How I Choose Movies to Watch
I can always come up with a long list of movies to watch… but certainly, choosing which movie or movies to watch depends on different aspects. I know, it shouldn’t be that complicated but as a movie buff and a parent, it definitely becomes a challenge.
When I am facing the choice of what movies I want to watch, I consider a lot of factors before settling on my choice of cinema. First, do I want to watch something new or old? Second, what kind of mood am I in? Third, will I have my kids with me? And fourth, what is my access level to various sources? These four questions will come together to point me toward my final decision of movies to watch.
Image by ginnerobot via Flickr
The selection of movies to watch
The first issue I wrestle when picking a movie is whether I want to see a new movie or an old movie. Do I want to see something in the theater? If I do, I might hop onto an online film review site or update my status to ask friends if they have seen the movie I’m considering. If I haven’t picked a film yet, I might do the same thing looking for suggestions. The decision to see a new show in the theater comes with the daunting secondary question of which show to select. If I want to see something old, I’ll decide whether by ‘old’ I mean a classic I’ve seen multiple times, like L.A. Story, or a movie not in theaters anymore but which I have not yet seen, like X-Men: The First Class. A new film will offer me some excitement, going out on a date with my spouse perhaps, but it has the drawback of costing substantially more than seeing an old film. If we’ve just had an unexpectedly large paycheck, I might not care about the cost. An old film might be cheaper, or free if I already own it, but old is just that, old. Seeing the latest installment in a movie franchise can be a fun thing to praise or trash with my husband and his coworkers, but hearing Steve Martin say, ‘I’m being filmed, I know I’m being filmed’ for literally the 2,000th time can be too much fun to pass up, depending on my mood.
To help make up my mind, I’ll probably sit down and think for a moment, ‘What am I in the mood for?’ Do I want to see something girly? If so, I’m almost certainly seeing something old because my husband won’t want to go out on a date to see it, and I am too lazy to organize an outing with my girlfriends. Do I want to see an action movie? If so, I’ll almost certainly end up seeing something new since everyone knows the big budget special effects are best experienced with the massive screen and THX surround of the theater. (It masks the terrible writing better.) Do I want to get dressed up or sit in my pajamas? I love to lounge around in comfortable clothes with chips and salsa, sitting in front of my favorite flick, and I can’t pull that off in the Cineplex. I also love putting my makeup on, doing my hair, and going to experience a show on the big screen. The current frizz level of my hair nearly always plays a significant role in the ‘Do I feel like getting dressed up?’ debate. Also a consideration is the ratio of clean laundry in the hamper to dirty. If the dirty is heavily represented, I’m probably staying in and telling myself I’ll do laundry, even if I don’t do a scrap of it. I must also consider whether I am in the proper mental state to be able to concentrate on an unfamiliar plot. A scatterbrained feeling might keep me home while a desire to have an interesting new concept to talk about would push me out the door.
Movies to watch with my kids
The third and possibly most important question to ask when choosing which movies to watch is whether my children will be with me. I have a toddler and a baby, and their presence almost certainly nixes any plans to sit in a quiet room with other people for 2 hours. If I really want to take them with me, I need advance planning, an appropriate movie, kid-friendly snacks, a time slot that works with naps, the ability to leave the movie if things get out of hand, and most definitely another adult to help me. It doesn’t utterly rule out a trip to the theater, but having my children with me makes the prospect substantially more daunting. If I opt for older movies to watch, my options are more varied. I might choose a child’s movie and snuggle up with the kids to watch. However, if I make that choice I am almost certainly turning on a Pixar film I have seen at least 200 times and will not be getting much enjoyment in actually watching the show but rather in spending some time with my children. The more likely option is that I will wait until nap or bed time and watch a movie either alone (if the mood is chick flick) or with my husband.
All of the above discussion might be moot based on my access to various options. For example, after Hurricane Ike shut down the city of Houston, my husband and I watched a LOT of movies, but because electricity was limited (we were lucky,) and Internet was spotty (we were not so lucky,) our viewing options were utterly and completely restricted to movies we already owned. On another occasion, we were staying at a small, vintage hotel near the Hoover Dam with no television in the room and no Internet access, which meant no pay-per-view, no Netflix, and we didn’t bring any movies with us. We wanted to watch a movie that particular evening, so our only option was to go to the local movie theater. On an average Friday night, our options are limited by the presence of two young children who can’t be left in the house alone. Unless we have access to an affordable babysitter, we limit ourselves to our own library, the library of Netflix, or one of us will drive 5 minutes to the Redbox in front of Kroger and see what shows are left after the rest of the families in our situation who were smart enough to come before 5pm have cleaned out the machines.
Well, there you have it. That’s how I choose on which movies to watch either alone, with kids or with my partner. It’s kind of complicated, maybe, but it works for me. How about you? Do you have a ‘movies to watch’ selection process?
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