How do you discover new good movies to watch that came out decades ago?

[CyberCubed]

So for example, most of the best movies came out decades ago either before most of us were born or when we were just kids. Outside of word of mouth, I usually go to actors rottentomato page and scan through to see what the best reviewed movies are. I've discovered a lot of new movies I've never seen before that I enjoyed.

For example I went to Harrison Ford's page to see some of his other more obscure movies from the 80's, and I discovered some new favorites like, "The Mosquito Coast," "Working Girl," and, "Frantic." Working Girl especially is fantastic, and Sigourney Weaver also stars in it from Aliens. It's amazing how many other great Harrison Ford movies there are that people overlook or never watch simply because they assume he's just "Han Solo or Indiana Jones or Blade Runner" and don't watch his other stuff. Besides big hits like "Air Force One" and, "The Fugitive."

I did the same with Sylvester Stallone, best known for Rocky or Rambo. I discovered, "Nighthawks" from 1981 where he's a buddy cop with Billy Dee Williams, and, "Cop Land" from 1997. I'm going to watch some of his other older movies like F.I.S.T. and so forth.

I'm going to go through Keeanu Reeves, Mel Gibson, Arnold's, Tom Cruise's, etc....all other older movies and discover new favorites.

[Prowler]

...you answered your own question in the OP. I mean, like you said, looking at actors and directors pages on IMDB or wikipedia. You can also use websites like letterboxd and see what movies the people you follow logged recently. Or you can just google for "best movies form the 1950s" or something.

This is why I don't understand how so many people nowadays, where it's easier to find more obscure shows/movies/cartoons/anime/music artists/etc. than ever still need the mainstream media and gigantic ads by roadside to tell them what to watch/read/listen to.

[Cryomancer]

Go by director and you'll (maybe) have an even better time.

[Cure]

New movies that came out decades ago, eh?

[CyberCubed]

I meant new to us, as in we never seen them before. Even the big famous actors have so many obscure or minor films that were actually really good that nobody talks about.

I watched 10 obscure Harrison Ford films over the last week or so. Ironically enough he basically plays himself in every movie that isn't Star Wars or Indiana Jones.

[mrmaczaps]

I watch old movies with my parents and even once in a while with my grandparents... its quite entertaining at times to see some of the actors as kids with bit parts that are now stars all on their own or even some that were popular for a short time and now are only bit part actors today. Even more fun is watching movies that only came out 10-15 years ago that I never saw that have todays new young stars in them. Saw one of Anna Kendricks first films a couple weeks ago... before Twilight... lol

[MikeandRaph87]

One such way is the now late Robert Osborne introducing a classic film era movie to see if it interest me as I said in his in memorandum thread. Another is looking at movie ranking list then watching trailers. Such list as IMDB. If it interest me from the trailer I will look on the DVR. If not in the next seven to ten days I will go to Netflix to see if its streaming on able to be ordered by mail.

[Wesley]

I discover old films by watching them on tv channels or looking up different genres via the Internet.