Most of us have used Netflix or iTunes recommendations to check out movies or TV shows, and while they can be pretty good, they do offer up duds from time to time -- especially duds that happen to be quite popular. FlickChart aims to fix this by offering recommendations based on relative ranking of movies instead of a five-star system, and can deliver much more focused movie options. Here's how to use it:
- Point your browser to Flick Chart and set up a free account. They don't want much info from you.
- Rank movies. They will show you two, and you pick the one you prefer. If you haven't seen one or both movies, it's easy to move on. Note that FlickChart has some wild movie posters in its database, including many international posters, so it can be fun to flick through just to see what pops up.
Step 2: Rank movies on FlickChart. Rob Lightner/CNET - After you've been ranking for a while, you're shown how to filter the movies you choose from using the top menu. This can help you to more precisely rank the movies you've already ranked, focus on particular genres and more.
- You can check statistics and details or leave a comment below the rating window. This can be interesting, but isn't the most helpful feature offered.
- To see recommendations, just click View All Movies I Haven't Seen near the bottom left. This brings you to a new page that starts with the movies FlickChart thinks you'll like best based on your rankings. You create new lists based on movie age, genre, franchise, actor, director, release date and more.
That's it! There's a lot packed in here, but it's mostly only useful if you've ranked quite a few flicks. Fortunately, it's fun and somewhat addictive, so you may want to make FlickChart your go-to decompression break between work tasks.