Ah, the netflix algorithm. I had a similar experience: http://rubyi.st/2007/2/15/netflix-recommendation-algorithm...

i love netflix, but sometimes the movie they recommend me really annoy the shit out of me. i cant wrap my head around how their algorithm thinks just because i like annie hall and a clockwork orange, that i ll love rosemarys baby (seen it, and do indeed like it) AND y tu mama tambien.

how do they go from rosemarys baby, to y tu mama tambien?

We use the Blockbuster thing. Because my dad can't leave his brandname conventions.

For some reason NetFlix thinks I'll just love Michael Flatley: Gold because I liked Delta Force 2. Maybe I'll put it in my queue just to watch Flatly stomp some dudes to death.

Is this really that surprising given how many christians (Southern Baptists, for example) are such bloodthirsty warmongers?

It's not as though someone sits there and figures out what movies you might like. It's just based on how others rate the movie. It seems totally plausible to me that the same people who like Moses also enjoy Death Wish.

I noticed some similarly odd recommendations with IMDB as well.

There's a nostalgic made-for-TV special called Easter Promise (sequel to The House without a Christmas Tree) that recommends Patton.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308203/

Following Patton brings you to their recommendations ... among them Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066206/

Netscape has given me some weird recommendations as well. The most interesting that comes to mind is that they thought I would enjoy Family Guy because I enjoyed Kill Bill: Volume 2.

I noticed that even if you rate a movie only 1 star, a message pops up saying "we think you'll enjoy yadda yadda", which makes even less sense. Because I didn't like this movie, I'll enjoy some other, totally unrelated movie?

They know they have issues with their recommendations systems - just click on that tiny link that says "Prize" at the bottom of their site. It goes on to say if you can design a better algorithm to recommend movies, blah,blah,blah Win a Million Bucks, blah,blah ! They want other people to fix it. So i say if you can program, go and get yourself some pocket change!!! hee hee.

Must be a slow day at the Consumerist... ;)

There's a very good reason for this happening with recommendations systems - because at least one other Netflix subscriber DID rent BOTH Death Wish 3 and The Bible Collection: Moses. Seeing as how both movies aren't exactly blockbusters, just one or two people doing that could very well "teach" the recommendation system to suggest one of those movies to someone who rented the other.

I'm not amused or worked up over this, but I am surprised that this item even came up at the Consumerist. We've had years to laugh at the follies of recommendation system algorithms since its early days. Let's not act like internet neophytes, and just brush this one off.

A .457 magnum you say?

Why is religion such a big deal on this site? It seems that anything having anything to do with religion is vilified. Awhile back it was the "Oh Noes fast food chains are marketing for Lent!!" post, then it was the two "OMGZ that cat food bag looks like the Madonna" posts. Now this. What's wrong with a movie about Moses?

Maybe you will like it, if your taste is bad enough to like Death Wish 3.

@Hillbilly Bill Hilly:
> A .457 magnum you say?

Yeah, Moses was a bad mofo. He's not gonna settle for a pansy-ass .357! You should hope he ONLY shoots you with his .457 and doesn't turn his staff into a snake or something really mean.

Obviously, Ben Popken hasn't read the Old Testament lately. If he had, he's realize that it's got enough murder, genocide, perverted sex, and other mayhem to satisfy even the most devoted ultraviolent film lover. Moses called down avenging angels to murder the first born child of every person in Egypt. I don't know if they looked like Charles Bronson, but I suppose they could have.

"This must be the one where Moses takes down the Pharaoh and his gang of thugs terrorizing the slums of Egypt."

Well, it IS still Passover, after all ;)