In my previous post i had cribbed a lot about how people use hype generated by movie , its star power and Box-office success as criterion to measure whether movie is good or not ... which i feel is not correct . Since i got started on it and also because i watch a lot of movies these days , i feel i should pen down how i pick out 'good' movies , what are the criterion's i use for choosing movies to watch.
Movie critic plays a very important role in guiding us on what movies to watch and in setting the basic expectations about the movie , again its not the rating given by critic it is the reason why he/she recommends/thrashes the movie that is important for me. Again critics are also humans and they would obviously write reasons why they like the movie , why they think the movie should be watched/not .... It may or may not match your view of world/movies ... critics' sensibilities and your sensibilities may or may not match ... I have a set of critics whose views/opinions i concur with on most occasions and i have mostly agreed with their recommendations , so it is pretty helpful in choosing movies.
But more than critics , my favorite method of choosing movies to watch is through imdb site ... again this is public opinion , unlike BO verdict , this is opinion by people who watch a lot of movies and whose tastes mirror those of an informed movie viewer , Imdb ratings are a very useful guide to determine whether to watch a movie or not, when you are not very sure.
But again recent movies , popular genres among the voting public always get better ratings ... but despite a few faults its more or less most accurate way of determining if movie is watchable
There are also sites like Rotten-tomatoes , metacritic which are aggregators of reviews/rating by critics and should appeal to more serious or more evolved film viewers.
The Top 100/250 lists (there are various versions floating around) represents another fascinating way of choosing movies , here are the best (in the eyes of certain experts) movies chosen and arranged in order for you ... whether these are best or not is not the point , but these are definitely movies which stand out in some way or other ... Lists represent a very good way to discover great movies , while on lists i think Imdb all time top 250 list is the most accessible to the average film goer , if she/he wants to undertake this journey to discover better movies.
Since it is voted by a public consisting of informed movie viewers this list would be the best place to start looking for good movies to watch , the list ofcourse is a bit lopsided with recent movies dominating it . Personally im targeting to watch all the top 250 movies from this list , as i discover a movie i discover a lot more about that genre/director and ending up watching a lot more movies made by the director/in that genre which may not be present in the list but are definitely enjoyable. This list in a way guides me to a lot more movies , i might deviate sometimes , but by following this kind of list i do explore all popular , highly regarded movies of all genres.
In various forums , i have noticed a lot of average film viewer complaining that most these top movies are over-rated or beyond their grasp and many don't see a point in viewing these movies and are happy catching up with latest blockbuster movies . They have a pattern for viewing movies and dont see a point in experimenting. But that is never the case , our choices and preference changes/should change during the course of time , hopefully for the better. As noted critic Roger Ebert puts it "one hopes being an average moviegoer is not the end of the road: that one starts as a below-average filmgoer, passes through average, and, guided by the labors of America's hardworking film critics, arrives in"
2 comments:
I follow some critics.. I get to read the India today and outlook and Namrata joshi on outlook is the closest to what i think. which is around 70%. but India today just veers from one end to another and and only when the movie is rank crappy they are right. but thanks, for useful directions, am beginning to watch movies again, of course when growing child permits! but it has been a welcome start..
Yes. IMDB Top 250 is of course a good place to start. But just like books, I can’t take in a lot of movies of the same genre at one go. I tend to take a break. Unless it is a really versatile director like Satyajit Ray, I can’t even watch all movies from the same director at a stretch. They all follow a monotone in some aspect. But what is sad is there is no purely Indian list – so, I can’t really start off on a Indian Movie Database Top 250 or something like that. I have to go from what I read about randomly on the net. Like Ray, Guru Dutt, etc.
@Movie meter: The vicious-hype-cycle routine is a given and most movie producers (in Bollywood) bank on opening week earnings, unlike in Tamil cinema – where movie earnings come mainly from Tier 2 and 3 towns, and that too at the end of 100 days. So, there is no question of the vicious-hype-cycle there. So, whereas in Bombay the onus is on the producers and the marketing team and the actors and the media to create the hype that would ensure first weekend moolah, down south it lies solely on the directors’ ability to retell the same story with a different item number!
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