Just wondering because I was lurking at another board and someone made fun of another poster for saying she had never seen Napoleon Dynamite but wanted it on DVD. I guess some of it was her wording but yeah, she got made fun of.
Ever since I got my job (I work part-time and I am a university student) I’ve had extra money to spend on DVDs and such. Movies I’ve bought that I had never seen include The Iron Giant (CA$17.99), Arrested Development: S1 (CA$33.99), and 4 Filipino movies I bought on eBay (about CA$25 after shipping). I put the prices in there just so you can see that they range in prices.
I know I’m not the only one that does this. For those who don’t do this, do you think it’s weird? Isn’t it just like buying a book you’ve never read at a bookstore? I don’t like renting movies because if I really like it and ended up buying it, I’d have wasted $5 on the rental. Yeah, maybe the logic is weak, and you can argue that I may end up not enjoying a movie that I bought.
Just so you know: The Iron Giant - I read a lot of great reviews for this on DVD review sites and several on the SDMB (I trust you all ;)), plus it was fairly cheap. I enjoyed it. Arrested Development: S1 - I watched Season 2 and fell for the show. I bought S1 and it was well worth my money. Filipino movies - I liked 2 out of the 4 I bought. Then again, I can’t really get them around here, and I kind of like having them around.
Next on my list is Princess Bride, which is at Future Shop for CA$9.99 (great deal, don’t you admit?). Also Princess Mononoke, because I really enjoyed Spirited Away. If I like that one, I will go get Porco Rosso, and if I like that, I’ll get Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
So who else around here does this? Show yourselves!
I don’t usually buy DVDs of movies that I haven’t seen, but I recently bought the DVD of “Hellboy” without having seen the movie first. Reviews were good, and I just love Ron Perlman. I was not disappointed.
Wow, I envy you seeing “The Princess Bride” for the first time. Inconceivable!
There’s a store in Houston, Texas, which began in Dallas, Texas called Movie Trading Company. EVERYTHING in the store is for sell OR rent. You can rent a brand new and sealed movie, or a used one. If you end up liking it, you can buy it and the rental price gets credited to your purchase. (SCORE!) Also, once a brand new movie is rented and returned, it is considered “used”, so they mark down the price. This apparently doesn’t make much difference in their profit AND you can get a GREAT PRICE on used dvds that are in GREAT CONDITION. (SCORE!) The place is brilliant, and I’m horribly upset since moving to Washington, because they haven’t quite spread that far yet. It’s just such a good idea for movies.
I bought “Six-String Samurai” without watching it first… but you can’t go wrong with a movie like that.
Great choices from the above on Six-String Samurai, Arrested Development, Hellboy, and The Iron Giant!
I’m usually hesitant to purchase a movie I’ve never seen before. I’ve only done it twice, though: the Hong Kong martial arts soccer comedy Shaolin Soccer (scored a cheap HK DVD before Miramax released a “butchered” version in the States), and G-Men From Hell, a low-budget movie based on an obscure comic book by my favorite artist, Mike Allred. The movie wasn’t great, but it had a commentary track by the artist and his wife (rather than anyone involved with the movie itself), and Robert Goulet played Satan!
I also bought the complete set of The Office (both seasons plus the special that wrapped it all up) after only seeing the first season, but I knew I already liked it.
Well I’ve bought and continue to buy DVDs, VCDs and videos of movies I’m curious about that I can’t find to rent. They range from movies that are out of print, to ones that have yet to make it to DVD, to ones that have never even had official video/DVD releases, to plenty of foreign films.
Not all of the movies I’ve ever bought are winners, but I’d rather spend a few dollars to pick up something I know will never be on a shelf at the chain rental store and/or have never seen on cable. There is something very compelling about buying DVDs, what with their economical size, weight, and image quality to price ratio.
For the same reason you would read the same book more than once (but I’m betting you don’t do that either) – to revisit a familiar world, to see what new things you notice, and maybe just to enjoy it all over again.
(Actually, the idea applies to just about anything: viewing favorite art, listening to favorite music, eating favorite food, going to your favorite bar or amusement park, etc. Why do it again if you’ve already done it once? Because you know you like it. Don’t some jokes make you laugh every time you hear them?)
I look at it this way - I rarely get to go out to see movies in the theaters, and if I did, I’d be spending roughly $8 admission, plus popcorn and sodapop (which is usually outlandishly expensive) and then I have to sit still in uncomfy seats, be quiet, and keep my feet off the furniture. And if I go visit the powder room, I miss something.
