How to Choose a Movie on Friday Night
Friday night and stuck? Know you want to watch a movie, but don’t know which one? This article will help you narrow down your choices through a few simple questions.
The obvious pro to borrowing from a buddy’s collection is the four letter word F-R-E-E. If you’re on a tight budget, or even if you simply are too lazy to get out, just watch something you already own and haven’t seen in a while. My personal favorites: Disney movies. Most likely it’s been quite a long time since you’ve last watched your childhood favorites, and now is a better time than any. They are fun, light-hearted, and always just as good now as they were then. If not better.
If you’ve decided to rent, then it is simply a question of new release vs. non-new release. New releases are the more common choice because these are most likely movies you and your friends haven’t seen before and want to see pretty badly. Non-new releases can be something you haven’t seen before, but heard a lot about or something you just need to see again. I would recommend starting in the new releases, and then moving on to everything else once you’ve failed there. As a general rule of thumb, if you are looking for two or more movies, pick up at least one older, but classic movie that you’ve never seen to build up your “movies I’ve watched” library.
If you are going out…what movie?
Going out usually means one thing-movie theater. The two options you have here are look up by time or by movie. If you know what time you want to go, then look up (or just show up to) movies that are playing at that time. This helps you to narrow down your choice without the fuss of picking. Often, however, all movies start at about the same time, so try this method when approaching how to pick a movie. Look online and write down ones that you would actually consider seeing and two or three times that they play. Then, narrow the list down by consulting friends. Maybe some of them have already seen one. Maybe someone hates horror, romantic comedy, or some other specific genre. Usually, this will whittle you down to one or two movies. Choose a top choice, but keep the second choice in mind just in case your top is sold out or you arrive a little later than you planned.
Still Stuck?
If nothing sounds all too enticing even at this point, it is time to resort to something other than your own brain. It is what I like to call “the cheat sheet of movie selecting when nothing sounds good” method. Google. Choose a genre, punch it in, add the word “movie list” or “suggested list” (or a combination of), press enter, and voilà. Amazon and many other websites have lists upon lists of suggested movies in a particular genre, subcategory, etc. This technique has saved me countless headaches from movie choosing madness on many a Friday (or Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday…) night.
And so onwards, my fellow movie connoisseurs. Choose a movie, and get watching….and don’t forget the popcorn!
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