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A weekend project idea for geeks like me who like films, but have the feeling to have already watched everything. I find that imdb ratings have a high (but not

by cm2187 6y ago

A weekend project idea for geeks like me who like films, but have the feeling to have already watched everything. I find that imdb ratings have a high (but not 1.0) correlation with me liking the movie (provided I like the genre). You can still download from imdb flat files that contain all movies, ratings, as well as cast/directors/producers/writers. Stick that in a database, with a basic UI to hide movies you have already watched. And you can make a good personal recommandation engine for movies you didn’t suspect exist. The power of this approach is that imdb is pretty much an exhaustive catalog.

arethuza 6y ago
I tend to find that the movies I really like have a strongly bimodal distribution of comments on IMDB - some love and some hate. e.g. "Blood Machines" - which I can see why a lot of people dislike it but I think it is awesome. Edit: Probably not a great idea to search for it if you have a problem with nipples.
- dfxm12 6y ago
  Do the movies you really dislike have the same distribution of comments? :) I do think that that there is something to media that creates a "love it or hate it" response. It's usually trying something new (Blood Machines certainly was). p.s.: I saw Blood Machines when it premiered on Shudder & really enjoyed it.
  - arethuza 6y ago
    Good question - I checked IMDB for Force Majeure and it does seem to have that "love it or loathe it" distribution - I tend to agree with the comment about it being "mind-numbingly pretentious drivel" (which I guess some people would apply to Blood Machines).
hhmc 6y ago
> I find that imdb ratings have a high (but not 1.0) correlation with me liking the movie You could track your own personal rating of the movies, then regress these ratings against a variety of external rating sources (IMDB, ebert, etc) to see which is the most predictive.
- nathancahill 6y ago
  Along the same lines, MovieLens has been an ongoing project since 1997. The data is also available: https://grouplens.org/datasets/movielens/ https://grouplens.org/datasets/movielens/
jraedisch 6y ago
I tend to like movies/shows on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics like the movie less than the other users, e.g. The Orville https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/orville https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/orville P.S.: And audience score should roughly be above 70.
- forgingahead 6y ago
  I've generally found in life that my own preferences are more in line with the non-professional crowds than any self-anointed critics or other experts.
  - ghaff 6y ago
    I'm probably the opposite but it's not really surprising that there's a divergence between the two. The box office makes it pretty clear that big budget popcorn movies/summer blockbusters/etc. are very popular with mainstream audiences. Whereas people who feel a calling to be film critics (or any sort of culture) tend to be a bit dismissive of at least cookie-cutter flavors of blockbusters (e.g. Transformers, most modern superhero movies, etc.) and more appreciative of indie and other smaller releases even if they aren't full-on fans of European and Asian art house fare. Even Ebert, who was a relatively "everyman" sort of critic, definitely had a serious film critic persona if you've ever listened to any of his DVD commentaries.
    - wolco 6y ago
      If you watch enough movies the cookie-cutter type gets boring. If you watch once in awhile the cookie cutter formula can be reassuring that whatever leisure time you have you will get a predictable experience.
      - forgingahead 6y ago
        So, critics are for the movie-privileged? Seems to be an upper-class thing if one can watch a lot of movies to the point that things become "boring".
okasaki 6y ago
>You can still download from imdb flat files that contain all movies, ratings, as well as cast/directors/producers/writers. What's the easiest way to do this?
- dewey 6y ago
  https://datasets.imdbws.com/ https://datasets.imdbws.com/ It looks like it's actually not as easy to find any more if you try to find it on their developer portal as it's been revamped recently with their official paid API.
- tclancy 6y ago
  Assuming it's the same one I used in the past, https://imdbpy.github.io/ https://imdbpy.github.io/ effectively does this, putting the files into a local SQLite database for you.
- at_a_remove 6y ago
  A long time ago, you used to be able to download flat files of things like soundtracks and connections. Apparently that is gone.

by cm2187 6y ago

arethuza 6y ago

I tend to find that the movies I really like have a strongly bimodal distribution of comments on IMDB - some love and some hate. e.g. "Blood Machines" - which I can see why a lot of people dislike it but I think it is awesome. Edit: Probably not a great idea to search for it if you have a problem with nipples.

dfxm12 6y ago
Do the movies you really dislike have the same distribution of comments? :) I do think that that there is something to media that creates a "love it or hate it" response. It's usually trying something new (Blood Machines certainly was). p.s.: I saw Blood Machines when it premiered on Shudder & really enjoyed it.
- arethuza 6y ago
  Good question - I checked IMDB for Force Majeure and it does seem to have that "love it or loathe it" distribution - I tend to agree with the comment about it being "mind-numbingly pretentious drivel" (which I guess some people would apply to Blood Machines).

hhmc 6y ago

> I find that imdb ratings have a high (but not 1.0) correlation with me liking the movie You could track your own personal rating of the movies, then regress these ratings against a variety of external rating sources (IMDB, ebert, etc) to see which is the most predictive.

nathancahill 6y ago
Along the same lines, MovieLens has been an ongoing project since 1997. The data is also available: https://grouplens.org/datasets/movielens/ https://grouplens.org/datasets/movielens/

jraedisch 6y ago

I tend to like movies/shows on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics like the movie less than the other users, e.g. The Orville https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/orville https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/orville P.S.: And audience score should roughly be above 70.

forgingahead 6y ago
I've generally found in life that my own preferences are more in line with the non-professional crowds than any self-anointed critics or other experts.
- ghaff 6y ago
  I'm probably the opposite but it's not really surprising that there's a divergence between the two. The box office makes it pretty clear that big budget popcorn movies/summer blockbusters/etc. are very popular with mainstream audiences. Whereas people who feel a calling to be film critics (or any sort of culture) tend to be a bit dismissive of at least cookie-cutter flavors of blockbusters (e.g. Transformers, most modern superhero movies, etc.) and more appreciative of indie and other smaller releases even if they aren't full-on fans of European and Asian art house fare. Even Ebert, who was a relatively "everyman" sort of critic, definitely had a serious film critic persona if you've ever listened to any of his DVD commentaries.
  - wolco 6y ago
    If you watch enough movies the cookie-cutter type gets boring. If you watch once in awhile the cookie cutter formula can be reassuring that whatever leisure time you have you will get a predictable experience.
    - forgingahead 6y ago
      So, critics are for the movie-privileged? Seems to be an upper-class thing if one can watch a lot of movies to the point that things become "boring".

okasaki 6y ago

>You can still download from imdb flat files that contain all movies, ratings, as well as cast/directors/producers/writers. What's the easiest way to do this?

dewey 6y ago
https://datasets.imdbws.com/ https://datasets.imdbws.com/ It looks like it's actually not as easy to find any more if you try to find it on their developer portal as it's been revamped recently with their official paid API.
tclancy 6y ago
Assuming it's the same one I used in the past, https://imdbpy.github.io/ https://imdbpy.github.io/ effectively does this, putting the files into a local SQLite database for you.
at_a_remove 6y ago
A long time ago, you used to be able to download flat files of things like soundtracks and connections. Apparently that is gone.