Renting is OK, but I’m nototriously bad for thinking I’ll stay up and watch all three of the movies I rented, then falling asleep in the middle of movie #2. So I end up not watching the movie I paid $4 to rent, or I eventually watch it and return it with $8 in late fees (this is changing, thanks to Blockbuster’s new “no late fees” policy, but still. One time I returned a movie really late and I paid $18 in fees! And was embarassed in front of a rental counter tweet.)
Now I can buy movies on DVD at Blockbuster (pre-watched) or at Walmart, and rarely do I pay a full $20 for one. I frequently find them for less than $10. If I can OWN a movie for $10, watch it whenever I want, maybe even in my jammies, put my feet on the coffee table and talk back to the screen, it’s totally worth it. Even if the movie sucks!
I buy a lot of DVDs of movies, some never haven’t seen, but mostly seen. I want the DVDs for the extras, especially the commentaries and deleted scenes. For the movies I haven’t seen, those are movies I wouldn’t pay to see in a theatre, but want to see at my leisure, such as Hellboy and Van Helsing. I also scarf up any tv series that I like, such as Twilight Zone Definitive Edition S1 and Green Acres S1.
I pretty much buy all my Movies and Anime (out of necessity given that its rarely shown in Australia) that way, TV shows Ill normally only buy if I liked them when Ive watched them the first time (exceptions being, Dead Like Me, Firefly and Penn & Tellers Bullshit! 1&2)
Hey, I know people who think that way. My mom rarely ever likes rewatching movies. Some others just don’t want to deal with setting aside a space to store DVDs.
The appeal of owning DVDs is that you get to see it in excellent quality, and they often include interesting special features that enhance the film’s entertainment value (some are even educational :)). They’re also nice to display on a shelf somewhere (mine go in a cabinet, but I’ll get myself a nice shelf one day).
Another thing I enjoy about DVDs is that I can show them during get-togethers with family and friends. It’s so much fun rewatching a movie with people who haven’t seen it yet.
Mononoke Hime before I watched it, just because I was pretty certain I’d like it based on Miyazaki’s other work.
Repo Man, based on recommendations from others, plus it wasn’t much more expensive than a rental.
An old Jet Li box set, since I watch his movies for the fighting rather than the story or acting, and it included the one I really wanted, Fist of Legend (which I had seen). In that case, I was disappointed to find they were all dubbed instead of subtitled, but I’m still happy with the purchase.
Also bought a few exercise DVDs that get used with some regularity.
I’ll buy DVDs for movies I’ve never seen if (a) the movie has gotten lots of raves from folks I know, and (b) it’s cheap. It’s not a perfect system, though, as I have bought a few discs that I regretted after the fact.
And I love to re-watch favorite movies. My wife doesn’t, though, which is why there’s so little in our DVD collection for her…
You should check if it’s the Special Edition, which has two audio commentaries, a documentary and some cool behind-the-scenes footage. It’s worth the extra few bucks for this classic movie.
I’ve never bought a movie DVD that I’ve never seen before, but I’ve bought a number of music concerts like “Yes Symphonic” and “Iron Maiden: The Early Days Vol. 1” – plus some bootleg DVDs for The Amazing Race seasons 1-4 which had a couple episodes I missed the original broadcast of.
I bought Firefly as a blind buy, having never seen the show when it was on the air. I’m a big Whedonverse fan though, so I knew I wasn’t about to be let down…
I have no idea what made them mark it down so low. I remember when it first came out it was over CA$20 and I was tempted to buy it to find out what all the hoopla was about. For $9.99, it’s a no-brainer.
For those wanting to buy it in the US, its new MSRP is US$14.95 and at Amazon.com it’s selling for US$11.21 (FYI, it’s the exact same on Amazon.ca but in Canadian dollars, so it’s cheaper than the US price after the conversion).
I have a very small DVD collection, but most of it I hadn’t seen before I owned the DVDs (Sailor Moon and Ghost in the Shell: SAC are the exceptions). I’ve bought DVDs of stuff I’ve never even heard of before. Part of it is I prefer to own rather than borrow or rent them if I like them, and part of that is because once I’ve seen something (or read it in the case of a book) I rarely see the need to buy it, and I like to support the things I like. I haven’t run into the problem of buying something I didn’t like yet, which is fortunate.
Plus there’s always the added convenience of being able to just haul it off your bookshelf if you ever decide to watch it again, instead of having to hunt down a rental store which happens to have it in stock.
A night at the movies for my husband and me runs about $18 and that’s with no food or drinks. A new DVD costs me about $14.95 and if I like it, I can watch it over and over. If I don’t, oh well - it’s still cheaper than the theater.
