The mouse maze walk through the aisles. The glassy-eyed gazing at the shelves of new releases. Sometimes those work. But mostly, those types of search patterns simply get you to watch the same sort of pabulum that everyone else is watching. Tailor your movie watching future to your interests, and to do that, you'll need to start with some research.
Before you go to the video store, or log-in to your Internet based movie supplier, think about what kinds of movies you really enjoy. Do you like comedies? If so, what kind of comedies? And who are in those? And who directs those? Start building a list of people whose work you enjoy. Those could be your first clues to finding obscure movies that you will love.
Like reading all of the books of your favorite author, try watching all of the movies by your favorite director. Or seeing all of the films starring your favorite actor or actress. If you take those in order, too, you can gain an additional level of insight into the development of that person's work. A great resource to generate such a list is www.imdb.com, the Internet movie database.
Lists are the best. They help bring order and sophistication to movie watching, adding deeper levels of understanding and appreciation. The American Film Institute, www.afi.com, has generated lists of the Top 100 movies but also lists of the best heroes/villains, the best stars, the best songs, etc.
Another idea is to type the name of your favorite movie into a retailer, like Amazon.com, that offers suggestions of other movies that interest people who like that one. Like a rabbit hole, once you start looking at the derivatives of that type of search, who knows where it will lead. And there are thousands (maybe millions) of web forums and blogs that offer tips about favorite films.
So next time you are looking for a movie, go with a plan. Invariably, it will turn out better than using the random grab bag approach.