Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

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ScorpionWasp
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Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by ScorpionWasp »

It used to be easy. So easy in fact, I put relatively little effort into it. If the themes appealed to my tastes, if the premise sounded interesting, I'd watch it and 90% of the time I was at least reasonably pleased.

There has been some change of late, probably many, very complex phenomena that are beside the point. The thing is... I can't find the movies I want to watch anymore. Google will just recommend turd after turd after turd. Thus far, I have not discovered a method of getting to the good stuff while evading the bad.

Someone with a more casual interest would just shrug and let the industry crash, but I'm a junkie. I need my fix. What are people doing these days? If you found the need to adapt your methods in the face of this deluge of bad film-making and - can we be honest - deceptive recommendation engines, and have been successful to any degree, what is it that you do now?

killgazmo
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by killgazmo »

I generally peruse the database here directly rather than go by recs, and just skrew around with the variables.
I also scour opinions on facebook groups, chats with friends, horror youtube reviews. I usually find something, it helps if you arent afraid to go into the past either. I can be watching something from 1984 and then 2014 the next. Also Foreign. But im sure you know that. I seam to always find something i just usually take some effort. Folks like us just always gotta be digging our fingertips bloody i think.
Also, you might also be in a novelty trap, where it seams like everything HAS to be new to get the fix, but you might be surprised how refreshing it can be to watch something randomly you saw already 4 years ago, even though your mental knee jerk reaction at first thought is to repel from it.
Anyway, i was wondering what you mean by deceptive recommend engines, not trying to pick at you about it honestly, genuinely curious,
do you think they are being purposefully dishonest in their algorithms? potentially burying problematic material maybe without our knowing?.

julesfmb
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by julesfmb »

Came to the right place, then. Click 'Explore', then 'Recommendations'. Or maybe go here and look at the ones on the top: https://www.criticker.com/psis/

ScorpionWasp
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by ScorpionWasp »

Well... I've seen and heard things, plus the empirical experience of going by their recommendations itself. Rotten Tomatoes manipulates ratings openly. Critic reviews are completely useless.

I have no reason to think Criticker is malicious, it's just.... incredibly out of touch. Like, I can have a library with nothing but - at most - 25 year old Horror, Sci-Fi, Action/Adventure movies, tending heavily towards the mainstream, and about every single time I open the landing page, it's recommending something like a black and white, mute movie from 1940, or an Iranian flick about a boy goat farmer who has to provide for his family.

There's also a very subjective thing, probably exclusive to my person. My tastes don't seem to align in any dimension with other people's. Take stuff like Dreamcatcher or Truth or Dare. These movies are unanimously deplored by both critic and audiences alike; if I went by recommendations, I'd never find them. Yet they are some of my favorites. On the other hand, both critics and audiences have nothing but praise for something like Climax, and that was the most pretentious and vapid thing I have ever watched. But I ALSO like stuff only audiences like, and stuff only critics like, and stuff everyone likes, so.... there's NO PATTERN.

ShogunRua
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by ShogunRua »

As I wrote in this topic, there are very few modern movies that are worth a damn, and vanishingly few from Hollywood. So yes, you will have a hell of a time finding anything worthwhile coming out nowadays, even with perfect algorithms. Although, as you correctly note, Rotten Tomatoes has been bought and is blatantly dishonest, while critics are, by and large, a confederation of idiots and shills.

