Quit Scrolling and Blurb-Reading: Use These Fun Games to Pick Your Next Movie

Whenever you and some friends want to spend an evening just watching a good movie, the worst thing that can happen is that those in charge of choosing become indecisive. Reading and re-reading blurbs – even though they’re almost all useless – or nowadays, doom-scrolling through streaming libraries for minutes on end really kills the momentum of a fun evening.

Reports from 2016 via Rovi said that 20 minutes were spent searching through titles on streaming platforms. It’d be fair to say that now, with so many more platforms, movies, and bad streaming originals out there, it takes up even more time. So, to help skip past this nonsense and get some movies ordered or on the screen, here are some fun games to bypass indecision and tedious scrolling.

Leaving the choice to pure luck

There are simply so many movies around right now, from classics and modern greats to the more cookie-cutter creations currently absorbing much of the box-office revenues. You may be familiar with the big-name platforms, but smaller streaming services, like Mubi, have a more curated selection and offer a free trial so that, for a one-off movie night, you can easily get to a great film without cost.

To home in on the best movies that are both worth watching and quickly available, we turn to the classic game of roulette. While online roulette now takes many forms, the premise remains the same. Whether it’s Roulette Mega Moolah, Scarab Auto Roulette, or Real Spooky Roulette, it’s all about spinning the wheel and dropping the ball to randomise the winner. It’s a concept that has enabled roulette to remain popular centuries after its inception.

It’s the game of roulette that’s made Reelgood such a strong option for quick picks on movie night. Their randomising Reelgood Roulette feature quickly lets you spin to find a random film to watch. Now, you don’t get to see the roulette wheel spin or bet on the numbers or outcomes, as you would at a live roulette table, but you still get a random pick. Better still, there are a few features, like scores and genres, to ensure that you land a good movie.

Cards and some memory play

To have a bit more say in the movies you watch, especially if you own some digitally or physically, you could use the classic card game of pairs, also known as memory or concentration. You place a deck of cards spread out and face down randomly across the table. Next, each person picks two. If they match, that’s a win, and those cards are removed from the table. That player also gets another pick.

Adapting this to a movie selection is easy. First, select three or four films, preferably with one that’s poorly reviewed, like Morbius, to add some tension to the game. Next, assign a suit to each movie. Take it in turns to pick out the pairs, and the first suit to go gives you your movie to watch. To make it a little more suspenseful, you could even randomly mix the discs within the cases around so that what you think has won may not.

It adds a little bit of randomised fun to the movie-picking ordeal, and if anyone’s good enough at memory games, they may even end up picking enough pairs to make the decision for themselves. As noted, to make this part really enjoyable, make sure there’s a potential range of films with good review scores, like Drive My Car, down to those that aren’t exactly critically acclaimed or look like they’ll just be so bad that they’re fun to watch.

Let the fates of the second-hand store decide

Whether you want to go down to a charity store or make use of a second-hand online store, you can always snag great movies for cheap by browsing used DVDs and Blu-rays. The key is to have some rules in place so that you can quickly pick. For example, set a price cap per movie – aiming to get three or four so that there’s a choice – and then the selection range, such as one per shelf or the first three that you spot that you haven’t seen before. This is made quite simple and cost-effective on the Music Magpie DVD offers pages.

There’s always a promotion of two for £5, four for £8, buy one get one free, two for £3, and four for £5. At the time of writing, the awards darling that is Dunkirk featured in the four for £8 on Blu-ray. The best way to do it is to pick the offer that you’d go for and then use the filters to sort by ‘Popularity.’ From the first one, go through and pick the first two or four movies that you haven’t seen. As there’s a free two to three-day delivery option, you’ll only pay as much as the offer says. For maximum value, though, sort by ‘Price: High to Low.’

By using these games, you can make picking the flick for your movie night much easier and a little bit more fun.