Flickchart – Every Movie You’ve Ever Seen… In List Form

Flickchart is one of the more recent movie timekillers to hit the web, and it's a pretty fun entry into conversations.  It's also a great way to find new movies and get some insight from other users.  Deceptive in its apparent simplicity, all you do is pick between two movies.  The data from all the choices you make is put together to create your own personal list of every movie you've seen, and every movie you haven't.

There's a saying of some sort about simplicity and power, and the idea behind that saying is easy to see at Flickchart.  Really, all you do is endlessly pick between two movies, but what you can get out of doing it is interesting, and pretty impressive.  And though it's simple, don't think it's always easy.  I strongly suggest you devise a scheme before getting too involved, because if you don't have a good idea of what you're doing... well, then members of your top 10 are going to face off, and what are you going to pick?

I've heard some people say that they're really trying for Best Movies, and others who pick based on "if I were going to be forced to watch a movie right now...," and a lot of other methods, but you've got to have some kind of ammo going in, or there's a lot of staring blankly at your moniter in your future.

Whatever you're going for, some strange things are probably going to happen anyway.  Check out my Flickchart profile here, and you'll see a list that is not exactly how I would make it, but some things just don't come up for rating against things that would change their position, and so there they are.

If you look down toward the bottom of my profile, you'll see one of the more valuable features of the site, which is a list of movies you have told Flickchart that you haven't seen.  You get them listed in order of the overall ranking they have at Flickchart.  You'll notice that Kill Bill vol.1 is ranked 21, so you'll have a bit of an idea where things stand in terms of the results of that system, but it's interesting to see where things you haven't seen stack up.  By the way, I lied and told the thing I hadn't seen a variety of movies, because I wanted an interesting list to show up there, so don't start emailing me.

When you play around a little more, you can get some interesting lists, whether you want to check out your own stats, or those that integrate all users.  You can find the overall best rated of course, but you can filter by decade, year, and genre as well.  You can also click on a title and get the stats for that particular film, in case you're wondering how many people have it at number 1, or in their top 20.

And then there are the discussions.  Whenever you are looking at a movie pairing, the option will be there for you to start a discussion about that match-up.  I have refrained from starting such discussions to this point (except one just to check things out), but I've been reading a lot of them. Empire Strikes Back vs. Return of the Jedi.  Ghostbusters vs. Back to the Future.  And my favorite, Saw vs. Lost in Translation.  It's a fun way to get a conversation going, or just throw out your two cents, or whine in frustration at how mindbending it is trying to choose between the two movies you hate most.

There's something about that simplicity I mentioned, because this thing is just wickedly addictive, and I'm not even sure why.  There's a sick, little thrill that comes from picking things over Crossroads or Glitter ... but what happens when those worlds collide?

I have it from the co-founder that there are a lot of new things on the way too.  I'm not sure we've nailed down just what sort of widgets and integration might be around the corner, but it sounds like we're in store for a lot more ways to play, share, and vehemently shake our fists at each other as movies battle it out head-to-head.

Flickchart also has a pretty cool little intro trailer.

Are You Screening?

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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