contextual recommendations

So, I've only done one review so far, and already I'm starting to see some flaws/changes that need made. This is why I normally spend more time thinking about something before I do it...so I can minimize the changes needed. But, if I spent all summer trying to work out my system, then I'd never get around to actually watching movies (or, at least not doing reviews of the movies I watch). So, I'll just be making changes as I go. It might be kind of slow-going til I get these reviews to the quality that I want them, but stick with me. They'll get better, I promise (I hope). In the meantime, comments and suggestions (whether they be about the movie, or what you would like to hear more/less about in my review) are definitely welcome.

But back to the problem from my first review. I was making a judgment about whether or not to buy a movie based off of what I received from Netflix. I realized this problem as I was doing the review and tried to address it by saying that if what you receive from Netflix is all that you get when you buy it, then just hold off until you see it on sale somewhere (as much as I think that Inception is a must see film, if there aren't any extras then it's kind of hard to drop the cash for Blu-ray, seeing as how they can be kinda pricey). And I thought that solution was good enough for the time being.

But I realized after the fact, while that reasoning might be good enough for DVDs and Blu-rays from Netflix, that wouldn't work for Netflix streaming or movies I see in the theater. This hit me as I'm making plans to go see Thor today with one of my friends. I'm pretty stoked about seeing it, and was already looking forward to doing a review. But I realized "how can I make a recommendation to buy it if it isn't even out on DVD/Blu-ray yet??"

To solve this problem, my recommendations are going to be contextual. My initial intention of doing recommendations for buy, rent, pass, will primarily be for movies that are either in my collection or that I have borrowed from a friend. Recommendations for DVDs/Blu-rays from Netflix will be whether or not to add it to your queue. If there are enough bonus features on those discs, recommendations to buy might be added. But, since what you receive from Netflix does not always contain everything that you get when you buy it, I'm not going to punish the movie for Netflix's limitations. Recommendations for Netflix streaming will be whether it is worth the time, or a waste of time (or, if it's a good time-waster). And finally, recommendations for movies that I see in the theater will be whether to see it in the theater, wait for it to be available on Netflix, or pass.

One final note. I've been collecting movies for quite a few years now, and actually started my collection before I had a DVD player (in fact, I might have even started before DVDs were made). For some of those movies, I've upgraded and bought it on DVD. But for many of them, I still only have the VHS. But I haven't decided yet how I want to handle the recommendations for them. If they are available on Netflix streaming, then I might as well just watch that version, as it would probably have better video and audio quality than VHS. But since the VHS doesn't have bonus features, I won't be able to make the call on whether or not to buy. Hmm...I'll have to think about this. Or I might just avoid watching anything on VHS.