Netafilxter

August 21, 2007 8:12 PM

Anyone want to do some intellectual cinematic cross-pollination and make MeFi Netflix Friends?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur to MetaFilter Gatherings at 8:12 PM (93 comments total)

They don't seem to have a user number system conducive at all to being added to our new "Also On" widget. So old fashioned email addresses will do until then, and I'll take all comers.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:14 PM on August 21, 2007

Go crazy:
http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P8oqSWziT1QycFJVYYo2

Not sure about the intellectual part though.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:18 PM on August 21, 2007

That sounds like so much fun, but I don't have a Netflix account.
posted by amyms at 8:21 PM on August 21, 2007

Oh, well done. They didn't use to have that URL. So, befriend me here.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:21 PM on August 21, 2007

Does this end with you trying to touch my peepee again? Because if so I am not interested. Fool me twice... won'tgetfooledagain!
posted by jonson at 8:27 PM on August 21, 2007

Anyone want to do some intellectual cinematic cross-pollination and make MeFi...

That sounds dirty.

I like it.
posted by loquacious at 8:30 PM on August 21, 2007

jonson said: Does this end with you trying to touch my peepee again?

It seems so much more logical to call your peepee "jonson"... But I digress...

*pulls up a Metafilter gossip chair*

Do tell.
posted by amyms at 8:30 PM on August 21, 2007

Does this end with you trying to touch my peepee again?

That sounds even dirtier.

DAMN YOU JONSON!

AGH that sounds dirty too! *runs off crying*
posted by loquacious at 8:31 PM on August 21, 2007

Whoo Hoo! Ambrosia Voyeur and I are 75% movie compatible. That's higher than all of my friends in real life. Awesome.
posted by ColdChef at 9:07 PM on August 21, 2007

Oooh. And I'm 43% compatible with Brandon Blatcher. That's my lowest.
posted by ColdChef at 9:15 PM on August 21, 2007

Wow, ColdChef. I knew I was cool. I just knew it.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:37 PM on August 21, 2007 [1 favorite]

me/boyfriend: http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/POxiSXu9hiUxMH9V7kcD
posted by k8t at 9:38 PM on August 21, 2007

So who's

HK 686118
new york,ny
Member Since:
August 2002

?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 11:34 PM on August 21, 2007

Feel free to mock: http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P6cGog4z9CCQQL4BA5nZ
posted by maryh at 11:54 PM on August 21, 2007

So I was thinking about joining greencine (I'm on the west coast) and there hasn't been any mention of it on this site in a few years, how does it compare to netflix now that they (netflix) have expanded their selection? This might be enough to bump me over to netflix.
posted by philomathoholic at 12:18 AM on August 22, 2007

I'm a Netfix fangirl, though that doesn't mean I'm ant-GreenCine. Anyway, I've never been their client, but here's a post for HackingNetflix about the comparison, dated a year ago.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:52 AM on August 22, 2007

I'd like to do it, but that would mean revealing my true identity. And then I'd never get a moment's peace from that bitch, Lois..
posted by Clay201 at 12:54 AM on August 22, 2007

And I'm 43% compatible with Brandon Blatcher. That's my lowest.

Just friends with benefits, huh?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:20 AM on August 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/PATGEyR68B0NsCKPZWEl

Snark my queue plz kthxbi
posted by moonbird at 3:52 AM on August 22, 2007

here is one for me and my wife (she rents the crappy movies)
posted by ShawnString at 4:04 AM on August 22, 2007

ummm this might help...
posted by ShawnString at 4:08 AM on August 22, 2007

Ambrosia, I added you. My first thought was that your movie selection is hipper than mine. Hm.
posted by jiiota at 4:19 AM on August 22, 2007

Oh, and I correctly guessed that you liked Strangers with Candy over Ghostbusters 2.
posted by jiiota at 4:20 AM on August 22, 2007

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P646L18d3mkI0ryEpbwp
posted by jiiota at 4:27 AM on August 22, 2007

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/PATWtrfqUwSkEJKyr8gd
posted by yerfatma at 4:37 AM on August 22, 2007

Coldchef said:

Ambrosia Voyeur and I are 75% movie compatible

And I'm 43% compatible with Brandon Blatcher.

