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No idea what dvd to rent? Try this

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Old 12-20-04 | 10:57 PM
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From: Talent, OR
No idea what dvd to rent? Try this

I've used it and it's a good assistant

http://www.whattorent.com/

Welcome!
What To Rent is here to provide movie rental suggestions based on your personality and mood. Dry your tears and put down the bottle, we can help provide the answers for which you so desperately yearn.
How do I get a recommendation?
First, click the New Users link to the left. Then, answer questions about your personality and mood. Finally, we tell you what movie you would love to watch. No movie critics or movie reviews needed.
How does the system work?
The site design is based around the relatively unknown LaBarrie Theory. The LaBarrie Theory states, "A movie viewer emotionally interacts with a film in the same manner that they interact with other human beings."
Basically, we decipher your personality and calculate how you would respond to each movie in our database. We take into account what type of mood you are in and we give a pick. We use your feedback to modify our algorithm to perfection. For more details proceed to the theory and operation link at the bottom of this page.
Are your movie recommendations any good?
We have recommended over 350,000 movies and satisfied about 78% of our users. It only takes 51% approval to be President. (Sometimes less)
Anything else I need to know?
We recommend going for a widescreen DVD rental if possible. The widescreen version of a movie fully represents the director's vision. Also, try not to read any background on our movie pick. Have some faith and go in blind- it's more fun that way.
Old 12-20-04 | 11:40 PM
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Wow that is really kool. Everything that they reccomended me to see is a movie that I really enjoyed.
Old 12-20-04 | 11:58 PM
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From that site:

Stuff People Love
1. American Beauty 96% satisfied
2. Goodfellas 94% satisfied
3. Braveheart 94% satisfied
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 94% satisfied
5. Schindler's List 93% satisfied
6. Groundhog Day 92% satisfied
7. Twelve Monkeys 91% satisfied
8. Fight Club 90% satisfied
9. Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain ("Amélie" in the U.S.) 90% satisfied
10. Reservoir Dogs 90% satisfied


Stuff People Hate
1. Heavyweights 22% satisfied
2. A Christmas Story 33% satisfied
3. Any Given Sunday 38% satisfied
4. Dude, Where's My Car? 41% satisfied
5. Sleepless in Seattle 44% satisfied
6. Satyricon 44% satisfied
7. Face/Off 50% satisfied
8. Kingpin 50% satisfied
9. Unforgiven 50% satisfied
10. Great Expectations 50% satisfied
Old 12-21-04 | 12:06 AM
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From: Mouthweathercity, IL.
I have seen everything they recommended...

Taxi Driver
8 1/2
Satyricon
Clock Work Orange
Virgin Suicides
Run Lola Run
Full Metal Jacket
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Talk to Her
City of God
Donnie Darko
Trainspotting
Raging Bull
All About My Mother
Old 12-21-04 | 12:12 AM
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From: Sitting on a beach, earning 20%
Such a wonderful idea. I see this getting big, or at least copied wholesale by a site that can make it look btter.
Old 12-21-04 | 02:14 AM
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I find http://www.movielens.umn.edu/main a lot more useful.

Allows one to actually have control over the results rather based on a generic mood and such as well as do custom searches, save and export your ratings which one can then manipulate as desired, set up lists with friends/forum buddies, post any desired custom lists on forums much like the basic top 20 YMDb lists, have input over the database and entering new titles, etc.

Last edited by abintra; 12-21-04 at 02:16 AM.
Old 12-21-04 | 03:02 AM
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Originally Posted by evitagen
From that site:

Stuff People Hate

2. A Christmas Story 33% satisfied
Huh?

That site officially sucks.
Old 12-21-04 | 03:56 AM
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Disagree with half of their suggestions - seen most of what they suggested. Only 2 decent suggestions out of 30... and only one was a movie I wasn't already planning on seeing eventually.
Old 12-21-04 | 04:29 AM
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Stuff People Hate

2. A Christmas Story 33% satisfied

Originally Posted by Burnt Alive
Huh?

