I've been accumulating a surfeit of unwatched movies in my collection recently, due to my being extremely busy. These include never seen movies and stuff I've seen but not for ages.

A problem has arisen (albeit a nice one). I don't know what to watch next. I've attempted to let the mood take me and I'll put a movie on but find my mind wandering, my gaze scanning the spines on the great unwatched.

This anxiety of choice is spoiling my movie watching.

Am I alone or has anyone else suffered this attention deficit thingy...and does anyone have the phone number of a good shrink?

I have now started alphabetisizing my Unwatched Collection and will attempt to plough through these neglected movies in this order. Unless anyone can suggest a better method.

Current No. of Unwatched: 257

Footnote: Don't take this thread too seriously, my friends. Don't worry unduly.

Well, my suggestion would be to open your discs as you get them, and not wait until Christmas to do so...

But here's my list of unwatched:
25th Hour
8½
Amadeus (unfinished)
The Bicycle Thief
The Black Cat
Bob le Flambeur
Buena Vista Social Club (unfinished)
Canterbury Tales
Chungking Express
Chushingura (unfinished)
Cinema Paradiso (new version unseen)
Chabrol, Claude (all of the box set)
Dead Ringers
Dekalog (I am halfway into the first episode)
Devil's Backbone
Element of Crime (unfinished)
Exotica (unfinished)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Final Fantasy (unfinished)
The Fog
From the Earth to the Moon (about 9 episodes left)
Gimme Shelter (unfinished)
Great Escape (unfinished)
Hard Boiled
Häxan
Institute Benjamenta (unfinished)
Lost in La Mancha
Playtime
Sex and Lucía
Stargate
Talk to Her
True Romnance
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Watcher in the Woods
Watership Down (unfinished)
Wings of Desire
With a Friend Like Harry (unfinished)

Wow. More than I realized... Where should I begin? (I'll probably finish Amadeus as I only had like 45 minutes left).

I always seem to stay around a dozen or so unwatched (not including the rest of the Twilight Zone sets [currently on box 3 of 5]). The main problem is some of the unwatched ones are like the new Dances w/ Wolves, Smiley's People (6 hour BBC mini series), Shackleton and I've never really liked watching only part of a movie.

Er... How can you possibly get the same effect from splitting the movie in half by a week or more?

I usually have about 10-20 unwatched new DVDs, but I don't worry about it. The ones that sit the longest are generally catalogue titles that I'm very familiar with, while new (to me) titles get watched within a few days. Once in a while it can be several months before I get to a particular title , but no big deal. When the mood hits, I'll watch it.

The trick is to remember that I own them, they don't own me.

I don't have any unwatched DVDs at the moment but I can relate to the attention deficit thing. Some days my brain just turns off and I can't concentrate on anything - book, movie, TV, nothing. Thankfully it only happens once every couple months.

When I can't make a decision on what to watch I do one of two things: first, I'll call my mom and ask her to pick a movie. That usually doesn't work: she just laughs and hangs up. Or, I usually keep a printout of my discs and I just close my eyes and point to one. It's not scientific and if I had a shrink he/she probably wouldn't approve but whatever works

Nice one, Bus.

Ahhh...that reminds me. Let the hoarding begin.

I have my DVDs sorted in DVDTracker by when I bought them, so what I've been doing is going through them, earliest purchases first, and watching not only those that I've never watched before, but ones that I haven't watched in a while. "A while" being an extremely arbitrary term, figure about a year or more. So, for instance, I took all the DVDs I purchased in 2000, pasted the titles into Notepad, and as I watch one, I take it off the list. I'm just about finished with the 2000 purchases, and will be starting on the 2001's soon. An added bonus is that instead of looking at my collection of 470-odd titles to find something to watch, I'm looking at a much smaller list. Makes it much easier to make a choice, while still being able to choose something I really want to see. And of course, I'm still watching more recent purchases as well. Anyway, it's working out great so far.

