Sometimes you just feel like a girls' or a blokes' night in, and so comes the question of how to select a great movie to watch. My friend Sam always told us that a group of three people should never go into a DVD rental store at the same time, because you'll end up being there for hours and never really decide on which movies to hire.
When we're selecting movies, we never go for the latest releases, because you pay a premium rate for movies that are new to the DVD shelves.
If you always select the movies that have been around for a while, then guess what? You have your own selection of "new" movies to choose from after a few months sincehat time the latest releases are down graded to recent releases at a discounted price. Not only do you save yourself some money, but you've also got a much better chance of having the "pick of the bunch" of the recent releases.
Here's a list of things to help you decide how to select a great movie to watch:
1. Selection by a theme
Whether it's a blokes night or a chicks night, you can decide a theme. Some great chick flicks include the "Bonnet Movies" the genre of Jane Austin's "Pride and Prejudice", "Emma" and so on.
For the blokes you may select the "X-Men" series, James Bond or such like.
2. Selection by Actor or Actress
Often we'll sit and watch a bunch of Russell Crowe or Nicole Kidman movies, you may have some favorite actors and actresses that will help you in your choice of movies to watch.
3. Selection by Genre
There's some great movies to motivate young sports players, such as Basketball, Baseball, or Grid Iron movies. You may be a fan of horror movies, romantic comedies, or action thrillers.
4. True Stories
They say that there's nothing stranger than real life, and when Hollywood screen writers are looking at new ideas for movie storylines, they often turn to taking historical events and making some great movies.
Within the category of true stories you still have a wonderful selection of movies to watch about sporting heroes, national heroes, and even ordinary folk that have done some extraordinary things.
5. Selection by ratings
When selecting a great movie to watch, you need to consider the audience, as this can help with your decision making. If you are choosing movies for a bunch of young children then it's generally a good idea to have watched those movies yourself first, so that you don't have any surprises that could shock or scare the children.
6. Choosing a Foreign Language Movie
Whilst there's a whole heap of great English Language movies, there's also some fantastic foreign language movies that deserve your attention.
Do not be afraid to consider foreign films just because they have subtitles. After the first few minutes of watching a foreign movie and reading the subtitles you soon get drawn into the movie and almost "forget" that you are not listening to English.
7. Word of Mouth
We've never really found that personal referrals of movie titles from our friends have been of much benefit. Everybody has different tastes, and just because one person doesn't like a particular movie doesn't necessarily mean that you will not enjoy it.
This is often true with media movie critics. We've all heard stories about movies that have been slammed by the critics only to become box office successes.
There's plenty of other ways to decide how to select a great movie to watch that include watching the previews or movie trailers, as well as watching movie review shows on TV and the internet.
The best thing about selecting a great movie is that there's so much choice and so many opinions these days. As each year passes more movies are released and there's still many of the good old favorites around, so sit back, relax and disappear into your own movie world, having made your own selection of great movies to watch.
Jenny Newgate has been a movie fan for many years