My solution? I watch older and foreign movies. 2016 is usually the most recent I will go for Hollywood, and I usually prefer 2009 or earlier.
ScorpionWasp wrote:
Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:41 pm
Like, I can have a library with nothing but - at most - 25 year old Horror, Sci-Fi, Action/Adventure movies, tending heavily towards the mainstream, and about every single time I open the landing page, it's recommending something like a black and white, mute movie from 1940,
Man, I would love to know what silent film came out as late as 1940.

iconogassed
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by iconogassed »

ScorpionWasp wrote:
Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:41 pm
I have no reason to think Criticker is malicious, it's just.... incredibly out of touch. Like, I can have a library with nothing but - at most - 25 year old Horror, Sci-Fi, Action/Adventure movies, tending heavily towards the mainstream, and about every single time I open the landing page, it's recommending something like a black and white, mute movie from 1940, or an Iranian flick about a boy goat farmer who has to provide for his family.
You seem to be operating under a misapprehension of how Criticker works. If you are referring to the home and/or "Recommendations" pages, you are being recommended those movies basically because other people whose tastes are numerically similar to yours have rated them highly. And those pages are already divided into those exact same categories you are talking about (horror, sci-fi, adventure, etc.). I have no idea how you can expect the engine to recognize the dialogue language or film stock or "mainstream factor" when those aren't things that are tracked here, or why you would want such an engine to avoid recommending you things outside your comfort zone that you might like.

metalhank
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by metalhank »

Hey Scorp, like yourself I have tastes that sometimes differ from the norm. Personally (for new movies) I use metacritic.com and look at dvd and streaming releases. They include a description, if it sounds interesting go to imdb (sort reviews by helpful) and/or here and look at a few reviews (good and bad). Watch the trailer if interested then there you go, there are less good new flicks, but there are some.
I find this site is good for older movie finds with the PSI and recommendations.

monclivie
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by monclivie »

Oh there are, you just need to find your method. What do the movies that you like have in common? How are they rated on imdb? Did you check the other ratings from people who loved your favorite movies too, for example L Lawliet who also gave 100 to 13 Sins (2014)? Did you check your best TCIs rankings? Did you check the sites like bestsimilar.com?

paulofilmo
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by paulofilmo »

Take stuff like Dreamcatcher or Truth or Dare. These movies are unanimously deplored by both critic and audiences alike
i used to google for mubi lists. maybe letterboxd would work now. (not well)

e.g.

site:https://mubi.com/lists/* "Dreamcatcher"

site:https://mubi.com/lists/* "Truth or Dare"

and here's what the similar movies page looks like on movielens for those films. obvs those are my predicted scores, and you can tinker with the settings.

and 2 of their recommendation algs if you're not as stupid as me:
(the warrior) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Item-item ... _filtering
(the wizard) (it uses Simon Funk's implementation of the singluar value decomposition algorithm, for the technically minded and curious)

(I don't really use Movielens, but you might find it works for you)
e.g.

site:https://mubi.com/lists/* "Dreamcatcher"

site:https://mubi.com/lists/* "Truth or Dare"
sorry, there's not a lot there. works better for obscure arthousery, i suppose.

vonmaster
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Re: Can't find Worthwhile Movies anymore

Post by vonmaster »

I have been as well on the hunt of a good movie recommendation site, but the majority fell short to me. I like MovieLens.org and Tastoid.com. :D

What I used to do is to read the list of films considered the best (such as IMDb Top 250 or AFI Top 100), but at a certain point, it seems I have exhausted all the available options.

Tastoid is really cool. It really reminds me a lot of Jinni, as you can browse movies based on mood or plot. Or you can rate your favorite movies and recommendations will be generated for you. You can even import your Criticker ratings.

You have different options to find a movie:

1) You rate your favorite movies and the site generates for you recommendations (this also works with MovieLens)

2) You can search for a movie you like and find similar movies, say Se7en, and you can filter by rating, mood, release year, etc.
https://tastoid.com/movie/763/se7en/similar/

2) You can use the search function directly: for instance, here is what I got after using these filters "Horror, Serial Killer, Scary, Disturbing, Bleak, Rated more than 7, From 2000"
https://tastoid.com/search/movies/?page ... __gte=2000
Sometimes, I even try fun some weird queries such as "hacker going mad conspiracy dystopia" :D It is not always accurate, but by chance, you can find something that interests you.

Also, the old way is to find people with similar tastes on Letterboxd or here and follow them.

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