CRUMHACK ALERT! Movie Watching Hacks
Image via Wikipedia
I enjoy a good film. I know this may get me put in cherem in some circles, but I am not embarrassed (well, maybe I am in some company, but generally not), I like movies. I am a student of the theatre and of the screen, I love to analyze plot lines, look at story arcs and comment on cinematography. I love a good chase and a good adrenaline pumping suspense scene. I like metaphor and social commentary. I also happen to be a Frum Jew (again, according to some people) and along with that comes observance of halacha and a love of finding sneaky ways around common problems (or is that the hacker? or both?). So how do I balance these two apparently conflicting sides, easy! And now I will share.
- I use Apple Trailers (http://www.apple.com/trailers/)to stay up to date on new things that may be coming out, I like apple trailers because it usually has a lot of independent stuff and has HiDef Trailers. (Shout out to my aforementioned friend this one)
- I also use a service called Jinni (http://www.jinni.com/signin.html)
Image via CrunchBaseto find cool movies that aren’t new. Jinni is a service like Pandora or other Music Genome type things, but for movies, it basically looks at characteristics of movies you like and find similar ones. It also tells you where to find those movies (ie. Netflix, Blockbuster, etc.) and gives you detailed info on them.
- I have a Netflix account with two movies available to me, one for me to watch and one for my wife and I to share, this is a good system, as I always have a movie to watch and one for both of us to watch…Netflix also has a pretty good rating and recommendation system (but I prefer Jinni)
Image via CrunchBase - A great service called Feedflix (http://feedflix.com/) helps me keep on top of my netflix movies, make sure I am getting my moneys worth AND not wasting too much time on movies. It will also alert you when titles you are looking for are available for streaming.
- Once I have found a movie, it is important to know that the experience will not damage my neshama too much, so I use a service called Kids-In-Mind (http://www.kids-in-mind.com/) This is probably my most used movie-related site (rivaling IMDB) it gived detailed ratings in the categories of: Sex and Nudity, Violence and Gore (An Inconvenient Truth was through the roof in this category), and Profanity, they also include any Substance Abuse, relevant Discussion Topics and Messages of the the film.
I love this site, not only do they rate the films, but they give detailed descriptions of exactly what is going to happen and when, so that you can decide whether or not the movie is OK to see, whether you need to walk out in the middle or whether you just shouldn’t bother…Also the discussion topics often enhance my movie watching experience by allowing me to think about themes before I enter the movie. - Now we are in the theatre, have our kosher drink and snuck in cholov yisroel popcorn, the movie begins and we no to close our eyes after 22 minutes…but after an hour of sitting there you gotta go, you know say asher yatzar, and you gotta say it bad! So what do you do, hold it and be over ba’al teshaktzu and possibly damage your organs (although their is a machlokes as to the exact reality of this be’zman ha’zeh…go with it) or do you leave the theatre and risk getting the “Dude, you missed it! It’s all over now! Wow, that was the best scene in the movie!” from the guy next to you?
Enter RunPee (http://runpee.com/#) the absolute coolest site of all time. Seriously, it is even cooler than addictinggames or facebook. It is soo cool that you can keep your soda cold on it. What is RunPee you ask? Well RunPee is a site that tells you specifically when the best moment is to go say asher yatzar. The moment that you are lest likely to miss anything important, for example in the new film Angels and Demons, the best moment to go do your business is after 1 hour and 10 minutes, it gives you a decription of the scene leading up to the moment of truth and how much time you have to Run, it also gives you a recap of what you missed! How Awesome!?! - And finally, you have enjoyed the film and your cholov yisroel popcorn, said asher yatzar and avoid the untznius girl that appears after 22 minutes. You leave the theatre happy, only to hear your friends say “wait, you mean you didn’t see the amazing scene after the credits? That made the whole movie!” MovieStinger (http://moviestinger.com/) let’s you know when to stick around for those Professor-X reincarnation scenes and when you will only see the film reel burn into nothingness…
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I like the runpee idea although the theaters are way too expensive in my opinion to make it worth it.
Too bad that mormon movie editing comapany isn't legal anymore. Think how many more movies would be available to us!