Finding good movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime etc.
August 13, 2022 8:59 AM Subscribe
This is such an obvious question, but I couldn't find any answers.
How Do I Get a List of all the Movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime with an IMDB Rating of 7+?
With the heavy competition for streaming subscribers, you would think they would make it easy to find the good stuff!
Justwatch.com. You must look at each movie to see the rating. Choose from the list of channels to see what's on just your subscription service. It also lists available TV shows.
posted by Enid Lareg at 9:38 AM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Enid Lareg at 9:38 AM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
IMDB is owned by Amazon, so Netflix would probably have to pay for this kind of integration. I think you could hack something together with IMDB watchlists (made from advanced search in IMDB) and justwatch.
posted by soelo at 10:43 AM on August 13, 2022
posted by soelo at 10:43 AM on August 13, 2022
Best answer: It sounds like Movie of the Night might be what you seek.
posted by Gray Duck at 10:54 AM on August 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Gray Duck at 10:54 AM on August 13, 2022 [7 favorites]
IMDB isn't the best way to choose movies, they often rank female fronted films lower than other review sites.
posted by ellieBOA at 11:30 AM on August 13, 2022 [13 favorites]
posted by ellieBOA at 11:30 AM on August 13, 2022 [13 favorites]
I use Justwatch.com all the time too; here's a link to all the movies on Prime and Netflix that scored over 7 on IMDB, sorted by score. You can use the filters on top to drill down further (say, specifying newer releases, etc).
posted by carrienation at 11:36 AM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by carrienation at 11:36 AM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
A few years ago, I discovered a podcast called Linoleum Knife and it quite literally changed my movie-watching life. These two guys -- Dave White and Alonso Duralde -- are amazing! They're both huge film nerds, witty and literate film critics, and former film festival programmers. They watch and review a ridiculous amount of movies, both in theaters and streaming. They review so many movies, in fact, that I can't keep up and have a running list of things that I plan to watch in the next year or so.
What makes their podcast so magical is that along with the expected reviews on what's playing in theaters, they also keep up on the arthouse/indie movies, and foreign films worth watching, and because these guys are very opinionated and married, their banter is undefeated.
I also appreciate the fact that when they review a movie, they mention if it's streaming somewhere free.
So, to answer your question, my method of finding good movies is to listen to Linoleum Knife Podcast and write down whatever recommended films sound good to me and wait for it to filter down to a streaming service I pay for (or Kanopy or Hoopla, which you can use to rent movies for free from most public libraries). For example, a while ago Dave and Alonso reviewed and loved This Is Not A Burial, It's A Resurrection, Licorice Pizza, and Pig, but at the time I wasn't willing to pay to see them; now they're all streaming free and I can watch them.
You can use Just Watch to search for films on your list and see if their available on services you already pay for or the free streaming apps.
Edited to add: the free version of Linoleum Knife is excellent, but if you really want to level-up your movie and tv watching game, subscribe to their Patreon -- it's totally worth it.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 11:37 AM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
What makes their podcast so magical is that along with the expected reviews on what's playing in theaters, they also keep up on the arthouse/indie movies, and foreign films worth watching, and because these guys are very opinionated and married, their banter is undefeated.
I also appreciate the fact that when they review a movie, they mention if it's streaming somewhere free.
So, to answer your question, my method of finding good movies is to listen to Linoleum Knife Podcast and write down whatever recommended films sound good to me and wait for it to filter down to a streaming service I pay for (or Kanopy or Hoopla, which you can use to rent movies for free from most public libraries). For example, a while ago Dave and Alonso reviewed and loved This Is Not A Burial, It's A Resurrection, Licorice Pizza, and Pig, but at the time I wasn't willing to pay to see them; now they're all streaming free and I can watch them.
You can use Just Watch to search for films on your list and see if their available on services you already pay for or the free streaming apps.
Edited to add: the free version of Linoleum Knife is excellent, but if you really want to level-up your movie and tv watching game, subscribe to their Patreon -- it's totally worth it.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 11:37 AM on August 13, 2022 [4 favorites]
Best answer: Rotten Tomatoes will do this.
posted by another zebra at 2:09 PM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by another zebra at 2:09 PM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: ellieBOA:IMDB isn't the best way to choose movies, they often rank female fronted films lower than other review sites.
