Ever started watching a movie only to realize after 30 minutes that you’ve actually watched that one before?

There was this guy in our uni who kept a poster of each movie he watched, so that he wouldn’t watch the same movie again, ever. When you look at a movie’s poster you immediately get a flashback of what it was about, who the cast was as well. Added bonus.

But now we don’t have to go into such lengths to keep track of the movies. We have the great big movie database IMDb and dozens of other sites made right for the purpose. But then comes the problem, which one to choose?

If you look around, there are many who use the former, the International Movie Database. You sign up for an account, then start rating the movies you’ve watched. 9/10 for Reservoir Dogs and 4/10 for What Happens in Vegas and so on. After that, there’s nothing much you can do. Also note that you can’t check in for a movie without actually giving it a rating. Heck, I watched Original Sin so many years back, all I remember of it is the Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie having sex. No way I could _rate_ that movie now.

I was using watchth.is since about 2010 until I got tired of it a few months ago. It pulls data from the IMDb’s database and lets you check and favorite movies and comment on them. Other than being able to add friends, that’s pretty much of what it can do. Unlike in IMDb, you don’t have to rate anything. Just check them and feel good about it.

Then there is goodfil.ms. It has a modern-looking UI and some cool features like movie performance graphs from various sources like iTunes and Netflix. What I hate about the site is that it asks you for two ratings, the “critical quality” and the “rewatchability”. It trashes my idea of simply checking in the movie. Too complex for a simple guy.

I finally settled down with iCheckMovies. The site is simple and lets you just check the movies without the burden of having to rate them. You can favorite or dislike them, keep a watchlist, and so on. There are movie lists based on various tastes and you are awarded with medals if you finish watching half, three quarters, etc of these official lists. That’s an extra element of fun. Movie data are pulled from IMDb and the respective IMDb pages are linked to. You can even import your existing IMDb ratings, something most other sites don’t offer. Besides from the free tier, there are Basic and Pro pricing plans: it’s a startup with a business model. If you’re not much of a movieholic the free plan is just enough.

There’s a slew of other similar sites that lets you achieve much the same, like Rotten Tomatoes, Flixter and SeenTh.at. Some of them offer you much more than just checking in movies. Don’t be overwhelmed.

Finally it all comes down to personal taste. If you’re looking for one, make sure you check out iCheckMovies. IMHO, it does a rather good job at what it’s supposed to do. You can find me there.