In another thread someone mentioned that they owned 300+ DVDs. At Christmas I was at my brother’s - his family had DVDs laying everywhere that they had received for Christmas.
I love movies. I do a monthly review for the work magazine. I see between 50 and 150 movies a year at the cinema depending on what is released, I usually have rented stuff at home (tonight Adaptation which I saw at the movies and The Recruit which I haven’t seen. Anyhow, I own no DVDs and only 2 sporting videos - not a single solitary movie. Why do people buy them? Anything that is not a new release can be rented for $1 a week. Recently I introduced my teenage son to An American Werewolf In London and Cool Hand Luke.
Why do you people own them? How often do you watch them?
Just as I won’t part with the books I love the most, I also own the movies I love the most. Yes, I can go and rent most (though not all) of my movies, however on a snowy Sunday afternoon or a late Thursday night, I don’t want to haul off to the movie store. I can simply select one of Lisa’s Best titles and voila! Instant guaranteed (albeit previously viewed) happiness.
In fact, this past week I’ve been on holiday and have immensely enjoyed re-watching my Buffy DVD’s. Complete with an occasional director’s commentary.
That doesn’t mean I don’t ever watch new movies. But if it’s a choice between watching Charlie’s Angels 2 on the tube or A&E’s Pride and Prejudice on DVD, I’m going with the latter.
How often do I watch them? I wait several months, if not years, between viewings.
Many of our dvds were gifts (I got 7 this Christmas; Mr Cazzle got 2). DVD’s are an easy present for the people you don’t know how to buy for, so they are popular gifts.
Some of our videos and dvds are ex-rentals, and they cost only marginally more than renting them would (ex: America’s Sweethearts on video cost $6 for an ex-rental copy; at the same time it cost $5 to hire). Others we buy on sale - some I got at a massive discount because they were missing their covers, and so they cost only a couple of dollars each.
How many times do we watch them? Well, picking one out at random, I’ve watched Mr Deeds about 4 times now over the last twelve months, and I’ll probably watch it once a year for the next few years. America’s Sweethearts has only been played twice in 2 years, but that still worked out cheaper than renting it twice! It might be a couple of years before I drag it out of the cupboard again. If I really like a movie, I may watch it every couple of months for a while, otherwise it could just get an annual airing.
I like revisiting movies that I’ve enjoyed so it makes me happy. My grandfather doesn’t understand why anyone would want to watch something that they’ve already seen. My mother will watch the same movie daily for weeks on end. Different folks… different strokes…
I suppose one major difference between you and I is that you watch and love many movies… I watch few, and like fewer. I go to the cinema 8 times a year, tops. Some years - I don’t go at all. I go six months or more without renting a movie, and yet it still takes an hour to chose one - and then I still often leave the store empty handed. When I do find a movie I like, I want to enjoy it over and over again.
Very wise PunditLisa a comparison to books makes sense. So it’s me. If I read a book and think X will like this, I give it to X. If I read a book and think I may wish to read this again someday (and I don’t know anyone who would like it) I give it to one of the libraries I’m a member of. I know where all these books are.
[aside]For years I used to claim the value of the books I gave to libraries as a charitable donation. The library staff tend to remember people who bring in boxes of books, so I thought I was fine. It turned out I couldn’t claim any of it but I already had the refunds.[/aside]
But yes there are books I don’t give away, that I like close to hand in case I need to read them. Your point is well taken.
Tell me a few movies that you like and I will try to pick you some DVDs. This is far more important to me than it is to you. It relates to an interesting idea I discussed with my nephews over Christmas.
Here are some of the movies in my collection:
Pleasantville
Ice Age
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Four Weddings and a Funeral
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Moulin Rouge
A League of Their Own
Amelie
The Court Jester
My Fair Lady
The Emperor’s New Groove
Toy Story
Zoolander
Dead Poet’s Society
Hot Shots
The Wizard of Oz
Election
The Great Race
Like PunditLisa, I buy DVDs that I want to have close by if I want to be entertained. I generally limit my purchases to sale items and new DVD discounts; the average cost of a DVD in my library is about $10. Given that I don’t own a car or have kids, the 276 DVDs that I own are a much less costly vice.
I admit to a few clinkers (I bought the craptacular Deep Blue Sea for $5.00 just for Thomas Jane’s blond, muscular hunkitude), but on the whole I find having a library to dip into to be very satisfying. Here’s a link to my collection.
I just need to be rude for a moment cazzle, I need a guide to your age - generation X, baby boomer, pepsi generation. What is one of the first movies you saw at the flicks?
I’m 27. My tastes are pretty superficial - I like kid’s movies, chick flicks and lowbrow comedy. I HATE violence in movies, and my standards on that border on the extreme. I’m a nightmare to watch a movie with.
I think the first movie I saw in a cinema was Robin Hood (the Disney cartoon). HTH!
O K cazzle I’ll give you a bit of background. At Christmas I was talking with my nephews and their friends about movies. They would mention a movie they liked and I would suggest something similar and it would turn out they hadn’t heard of it Because my 2 sons are nearly 6 years apart I rent stuff for the younger one that his brother liked at the same age. It seems that teenagers don’t look through the back catalogue and I was lamenting that these kids were watching mediocre movies while good ones are available. With a bit of Q & A we worked out where the gap seems to be and that’s what I wanted to test on you.
