Movie selection tools
December 27, 2008 1:25 PM   Subscribe

I loved movies A, B and C and hated movies X, Y and Z. What tools are available out there which will use this information to recommend movies I might like?
posted by vizsla to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
I personally use netflix to do this, but I've heard good things about Criticker lately.
posted by Benjy at 1:37 PM on December 27, 2008


If you name A, B, and C, and trust people ask.metafilter is a good place.
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 1:45 PM on December 27, 2008


Netflix has an astonishingly well-honed movie-recommendation algorithm, as ensuring that each subscriber uses their service sufficiently to justify continued subscription is arguably their central business problem.

As an aside, Netflix is actively trying to improve their recommendation engine by means of an open contest featuring a big cash prize; the teams competing for the prize have so far -- after a couple years of work -- not been able to improve on the company's existing collaborative filtering algorithm by more than about 8%.
posted by killdevil at 2:08 PM on December 27, 2008


Response by poster: killdevil: "Netflix has an astonishingly well-honed movie-recommendation algorithm, as ensuring that each subscriber uses their service sufficiently to justify continued subscription is arguably their central business problem. "

Do you have to be a subscriber to use it? I don't live in the US.
posted by vizsla at 2:20 PM on December 27, 2008


Netflix has an API for developers and it is possible someone tapped into it to make a non-subscription recommendation service. This is the developer's Showcase forum. I would poke around there to see if anyone made anything you can use.
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 2:45 PM on December 27, 2008


You could use amazon.com; find the movies on DVD, rate them and see what it recommends for you to purchase.
posted by fings at 2:45 PM on December 27, 2008


And seriously on the askmefi thing, try it. I've seen some excellent thread on books and films. You'll get a list that will take you months to get through.
posted by kingfisher, his musclebound cat at 2:46 PM on December 27, 2008 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Movielens!
posted by belladonna at 2:55 PM on December 27, 2008 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: kingfisher, his musclebound cat: "And seriously on the askmefi thing, try it. I've seen some excellent thread on books and films. You'll get a list that will take you months to get through."

Ok here goes. Trying to be as true to my gut feelings as possible ...

Likes : Frost/Nixon, Downfall, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Touching the Void, Memento, Cyrano de Bergerac (Depardieu), Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, Burnt by the Sun, Bourne Identity, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Fog of War

Dislikes: Body of Lies, Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Matrix, Wild at Heart

I guess that makes me a historical documentary kind of guy and a fantasy kind of guy (unless it has some touching personal message? Don't want to pigeonhole myself - I've been surprised before.
posted by vizsla at 3:03 PM on December 27, 2008


Response by poster: vizsla: "I guess that makes me a historical documentary kind of guy and a fantasy kind of guy (unless it has some touching personal message? "

Oops ... "and NOT a fantasy kind of guy" I meant.
posted by vizsla at 3:05 PM on December 27, 2008


Stuart Skorman is launching a new human-powered movie recommendation site, ClerkDogs. It's still in beta and the company is looking for online writers to provide film recommendations for the site.
posted by terranova at 3:21 PM on December 27, 2008


Govies! http://www.gnovies.com/ I put in The Shawshank Redemption, it thinks you will like The Usual Suspects, Goodfellas...
posted by Pigpen at 7:29 PM on December 27, 2008


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