While almost all of us are more than happy to sit down and watch a good film or summer blockbuster, that doesn't mean we're willing to stand up and claim the lofty title of "movie geek".
Sure, we might have our specialities. I'm a cross-promotional summer blockbuster fan, myself. Typically, I see everything my plastic Burger King cup tells me to see.
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I like movies everybody likes - I like movies nobody likes. I sat through Catwoman twice, a feat that I believe qualifies me for the Guinness Book of World Records.
But that doesn't mean we all have so many DVD box sets that we must horde them under the kitchen sink. Some of us don't even own a movie poster.
And not one of us is insane enough to fake a sick day just to stand outside a hot convention centre in a Darth Maul costume, itching the horns glued to our head while we wait for an autograph from Benedict Taylor, who played Fighter Pilot Bravo 2 in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. I mean, I might know this one guy, but believe me, we are not him.
No, we love movies, but that love has its place - and that place is discreet trivia games on smartphones.
The app
Thankfully there's IMDb Trivia (free; iPhone, iPad, Android coming soon) a fun time-killer app from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com) that will test the depth, breadth and speed of your brain's cinema-filled cerebellum.
The details
IMDb Trivia knows that boredom is like Kryptonite to movie fans (in much the same way Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was Kryptonite for the Superman franchise). Thus, the app's slick, intuitive touch-screen interface (which even comes with a soothing soundtrack) asks a variety of questions in a variety of ways through a variety of levels: arrange movies by date of release, tap which floating movie titles star Jim Carrey, etc. Speed counts and all the while, it keeps track of your scores.
The app comes with three free trivia "packs"; others can be purchased for Dh3.67 each, presumably, once you're hooked.
It can't be denied that Hollywood fills our brains with useless information - IMDB Triva at least lets us enjoy the illusion that we're putting that information to good use.
Have some great personal finance apps that you want to share? Write to Curt Brandao at cbrandao@thenational.ae