Good point. I noticed the (what I thought) was a low rating for The Old Guard, but didn't think it was a systemic thing. Will have to rely on other ratings.
posted by storybored at 4:12 PM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
Good point. I noticed the (what I thought) was a low rating for The Old Guard, but didn't think it was a systemic thing. Will have to rely on other ratings.
posted by storybored at 4:12 PM on August 13, 2022 [1 favorite]
carrienation's JustWatch link is most of what this question is asking for. If you click the provider buttons on the page you can narrow it down to movies available on Netflix or Amazon Prime, ranked by IMDB rating.
Unfortunately the resulting list is not very useful; of the first 30 I've only heard of 3 and had to get to #29 (GoodFellas) for a film I'd consider a canonical top movie. Most of the other films are recent non-American releases with relatively few ratings. Maybe some of those are great! But it's probably not what the asker was looking for.
If I could the further filter I'd add is Rating Count; that filters out the less known movies. But doing so requires a paid subscription to JustWatch Pro. Pro also lets you filter by production country.
There's a reason Netflix and Amazon Prime don't make this easy themselves, btw. They do recommend movies to you. But those recommendations are also driven by profit considerations for those services, not just showing you a "best" movie.
posted by Nelson at 7:06 AM on August 14, 2022
Unfortunately the resulting list is not very useful; of the first 30 I've only heard of 3 and had to get to #29 (GoodFellas) for a film I'd consider a canonical top movie. Most of the other films are recent non-American releases with relatively few ratings. Maybe some of those are great! But it's probably not what the asker was looking for.
If I could the further filter I'd add is Rating Count; that filters out the less known movies. But doing so requires a paid subscription to JustWatch Pro. Pro also lets you filter by production country.
There's a reason Netflix and Amazon Prime don't make this easy themselves, btw. They do recommend movies to you. But those recommendations are also driven by profit considerations for those services, not just showing you a "best" movie.
posted by Nelson at 7:06 AM on August 14, 2022
Flick Metrix can be fantastic for this.
Start at the Flick Metrix search page.
Choose
* Type: Movies
* On: Netflix, Amazon Prime
* Genre: optionally select any genres you want to feature or exclude
* Language: optionally select any languages you want to focus on
* Year: optionally enter your year range here, if you have one
* Average Rating: optionally set the rating here
BUT
If you click Advanced Options, you get to specify the source of the ratings: Critic (I assume this is Flick Metrix's own critic log), Metacritic, IMDb, or Letterboxd. (No Rotten Tomatoes, alas.) You can also specify a minimum number of ratings received.
Then click Search.
Voila!
Enjoy.
Bonus: Rotten Tomatoes has their own Movies on Netflix and Movies on Prime; you can filter for only movies Certified Fresh, and you can also sort by rating to get all the best movies to float to the top.
posted by kristi at 3:07 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
Start at the Flick Metrix search page.
Choose
* Type: Movies
* On: Netflix, Amazon Prime
* Genre: optionally select any genres you want to feature or exclude
* Language: optionally select any languages you want to focus on
* Year: optionally enter your year range here, if you have one
* Average Rating: optionally set the rating here
BUT
If you click Advanced Options, you get to specify the source of the ratings: Critic (I assume this is Flick Metrix's own critic log), Metacritic, IMDb, or Letterboxd. (No Rotten Tomatoes, alas.) You can also specify a minimum number of ratings received.
Then click Search.
Voila!
Enjoy.
Bonus: Rotten Tomatoes has their own Movies on Netflix and Movies on Prime; you can filter for only movies Certified Fresh, and you can also sort by rating to get all the best movies to float to the top.
posted by kristi at 3:07 PM on August 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
New on Netflix is pretty exhaustive and has per-country catalogues and filters.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:35 AM on August 18, 2022
posted by Happy Dave at 7:35 AM on August 18, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by NotLost at 9:38 AM on August 13, 2022 [3 favorites]