Interesting, I'm 74% compatible with Ambrosia and 72% with you. Clearly this is just one sided.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:47 AM on August 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Be my Netflix friend.
posted by Dave Faris at 5:15 AM on August 22, 2007

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P5W1q7YgTpJJ0uvWrrtc


Disclaimer -
I think someone has hacked my netflix account.
They do subtle things, like rent things I'd watch, but wouldn't actually admit renting, or bump up "Q: The Winged Serpent" to the top of my queue.

I need to get a decent arch nemesis. Seriously, what kind of super power is "renting crappy movies"?
posted by fnord at 5:28 AM on August 22, 2007 [2 favorites]

Please share my questionable taste in the cinematic arts
posted by doctor_negative at 6:39 AM on August 22, 2007

Let's see if anyone can beat 72%.
posted by ColdChef at 6:41 AM on August 22, 2007

I claim to have no movie taste
posted by jmd82 at 6:42 AM on August 22, 2007

jmd82, you are my new low winner. 32%. If we got together to watch films, we'd end up stabbing each other in the eyes.
posted by ColdChef at 6:47 AM on August 22, 2007

fnord
I fear *I* am the one doing that....we have a 84% similarity.
posted by ShawnString at 6:54 AM on August 22, 2007

(Pssst. They also did this on MetaChat.)
posted by ColdChef at 7:00 AM on August 22, 2007

My low is John, at 29%.
My high is GJ, with 74%.

(Here is mine again, for click convenience. I didn't hyperlink it last time.)
posted by jiiota at 7:01 AM on August 22, 2007

Here's me!
posted by leesh at 7:05 AM on August 22, 2007

Uh, my girlfriend was in town, and she's definitely the one who picked all the bad movies. My picks are the good ones. Except for Entourage. I picked that too. Be my friend anyway.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 7:08 AM on August 22, 2007

Cold Chef, how's bout 76%?
posted by solipsophistocracy at 7:12 AM on August 22, 2007

I need to add more movies to my queue
posted by Lucinda at 7:23 AM on August 22, 2007

ColdChef: "(Pssst. They also did this on MetaChat.)"

GUYS GUYS STOP! IT'S BEEN DONE BEFORE!
posted by Plutor at 7:34 AM on August 22, 2007

Identity: You and Mike M. disliked this movie way more than the average viewer. You two are certainly far from average.
posted by jiiota at 7:40 AM on August 22, 2007

I'm on the metachat thread linked above, but here's me again.
Warning: queue contains anime. Please do not consider this an opportunity to mock me for "masturbating to catgirls".

It's robot maids that make me grab my junk.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:43 AM on August 22, 2007

Shawn - So you're the one?

And fine taste in films. Scanners. There's a doctoral thesis in that one, just waiting to be written.
posted by fnord at 8:09 AM on August 22, 2007

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/PL1sNebEZLQXtGbStfj0
posted by brundlefly at 8:09 AM on August 22, 2007

Me, watching Identity in a theater full of enrapt filmgoers whose standards evidently just are not my own: "It's The 3! Someone actually made the fuckin' 3!"
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:11 AM on August 22, 2007

If some of you are really worried about people finding out that you gave 5 stars to "Pretty Woman" or whatever, it looks like you can mark certain movies in your rental queue as private.
posted by Dave Faris at 8:13 AM on August 22, 2007

be my netflix friend?

