etc. Movies that aren’t ‘necessary’ to see on the big screen with full surround sound, and all the whiz-bang cinema stuff.
4. Borrow it from someone who will buy it. I don’t do this often (although I’m happy to lend out my copies…only one at a time so I know where everything goes!) but in the past this has included movies like Batman Begins, which turned into an eventual purchase.
5. Definite addition to the DVD rental list – this includes stuff like I am Legend, which I don’t think will be great but I want to see.
6. Look for it/record it on movie channel (HBO, Sky Movies, etc.) – at the moment I don’t have this ability anyway.
7. When the movie finally shows on cable, my ears will perk up and and I’ll look out for it, and record it if possible – reruns of Smokey and the Bandit and the like fall into this category. Of course this could be years down the line, possibly never, so something like Romeo Must Die and Don’t Mess with the Zohan will get shuffled into this category.
8. Perhaps controversially, the next-to-last level is to simply download the movie. Yes, I download stuff. I still purchase plenty of movies (wanna see my Amazon wishlist?) and I rent loads as well (Lovefilm DVD rental FTW) but if I’m not sure about a movie and it’s been out a while I might download it and check it out. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by a few films (like Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto) and have had my suspicions confirmed by others (such as Steven Segal’s A Dangerous Man). So here’s what I do: if I liked the movie, I’ll add it to the future purchase list and spread the word it’s a good movie; if I didn’t like it I don’t buy it and probably keep my mouth shut, and it’s like nothing happened. See, everyone’s happy in the end.
9. And at the bottom-most level of my movie-watching list is the Never category. Into this falls all the instant shite movies like pretty much all RomComs (ROMantic COMedies, if you’re not down with the Hollywood lingo), anything with Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Steven Segal, Nicolas Cage, John Travolta, Chuck Norris and a host of other deadbeats that should have given up their careers long ago.
So maybe that explains things. Maybe it doesn’t. But it’s a hell of a lot more info than I can squeeze into a Twitter comment!
Let me be frank! 