You ever find a good movie just by watching it on a whim?

I've found some movies that I'm fond of after catching them halfway in, or by flipping through channels. When I was younger, we had both east coast and west coast time zone versions of channels, so if I found a movie that was really good but had missed the beginning, I could prep and watch it in full on the west coast channel. Pretty nifty, especially since my mother and I used to record stuff on blank VHS tapes.

It's been a while since I've found a 'keeper' movie as I quit having cable, but my wife and I got this antenna thingy a couple years back which gets you the basic channels like people used to get before.

Here in Cincinnati, there's this channel called "Movies!" that I never had before, but it has an IFC vibe to it. Just plays movies all the time, most of which I'd never heard of for whatever reason befell the movie.

Today, I caught the end of Swamp Thing and stuck around for this bike messenger flick with Kevin Bacon and Larry Fishburne called Quicksilver. Swamp Thing borrowed the music score from Friday the 13th for its credits I noticed, ha, and Quicksilver took RoboCop's title sequence (Orion).

A few months back, I'd caught this post-apocalyptic movie on here too, so it's pretty good for finding cool movies. In the age of Netflix and whatnot (which my wife and I enjoy), it's nice that little channels are still fighting the good fight.

This channel also shows a "Coming Up Next" preview for each movie.

Movies I've found this way, that are coming to mind:

Talk Radio (it was on Thrillers, or some other specialty channel)
Another Day in Paradise (Afterward I fell in love with the books it's based on)
Bloodmoon (it was on some action channel, Starz/Encore)
The Human Duplicators
Digging to China (Another Kevin Bacon movie)
Joy Ride
Murder by Numbers
Sea of Love
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
The Painted Veil

Most of those movies, I've gone and added to my own collection.

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This is how I first came upon Donnie Darko haha

Oh yeah.. several times... one was "The Physician" with Ben Kingsley.... I recommended it to @Citizen Rules and he enjoyed it as well.

It rare that a movie watched on a whim makes it to my favorites. But out of those I can remember, Rain Man, Phone Booth and Titanic are among them. Watching Titanic in the middle of the night actually made the ship sinking even more terrifying.

Actually, there were 2 DVDs I bought on a whim without knowing what to expect... and I'm glad I did... they are 2 of my favorite foreign films.

If you ever get a chance to see them.. I highly recommend them.

I grew up in the 80's with visits to the video store, so I'd say at least 60% of the films I saw were on a whim or something I wanted to see because I wanted to hire it before (on a whim) but went with another film instead.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

The sci-fi horror film Prey. I read the writeup one night and really didn't expect what I saw, in a good way :

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...ad.php?t=46632

Me too. At first I thought it was just some random horror movie with a cult following, and didn't expect much going in. What caught me by surprise was not only how great it was, but that it's actually not a horror movie at all.

Wait, how does this thread define "on a whim"? I thought it just meant watching something that happened to be on.

I almost only buy movies I've never seen before, simply because they peak my curiosity one way or another.

Pretty much this. Especially as I watched lots of films as a kid and didn't always have much money so I often had to pick the cheap B-movies. Fortunately one of the stores had a big basement full of all kinds of trash (others only had a shelf or two or just a big box in a corner)

Of all things , True Grit. Was lolling around the house one day, and while channel surfing, saw some nice scenery, which hooked me in. I' m not a fan of westerns or most John Wayne movies , buit I truly enjoyed this one and would watch it again. Pairing Wayne with a ' plucky heroine' reminded me ( it may seem strange to say) of the type of novels I read as a pre teen - Nancy Drew type adventures.

Anyway, good scenery, lots if humor, Wayne turning in a performance unlike his usual character roles, and a satisfying ( touching) end.

Did a podcast on this with Yoda and Slappy.
The Grey.


I even mention about how I basically blind-bought it on DVD simply because it has Liam Neeson in it.


Good film, nice throwback to the 70s and 80s creature features too.

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Recently, Lean on Pete. Had no interest in it despite the acclaim, thought it as just going to be about horse racing or one of those 'a boy, and his horse' movies which I've never been into. Then saw it was directed by Andrew Haigh who did the marvelous 45 Years, Weekend, and Looking. Randomly watched it one night, was sobbing on the couch by the end. It's still in my memory and one of my favorites this year. Charlie Plummer is amazing in it. I can't recommend it enough.

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Recent Views (out of 4)
Eighth Grade- (3.5/4)
Sicario 2- (3/4)
Assassination Nation- (3/4)
Mandy- (3.5/4)

At least half the time.

Trailers and the backs of blu-ray/DVD covers give away too much, so unless it's blockbuster stuff I prefer not knowing anything about a movie other than who's in it/directed it/did the soundtrack.

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Just watched it expecting to be a normal movie but I was blown away at the time.

Besides that I usually do research before watching anything which means I always have well defined expectations. That means that when I usually love something there was significant foreshadowing that I would from the fan community reception of it.

Spring Forward (2000)

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...61#post1661361

Donnie Darko here too. Didn't know a thing about the film, never heard of it before seeing it in the shop. So bought it while it on holiday in New York where it was just released on dvd. I was obsessed with slasher films at the time and the front cover attracted my attention thinking it was some sort of horror/slasher film then read the back and found it was very different but liked the sound of it. Glad I did, watched the dvd a lot, love the film.




^ The dvd cover I was drawn too.

Oh yeah. I keep thinking what possessed me to give "Water Lilies" a try but it is my favourite French movie (though that's not a terribly meaningful title).

It's not a complex movie but it stays with you.

I discovered 'Bedroom Window' on YouTube while wasting my time watching music videos.

It showed up in the suggested videos, I watched it for fun and I am glad I did because it's an underrated gem.

I was just settling in an apartment as a student, before setting up internet connection I bought that lousy TV and 'a movie' just started in a local channel, I thought I have nothing to do I better watch it.


I knew nothing about it, probably didn't even know who Kurt Russell is at the time. Boy! that was one of the greatest movie watching experiences I've ever had.


How lucky can a person be to watch Escape from L.A. by accident and without even knowing that this movie exists which I believe adds way more excitement to the experience

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