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I recently started using the social networking site for movies: Flixster. I found it because my friends started adding the Flixster Facebook app. So I was curious and wanted to see what it was all about. The interface is really slick and easy to use and I found it to be an excellent resource for the following reasons.

1. It allows me to keep a list of my favourite movies. I am so bad with names of movies, actors and directors. But over the last 15 years or so I’ve seen a lot of really excellent movies. Sitting down and thinking about what they were and reconstructing the list from my memory was a lot of fun. Now I have a personal records of all the greatest movies I have seen. It’s like the diary I never kept!

2. I can’t argue IMDB is the most complete movie database on the planet. But besides there list of top movies of all time, its more for looking up movies you already know instead of a movie discovery tool. On flixster after I input my list of favourite movies, I filled out a survey that matches me with flixster movies with compatable tastes, so I added them as friends. So with this information the recommendation tool can work its magic. It offers me movie suggestions one by one based on the movies I like, and the movies my friends like. After flipping through the recommendations I can add the movies that seem interesting to a a list of “Movies I want to see”. Now I always have a list of good movies I can watch, and I no longer have movie block, stumbling around in circles on IMDB. Nothing beats the power of the people!

I feel like I’m having a movie watching renaissance. You think after watching years of indie, art house, and foreign films you are well informed and already know about the good stuff. But Flixster has shown me that there are _so_ many movies that I’ve missed or don’t know about that are worth watching.