By rights most of the movies on this list should have been of little interest first time around because you were the wrong age. Maybe you’ve since seen some of them. What I’d like to knoe is - of the ones you’ve seen how many did you like/dislike and how many remain unwatched.
By the way I was surprised by your violence bar. I took you at your word and eliminated anything with so much as a punch in it. I was surprised by the number of movies that have at least one violent incident - I had to cull some gems that for some reason needed a fight scene.
Cheers and thanks for the help. Anyone reading less than say 30 is welcome to reply.
84 Charing Cross Road
The Accidental Tourist
Agnes Of God
All Of Me
Always
Amadeus
American Flyers
An American Tail
An Angel At My Table
Arachnaphobia
Arthur
Atlantic City
Beaches
Beetlejuice
Better Off Dead
Big
The Big Chill
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Biloxi Blues
Birdy
Brazil
The Breakfast Club
Cane Toads
Chances Are
Chariots Of Fire
Clockwise
Coal Miner’s Daughter
The Coca Cola Kid
Cocoon
Crossing Delancy
Dangerous Liaisons
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
Diner
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The Dream Team
Educating Rita
Edward Scissorhands
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
A Fish Called Wanda
Ghostbusters
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Gregory’s Girl
Leningrad Cowboys Go America
The Little Mermaid
Lost in America
Malcolm
Moonstruck
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Prick Up Your Ears
Rain Man
Raising Arizona
Roxanne
Stand And Deliver
Tootsie
Willow
Withnail And I
The Great Mouse Detective
The Secret of NIMH
Twice Upon A Time
Like you, I absolutely love movies. I buy them for various reasons;
Renting a DVD where I live cost about 4.00, buying them costs between 5.00 and 20.00 depending on whether I go to a retail outlet or eBay. If I watch a movie 3 times then on average, I’ll save money. Occassionally I’ll buy a movie, watch it once or twice and decide I don’t like it, in which case I’ll sell it on eBay and get probably 75% of my money back.
Many movies I’ll watch several times and then watch again several times with the commentary on. Citizen Kane is a great example of this. 2 hour movie, 2 commentaries (Ebert/Bogdanovitch) and a 2 hour documentary. This is difficult to do if I rent a movie as I’d need to do that over a 3 day period in which case I would overdose on the Citizen Kane.
Many movies that I like are very, very difficult to find at the local video store. In fact, many aren’t even available in the UK. Buying them is the only option. The majority of my collection is region 1 (US) even though I’m living in the UK right now. This is because in a lot of cases the UK version is edited for content which also annoys the crap out of me. I also have a sizeable number of region 3 and region 0 movies.
About 25% of my collection is TV shows. TV generally sucks and I only ever watch sport, not entertainment shows. I like having the ability to choose from several hundred episodes of my favorite TV shows and several hundred movies when I decide to spend the night at home.
Rented movies invariably have scratches or some other defect which really, really pisses me off after I’ve driven to the video store.
Here is my list which, to put it mildly, is a little esoteric.
Arachnaphobia - am terrified of spiders, so will give this one a miss, thankyouverymuch
Beaches - loved this when I was 13.
Beetlejuice - saw it long ago, and disliked it
Better Off Dead - liked this one
Big - mildly amusing, but not my cup of tea
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure - loved this back in the day.
Chances Are - not my style
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels - didn’t like this at all
Edward Scissorhands - hated it!
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - didn’t mind it.
A Fish Called Wanda - was ok
Ghostbusters - was ok
The Little Mermaid - loved it in my early teens
Moonstruck - not my kind of movie
Planes, Trains & Automobiles - hated it. Really don’t have a lot of time for Steve Martin or John Candy movies
Tootsie - didn’t like it
The Secret of NIMH - used to like it when I was younger
Some hits, some misses. Will check out a lot of the others on your list - some I’m sure I’ve seen but don’t really remember and others I’ve never even heard of, so it should be interesting.
I suppose I should give you a list of other movies I’ve liked over the years that I remembered from reading your list:
Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey
Wayne’s World
Flying High
Naked Gun
Silent Movie
Brain Donors
We have a lot of DVDs, but most of them are anime. In fact, the reason we bought the DVD player in the first place was because it offered much advantage to anime fans…the multiple language tracks make it possible to watch either in an English dub (useful if friends are over) or the original Japanese with subtitles, and the animation is so much sharper. I also like to buy DVDs because you get more time to savor and enjoy the extras, rather than ODing on a movie as sirtonyh mentioned. And, we also have a lot of TV series box sets, which often are not even available for rental–and you can take as long or as little time as you like to watch them.
Almost all of our prerecorded VHS tapes were gifts or children’s videos…rental seemed like a better choice when VHS was the dominant format. But, if you really like a movie, the extras on an average DVD generally make it worth owning. Actually, rental fees (d*mn Blockbuster’s about all that’s left these days) can make a movie worth buying if you are going to rent it more than twice, and sometimes even once!