79% with leesh (#2), 77% with Coldchef (#4)

So Lentrohamsanin, I guess that means you've got all the episodes of The Jetsons on DVD?
posted by god hates math at 8:19 AM on August 22, 2007

And it just occurred to me ... US Librarians have been fighting the government tooth and nail in recent years to protect the data of books people have checked out as a stand for personal civil liberties and privacy, and yet we all just exposed ourselves on an open and popular internet forum without giving it a second thought.
posted by Dave Faris at 8:23 AM on August 22, 2007 [3 favorites]

How on earth do they calculate these percentages? GHM is 79 percent with me (astoundingly high!), yet I am only 53 percent with him.
posted by leesh at 9:25 AM on August 22, 2007

leesh, my guess would be that GHM has a much higher number of rated movies than you do. So if you had only rented ten movies, and GHM had rented 100, and you agreed on all 10 of your movies he would agree with you 100% of the time, but you would only agree with him 10% of the time. There's probably a flaw in my math and in my logic, but that's my guess.

Regarding how they calculate it, they're pretty transparent about it. There's a prize available to any programmer who can come along and do it better than they're already doing it.

Here is a metafilter thread about it.
posted by jiiota at 9:43 AM on August 22, 2007

Here's mine.

The real contest, I think, is who takes the most time to watch movies. That's where I'm a, um, Nordic warrior.
posted by gnomeloaf at 10:00 AM on August 22, 2007

Turn Ons: Thrillers, weird tales, and long walks on the beach. And puppies.

Turns Offs: American Remakes, phony people, and Tom Cruise vehicles. And the sexism and racism, by omission, of Pixar.
posted by tula at 10:14 AM on August 22, 2007

Ambrosia: we're 82%!
friend!
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 10:27 AM on August 22, 2007

Uh oh... my boyfriend sent me an angry email today. "Who the hell are all these people befriending me on Netflix!?!"
posted by k8t at 10:48 AM on August 22, 2007

Cat Pie: Sorry to say, you're only in my 62nd percentile... you'd better get to ratin'!

Everyone: This is intense. Tell me who you guys are; some of you don't have real names in your userpages. Changing your Netflix handle to something Mefi recognizable would be a great idea if you don't have non-mefi friends on there. (I do, but they know me as Ambrosia.)
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:25 PM on August 22, 2007

I'm "Shannon," AV.

tula writes "And the sexism and racism, by omission, of Pixar."

Uh, more so than most studios? They seem pretty standard to me in that regard.
posted by brundlefly at 1:47 PM on August 22, 2007

And here's me.

ShawnString: 92% similarity to you
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:24 PM on August 22, 2007

Cold Chef has 79% similarity with me!
here's mine.
posted by routergirl at 2:45 PM on August 22, 2007

Hmmm...routergirl. 61% on my side. Still, I guess we'll have to get married now. My wife's going to be crushed, but she and I were never really movie compatible anyway.

Oh, and no offense to anyone here, but my "Friends" list is now reaching critical mass. I'm going to go through and prune it of everyone I'm less than 50% compatible with. (If I delete you and you don't want to be deleted, feel free to click me again. I'm cool with that.)
posted by ColdChef at 3:02 PM on August 22, 2007

I ought to go through some day and rate a bunch of movies I'd seen before Netflix entered my life. That way I might get better (or more accurate) recommendations.

I'll break the news to my guy, Coldchef. I'm sure he'll understand. Movie compatibility is a HUGE dealbreaker.
posted by routergirl at 3:09 PM on August 22, 2007

(Oh. A while back I did some joke ratings on a Wiggles movie and a couple others and sent them to some real life friends to make them laugh. That probably didn't help, either.)
posted by routergirl at 3:11 PM on August 22, 2007

yet we all just exposed ourselves on an open and popular internet forum without giving it a second thought.

Pfft. Virgin.
posted by yerfatma at 3:13 PM on August 22, 2007

Also, some of you sluts roll over and 5 star anything that shows up at your doorstep in an easy-to-open package.

