In search of software to rate/track my favorite movies

January 17, 2015 11:14 AM

Seeking software tips for rating and tracking last view date for my favorite action movies. I have lost a lot of weight over the last few years watching action movies on my elliptical. But I find that not all "action" movies are best for that purpose...they must have a high "distraction" factor where I forget the machine and focus on the movie...minimum "talking" scenes. More details after the break.

I have done the Google and metafilter searches but, most apps are for streaming, backup, making suggestions, show times, etc. I have not yet found an app that will let me rate *my* favorite movies *and* let me keep track of when the last time I watched each so that on the way to the elliptical I can find my highest rated movie that I have not watched recently (to avoid overwatching the same favorite movies).

Since in general it takes me 3 elliptical sessions to get through a movie, I don't need to use the app from the elliptical. Currently I have about 80 movies I have found that meet my criteria. At home I have access to Windows, Mac, Ubuntu and Android devices, though the Mac is an ancient MBP so no app store. TIA for suggestions.

posted by forthright to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: Have you looked at Letterboxd? You can go to your profile and look at, say, only your "five star" movies, and it looks like it sorts them by date last watched.
posted by Mothlight at 12:07 PM on January 17, 2015

Give Delicious Library a whirl.
It looks like they have older versions, depending on the version of OS X you are running.
posted by John Kennedy Toole Box at 12:34 PM on January 17, 2015

When you rate something on IMDb, it tracks the date you set the rating. It also updates that date if you change the rating. I don't know how the IMDb app handles it, but on the website, you can view the list under Your Ratings on the menu with your name on it. There are just two oddities about using this for your purpose. One is that to see the complete date rather than an "X days/weeks/months" ago column, you have to click the Export This List link at the bottom and view the CSV dump. The other is that to update the date, it looks like you have to change the rating and change it back. But it does pick up the new date instantly. Also, you can bookmark a link to the list with all your preferred sort/display options, including a sort by ascending date to see your oldest first.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 12:40 PM on January 17, 2015

Response by poster: I signed-up for Letterboxd and I think it comes closest to my needs. It lets me edit the date last watched and in Diary mode it shows them to me sorted by watched date (though descending so I would need to scroll to the end).

On my 10.5.8 Mac Book Pro I'd need to use Delicious Library 2 which seems to have some graphics problems (granted, just cosmetic) but Letterboxd is free so that is preferable.

Monsieur Caution I appreciate the investigation you must have done on my behalf into the IMDb options, which is also free, but the need for a CSV dump seems to make Letterboxd come out ahead.

My sincere thanks to all of you for your suggestions!
posted by forthright at 3:19 PM on January 17, 2015