That site officially sucks.
Are you being sarcastic?
Old 12-21-04 | 06:12 AM
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It was probably the Fullscreen version.
Old 12-21-04 | 08:51 AM
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How is Unforgiven at 50%?

I didn't know that people didn't like this movie...
Old 12-21-04 | 09:19 AM
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I got bored clicking "Already seen it".

Plus no horror recommendations

Old 12-21-04 | 09:23 AM
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From: The Village Green
Interesting site...
Old 12-21-04 | 09:24 AM
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I just call people randomly from the phonebook. It's much more exciting.
Old 12-21-04 | 09:55 AM
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At first glance I thought what does renting movies have to do with bittorrent.
Old 12-21-04 | 10:20 AM
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From: NoVA
Nice find, although I've seen most of the recommended films, they were all movies I really enjoyed
Old 12-21-04 | 10:58 AM
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I think you'll get more specific recommendations the more times you click the "have seen it" or "I never want to see this" buttons. It would be better if you were asked to rate the movies you have either seen or don't ever want to seen. I'm sure you'd get even more refined selections then, sort of like Amazon.

But, I must say, the fact that when you click links for plot summary and rental options to end up with phrase “This merchant is no longer participating in the affiliate program” does not bode well for the future of this site. Hence the desperate Spam on this site. It also has a clumsy design.

Also, I too was shocked to see the low ratings for A Christmas Story, but I doubt this is a popular sample, as I bet there isn’t a big enough crowd using this service to create top and bottom 10 lists that are representative of popular opinion. So, it’s not the site’s fault the film is rated so low.
Old 12-21-04 | 11:25 AM
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From: North Carolina (in two weeks!)
Movie Lens
Originally Posted by slowcloud
It would be better if you were asked to rate the movies you have either seen or don't ever want to seen.
Try Movie Lens. It may not give you recommendations you like, but at least you'll feel the methodology is better by having you rate movies you've seen!
Old 12-21-04 | 11:51 AM
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Why do they suggest movies that you say you've already seen? You say you saw all 10 movies in their list and the first one that pops up as a suggestion is one in that list. In fact, so far most suggestions were in the list in that question.
Old 12-21-04 | 11:53 AM
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Ugh... I hate to be one of those people who dislike something for one reason, but...

I don't trust any site where only half the people who saw Unforgiven enjoyed it, yet Groundhog Day scored over 90%??

Don't get me wrong, I love Groundhog Day and I own it too, but come on, Unforgiven is an awesome, awesome movie.
Old 12-21-04 | 12:09 PM
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Nice idea, but I've already seen every movie it's recommending.
Old 12-21-04 | 12:15 PM
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Originally Posted by X
Why do they suggest movies that you say you've already seen? You say you saw all 10 movies in their list and the first one that pops up as a suggestion is one in that list. In fact, so far most suggestions were in the list in that question.
Why do people keep trying the site even after it doesn't meet their expectations and don't care for its limitations even when a possible alternative has been mentioned twice?
Old 12-21-04 | 12:20 PM
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From: Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning.
High Noon
The Man Who Wasn't There
Igby Goes Down
Punch Drunk Love
The Hustler
Chasing Amy
Secretary
Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About My Mother)
Lost in Translation
Being John Malkovich
High Fidelity
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Cradle Will Rock
Amadeus
Old 12-21-04 | 12:27 PM
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Well it certainly didn't work for me, the first 5 recommendations were all movies that I *despised*.
Old 12-21-04 | 12:38 PM
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From: AA-
Originally Posted by abintra
Why do people keep trying the site even after it doesn't meet their expectations and don't care for its limitations even when a possible alternative has been mentioned twice?
How did I know that it wouldn't meet my expectations without trying it? And I tried it after reading only the first post.

I don't even think it's a bad site, just illogical since I answered a question that asked how many of a list of movies I had seen. When I answered all, they should have been removed from the recommendations.


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