Guess I can understand that.
posted by yerfatma at 3:15 PM on August 22, 2007

Different people think about ratings differently. I'm not very interested in rating things badly, partly because I'm fairly careful about what I watch and I usually don't watch anything I end up hating, anyway. But as I rate (I was just now rating a bunch of movies there), I find that I end up rating between three stars as "oh, that was okay" to five stars as "that is one of my favorites", leaving four stars for everything else that I have a favorable impression of. I need to push things down to two stars, maybe.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 3:20 PM on August 22, 2007

I'd like to do it, but that would mean revealing my true identity. And then I'd never get a moment's peace from that bitch, Lois.
posted by Clay201 at 12:54 AM

A-hem. Hi, I'm Lois.

Brundlefly, maybe Pixar is just run of the mill sex/racist, but it seems much worse to me. Toys, monsters, and cars are all imagineered as male by default unless a female caricature is needed. The same with non-whites. All that freedom and creativity, but they can't imagine a world with a culture different from their own corp culture--nearly all white men (who have full time homemaker wives or partners) and so homogeneous that they aren't even aware there's a problem. There are people within Pixar trying to drag them out of their cocoon. I hear.
posted by tula at 3:26 PM on August 22, 2007

My ratings:
Five stars: I probably own this or wish I did.
Four stars: I liked this enough to tell someone how much I liked it, but I probably wouldn't buy it.
Three stars: I'm glad I watched this. But not thrilled.
Two stars: Flawed and/or difficult to watch
One star: Fuck this fucking shit.
Not interested: Not interested.
posted by ColdChef at 3:28 PM on August 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Ambrosia 83%. I will be raiding you queue looking for inspiration.
posted by tula at 3:33 PM on August 22, 2007

your
posted by tula at 3:39 PM on August 22, 2007

Also, some of you sluts roll over and 5 star anything that shows up at your doorstep in an easy-to-open package.

I'll stand by my five star list. At some point I decided to rate movies not by whether I thought they were the best movies ever, but by whether they were my favorite movies ever. I reserve five stars for movies which I love, and which feel like they belong to me, and which I would happily watch over and over again. I also don't hesitate to give a three-star rating to movies which I know are important and good, but which are difficult for me to sit through more than once.
posted by jiiota at 3:49 PM on August 22, 2007

ColdChef, I was trying to think of a way to describe how I feel about my one-star movies but I can't do better than you did.
posted by jiiota at 3:52 PM on August 22, 2007

Also, some of you sluts roll over and 5 star anything that shows up at your doorstep in an easy-to-open package.

Or, you know, some of us are close-minded and usually don't queue up stupid shit that we don't expect to like. For example, I just watched 12 Monkeys for the first time. That particular turd got 2 stars. Worse than what I normally watch, but better than, say, Gigli.

That's what I get for taking chances, I guess.
posted by god hates math at 3:54 PM on August 22, 2007

Yeah, after this much time as a movie geek (not a buff when you've got a diploma), I pretty much only rent things that wind up getting 2 stars or less as a goof. I like to have "Bad Movie and Bourbon Night." Last night I sicced Night at the Museum against Smoking Aces in an ultimate cameo crapoff.

I'm not closed-minded about movies, and I truly give questionable movies a pass more often than many people because I love movies so much, and they can win me over easily, but there's also got to be limits on what I'll watch when other opportunities are lost due to the choice. My own enjoyment only gets put in the backseat for cultural or cinematic literacy. I may be a film geek, but have I seen Jules and Jim? No, because I'd rather watch Knocked Up. I am loathe to sit still and focus when watching movies at home (or, more to the point, shut my laptop and stop Metafiltering while watching).
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:06 PM on August 22, 2007

Here I am....

be my friend!

fnord, we're at 81%. Maybe I'll have to check out this Winged Serpent.
posted by emd3737 at 4:22 PM on August 22, 2007

I'm not very interested in rating things badly, partly because I'm fairly careful about what I watch and I usually don't watch anything I end up hating, anyway.

