3 ways for you to keep a list of movies you want to watch
Here's the system I use to remember movies and TV shows I want to watch: I put some on my Netflix watch list, some on my Amazon list. I forward online stories to myself and my husband. I keep marked-up newspapers near the TV and a list in my Notes iPhone app.
When the time comes to watch a movie, we have to look through all these lists, see what's still out, what's available through Fios On Demand, what's moved to the streaming services, and what we feel like viewing that night.
Sometimes it takes longer to find something to watch than to watch it.
App developers are feeling my pain and have created apps that allow you to search for and save movies and TV shows to lists. I've tested three, and each has shortcomings.
JustWatch (free; iOS and Android) focuses on streaming. You can search across platforms (Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, etc.) and filter by release year, rating, price and genre. Scroll through synopses or trailers, and save the ones you like to your watch list. When you're ready to watch, you'll get a list of choices: "Cake" is free on Netflix, costs $2.99 on Amazon and $12.99 to $14.99 to buy. This app is pretty good, if streaming is all you're interested in. One big shortcoming: It doesn't include Internet providers such as Fios.
MediaBox (free; iOS) covers movies, books, TV and music. While it would be great to have all my lists in one place, I found it more difficult to navigate. Plus it only searches iTunes, missing options on the other streaming sites or in the other online book and music stores.
TodoMovies (free; iOS) is promising, but works only for movies. You can search by genre, what's in theaters and what's upcoming. You can see the synopsis, ratings and trailer. You can save it to a list. Two are provided - To Watch and Watched - and you can add one more for free; for unlimited lists and no ads, you pay $2.99. (I can imagine many lists: wait for streaming, see with husband, see with daughters, see with girlfriends.) Again, however, it gives you only the option of streaming or buying movies from iTunes. Plus, the in-theaters list, supposedly based on location data, didn't list all the movies in nearby theaters, missing several big ones.
I can see how using a mixture of these apps could work, but then, how is that so different from my current system?