5 Signs The Movie You’ve Watched Is Worth Recommending

There’s nothing worse than feeling as if you’ve just wasted a couple hours of your life watching a terrible movie. Whether you persevered in the hope that it would get better, or simply couldn’t be bothered to watch anything else, either way, it’s not a mistake you want to make again.

But isn’t it always a gamble as to whether the movie you’ve chosen to watch will become one of your favorite movies of all time, or a complete and utter flop? And what if you watched a movie, but can’t decide whether to recommend it to a friend or not? While movies do of course have subjective appeal, there are some indicators to look out for that can help you determine whether the movie you watched was worth watching recommending to others.

If you’ve just watched a movie, and find that you can check more than 3 of the following boxes, it may well have been worth recommending:

• It spoke to you

While whether a movie speaks to you or not is entirely subjective, it is nonetheless an important determining factor when deciding just how good a movie really was. If you could connect with the characters or the theme, and felt yourself drawn into the movie on a personal level, then you can at least determine that it was enjoyable to you. 

• It isn’t just like any other movie

Some movies follow similar themes to other films but still manage to be original, while others seem so similar that you may as well have watched the original movie again. If the movie you’ve just watched kept you guessing, or had at least one theme that you haven’t seen anywhere else, then others shouldn’t find it boring or repetitive, and you can go ahead and recommend it with a degree of confidence.

• It has twists and turns

Nobody wants to watch a movie in which every character and every storyline is predictable. If a movie explores topics you’ve never seen broached in such a way before, has characters that you won’t find in every other Hollywood script, or takes you on a journey you could never have predicted, it’s safe to say that it’s worth someone else spending their time watching it.

• It has a certain rhythm

Even if a movie isn’t exactly fast-paced, it should never grind to a halt and bring the story to an end before it’s even had a chance to progress. The story-telling process shouldn’t stop until the credits start to run.

• Not everything in it is explained

The average movie-goer likes to engage their brain when watching a movie, and enjoys trying to figure out plot lines, or a characters motivation for behaving the way they do. Having everything explained in minute detail can ruin the fun, and unless you specifically want to watch a movie in which you can completely and utterly switch off and disengage your brain, if a movie leaves nothing to the imagination, it probably isn’t worth recommending.

Did the last movie you watched make it on to your top 10 movies of all time list, or did it flunk out and not check any of the right boxes? The next time you’re wondering whether what you watched was really a great movie, try reviewing it with the criteria above in mind, before deciding whether to recommend it to others.