Completely understand. It was just interesting to see how differently other people rate stuff. I (and by "I" I mean "my wife and I) try to follow a similar theory, but it doesn't always work out, mainly because I either make a reach on some foreign/ indie film or something sits in queue so long I don't even want to see it anymore.
posted by yerfatma at 5:25 PM on August 22, 2007

Brundlefly, maybe Pixar is just run of the mill sex/racist, but it seems much worse to me. Toys, monsters, and cars are all imagineered as male by default unless a female caricature is needed. The same with non-whites.

They are white guys making white guy movies. Why is that so odd or bad?
posted by popechunk at 5:46 PM on August 22, 2007

They are white guys making white guy movies. Why is that so odd or bad?

On its own, nothing. But it can be annoying to not be able to find non-white non-guy movies on those rare occasions when I rent DVDs. I rent mine at the Safeway down the street, so mainstream is all I get.
posted by The corpse in the library at 6:05 PM on August 22, 2007

Why is that so odd or bad?

They're kids' movies, is why it's bad. Ugh, the one that finally got to me was Cars. Would you like racial stereotypes with your reactionary poltics and materialism?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:33 PM on August 22, 2007

They're kids' movies, is why it's bad.

Exactly. Once I was at a dinner party with a guy from Pixar and asked him about the dearth of female characters who weren't sexpots or helpless toddlers or mommies or old crotchety ladies--in other word, sympathetic characters who little kids might want to emulate. He said that boys were more interested in animation than girls were. Just like that. Like it had never occurred to him that maybe girls would be more interested if they saw female characters who did neat stuff, had adventures and behaved heroically.
posted by tula at 8:53 PM on August 22, 2007

Disney is the worst for killing off the Moms.

Aladdin's character even had a Mom in the screenplay, but they took her out. Ever since Walt Disney died, they've had no good Mom roles. They love to have Dads; Jasmine had a Dad, Belle had a Dad, Pocahontas had a Dad. I think Michael Eisner must have hated his Mom.
posted by misha at 9:43 PM on August 22, 2007

Bambi had a mom. Oh, wait...
posted by ColdChef at 5:11 AM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

He said that boys were more interested in animation than girls were.

Weird that you were talking to a male employee from Pixar. Unless what you perceive as a stereotype might have a grain of truth to it. I'm sure it's just a glass ceiling keeping women out. Of course, if women were there they would have to spend their time making movies about powerful male role models to show they weren't sexist. What a conundrum you've found inside the world of kid's movies.
posted by yerfatma at 5:28 AM on August 23, 2007

Ever since Walt Disney died, they've had no good Mom roles.

And a dearth of sympathetic fascist characters too.
posted by yerfatma at 5:29 AM on August 23, 2007

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/Plu7qTOVNQeewkeoPy2d

If something like Roadhouse suddenly appears at the top of my queue, please assume that I'm watching the Rifftrax that accompanies it from the guys of MST3K.

Then again, maybe I just urgently needed to watch Glitter.
posted by unsupervised at 9:28 AM on August 23, 2007

yerfatma, were you aiming for sarcasm there?
posted by tula at 10:17 AM on August 23, 2007

I don't know, sarcasm or not, it doesn't reflect much understanding of the whole monoculture->marketing->monoculture cycle.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:50 AM on August 23, 2007

(which I take for granted, but don't mean to be uppity about)
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:52 AM on August 23, 2007

Here you go ambr v, you uppity bitch:)
posted by vronsky at 12:13 PM on August 23, 2007

I should be showing as Lentrohamsanin now.

Hey while we're here, does anyone know why my apostrophes get eaten when I write Netflix reviews?
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 12:41 PM on August 23, 2007

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/PBZks7WVYTW8iE91TiJ1
posted by NationalKato at 1:38 PM on August 23, 2007

vronsky, you stalker.
[not stalkerist]
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:08 PM on August 23, 2007

http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P8osrK7sRwazZ2zvrOm6
posted by NortonDC at 2:13 PM on August 23, 2007

you wish.
posted by vronsky at 3:10 PM on August 23, 2007

dude: go nuts.
posted by the_royal_we at 2:43 AM on August 24, 2007