Although I watch hundreds of movie a year (and blog about a lot of those) there are always movies which I would like to see, but I have not seen yet. As a blogger I also read many of your blogs and it happens a lot that one of you writes a glowing review about a movie I have not seen yet. As things go you want to note that movie down as you will have to watch that one in the future. I have been doing that for a long time and my to watch list has therefore grown quite a bit. Even though I do watch movies on that list it usually gets bigger instead of decreasing. I use the watchlist which IMDB offers and there are currently 140 movies on there. Unfortunately there are movies on there which are very hard to find (specific documentaries or non-US films), so I know it will probably never hit that magic zero, but while I can I will try to keep attacking that list to decrease the number. There are also a big number of movies not on the list that I already own, but also have not come around watching yet. So many movies, so little time. It really is a problem of luxury.
Do you have a “to watch” list and how long is it currently?
I have a few watchlists. One for the year, one based on filmmakers of my Auteurs profiles, and this list.
Interesting set of lists, how do you give them priorities?
Well, I make a monthly list of what films to watch and how can I fill them during a month. Then start all over again when the month ends and see what films to watch from that watchlist.
I don’t think my watch list ever decreases because there’s a lot of films out there. It doesn’t help that it’s coupled with new releases, so the list gets a lot longer. I keep a list in my laptop and it has spanned pages; I think my list might be even (a lot) longer than yours.
Yeah, mine keeps on growing as well. Usually older movies, the newer ones I try to watch as soon as possible, so I don’t keep track of those with a list.
I do have one. It includes recommendations from friends, family, and fellow bloggers; Best Picture nominees for the Oscars and Golden Globes; AFI list entries; as well as movies I’ve just stumbled upon and thought interesting. Current size: 1853. It’s going to take a while.
What!!! I have been rating all the movies I have seen since 2004 on IMDB and that ratings list is 1859 titles. So if you keep a steady pace of watching you will have seen all of those in about 10 years 🙂
I had one. I finally just said screw it because the thing was just discouragingly long. Sure, there are still plenty of movies that I missed and still want to see, but I’m not feverishly chasing them any longer. About the closest I come to that is every now and again, I’ll check the imdb top 250 for something that qualifies and grab that if it’s fairly accessible.
I am not feverishly chasing them either, but if I do not know what to watch I’ll usually have a look. Or when there are periods when I want to watch specific type of movies and I will use it too. As for the IMDB top 250, two years ago I had seen about 230 of the 250 movies in it at the time and decided I start with watching another list. That still is my “To Watch” list 😉
Hi, Nostra:
“To Watch” lists come and go. The few I’ve had compile mostly older films as opposed to current fare. Has to do with story, execution, quality and star power. Most of which contemporary offering are sadly lacking.
Yeah, I know you love your older movies and always enjoy reading your in depth reviews of them. You haven’t written one in a while, would you be interested in doing a new one for my blog?
My ‘to-watch’ list is way too long. I don’t really have a tidy list for them as I’m just not very organized, ahah. Right now I’m covering a local film fest so a lot of my older movie viewings are sort of put on hold at the moment. It’s really a case of too many movies too little time.
I know that problem even with the amount of movies I watch the list still doesn’t get shorter.
I have a Watchlist on Letterboxd but I don’t really use it that much. It is helpful for reminding me of something that I’ve forgotten. It doesn’t get too long, though. Back when I had Netflix for DVDs, the queue served that purpose. Now it’s all over the map. I’ve tried to set up spreadsheets in the past, but I don’t keep them updated.
The only thing I use is IMDB watch list which is very easy and since I also rate all my movies there it is also quick to cross them off the list once I have watched it.
Indeed, so many movies, so little time. I have a main to-watch-list of about 400 older films on letterboxd.
Then I use the actual watchlist on letterboxd for new releases, mine is 100+
I also have watchlists for genres I want to explore: shorts films, animation, horror, westerns. You might be interested in my documentary watchlist:
http://letterboxd.com/mas365/list/yet-to-watch-documentaries/
Quite daunting looking at all the films I haven’t seen yet, and the lists keep growing rather than decreasing, but nice I don’t have to remember everything in my head 🙂
Loved the documentary list indeed, a lot I had not heard of and have now been added to my watch list :).
From those I’ve seen I suggest checking out Bus 174, The Fog of War, Murder on a Sunday, Burden of Dreams, The Staircase (which I am sure will grab you and you will want to keep watching all the episodes)
Every time I start making serious headway into my ‘to watch list’ I end up buying more films, renting new ones, or reading reviews that make me want to see new films. The list never ends and just continuously keeps on growing!
Hahaha, the life of a movie lover!
I don’t really have a watchlist per se, but my Netflix queue is stacked right now. I probably have somewhere around 250-300 movies queued up through Netflix Instant and their DVD service.
Only had Netflix for a short time, so my list on that is not that long. Part of that is also because the selection here is pretty limited. Last weekend I changed some settings on my Apple TV to look at the American Netflix and there were so many more movies on there I want to see that I wish I could you it all the time (next day the changes did not work anymore)
I don’t have an actual watchlist because it’d just depress me. I’d soon realise how little I’m able to actually get watched. LoveFilm was good for that because your “rent list” worked as a watchlist because it was always getting bigger…
Well, you don’t have to always look at it 😉
I started using Letterboxd this year and hope to get a wish list going there soon. It takes time that I don’t have right now 🙂
Yeah, finding time can be an issue. If I wasn’t travelling by train for an hour and a half each day I would not be able to watch as many films!