Rob

Yes, I do often have a problem choosing, because there's too much to choose from.

At present I have about 140 discs for which I've never even seen the movie, plus another 200 discs for which I have seen the movie but I haven't had a chance to watch the DVD. That's 340 unwatched discs. But although that number will undoubtedly bother some people reading this thread, it doesn't bother me.

In my opinion:

Dekalog (I'm halfway into the first episode)

Watch the rest of this and all the other unwatched discs will fade into insignificance

I work 10+ hours a day, and still find time to watch my films. no, thats right...I dont have much of a life! I figure at 40 years old and busting my ass everyday running a buisness and babysitting employee's...I can pretty much spend my time the way I want...and I do. I buy between 5 and 10 dvds a week and get all of them watched by the end of the weekend. it helps that I viddy them from 10pm to 4am....when there are no distractions. right now I have only 4 dvds I have yet to watch...yet I have all weekend to do so. but like I said...after working in the heat all day long...the last thing I want to do is go back out in it after I get home. plenty of time to enjoy all these great films I buy weekly, as well as my older titles. I try to watch one older dvd for every 2 new ones. with my collection....one problem I never have is finding something to watch.

Yikes, Shill66!
thank goodness somebody has me beat.
i only have about 80 or so unwatched, plus or minus another dozen.
a lot of Columbia House purchases in there (those can really multiply during free shipping promos), and a lot of $10 releases- and about a 1/2 dozen Criterions as well.

right now i'm trying to decide whether or not to upgrade my pj, and am trying not to rack up any more hours on the bulb in case i do.
i may end up selling it off early and going a couple months before i can watch anything again.

that would be murder as there is some highly anticipated stuff coming out in the next couple of months...i don't know how i would be able to keep my mind on work.

I accumulated so many unwatched I started trading them back in for credit for bigger titles I know I want. I know there is a ton of great stuff I'm missing, but I don't have the time, space or money to hang on to all of them. With August looking like an expensive month, I'm trading in unwatched movies Maybe next winter.

And here I thought I had a problem...!

The Unwatched Masses

I have over 200 unwatched dvds at the moment, but I am attacking the problem one dvd at a time. At least I can't say I have nothing to watch.

Yeah, I spent about 10 minutes staring at my stack of unwatched dvd's earlier, trying to choose one to watch. Strangely enough, I ended up watching The Sandlot... on VHS.

It's really impossible to know which movie you're in the mood to see until you're actually viewing it, and then you discover that that wasn't it. I've had this same problem choosing LPs to listen to for years. :-)

So there ARE other people who put one DVD in the machine only to pull it out a few moments later and replace it with something more appropriate? Go figure. We need help, man.

KineKudos and MarkAtHome add me to the list. It usually takes me 2 attempts (by watching a few minutes of the disc) to find the one that I am actually in the mood to see.

This is actually becoming a useful little thread for choosing titles to watch, without stooping to Diceman principles (which as a member of the band Mangabros might seem appropriate - see site).

Being buffered by mood (or perhaps the existentialist/determinist approach) seems the best and most popular means amongst us 'unwatchables'.

I have plenty of unwatched DVDs sitting around, probably in the neighborhood of 50 or so. They are mostly either titles Ive replaced my VHS copy with the DVD or things that I never took the time to go see in the theater. Thats okay, I'll get to 'em

I also have pleety of unwatched. Sometimes I realize i won't watch them and sell them. Other times I get the urge to watch something unopened.

I always open everything and only tend to buy things I want to own. However, like everyone else, I haven't had much chance to watch EVERYTHING. Ehhhh, someday.

Thanks to this thread, I sorted my unwatched titles by date, watched the oldest I hadn't watched yet (The Cell), and started on the next oldest (an Avengers disk). I only have about 16 2001, then the hard part starts (since I have 139 I bought in 2002 I haven't watched yet, and 202! from 2003 ).