A writer from Entertainment Weekly writes about the DVD purchasing trap that he (and many of us) fell into:
Back when I was a kid, you never bought a movie on VHS. Every tape was, like, $89.99, so you rented it, and if for some reason you wanted to rewatch it, you just rented it again. But DVDs changed all that. Suddenly, movies were cheap — dirt cheap. For 20 bucks (and often less) you could own the film forever. ''How cool is that?'' we all asked ourselves as we stocked up on titles we didn't need — and, in many cases, didn't even really want. Why? Because we could! I remember going out and buying junk like Rollerball. Rollerball! I just thought it would be cool to own Rollerball, so I bought it. Too bad I forgot how much it sucks.
I got caught up in the hype initially, especially since it gave me a reason to go all out and set up a kick ass home theater. But, in my defense, I realized pretty early on that most DVD purchases were unecessary and began limiting DVD purchases to (a) visually interesting films and anime, and (b) comedy movies and shows with high replay value that don't require a lot of concentration. I have stopped buying dramas completely - after the initial viewing, there just isn't any replay value in them for me. Also, besides real hard core movie buffs, who really watches all the extras that are a main feature of some DVDs? Not me.
Any impulse DVD purchases you care to admit to? I'll start - I have no business owning these:
- Master & Commander - clearly, I just needed to buy something
- The Hurricane - haven't even opened the packaging
- THX - made George Lucas famous; sucks
- War of the Worlds - good special effects my only defense
Fortunately no Roller Ball. Your turn.
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3 comments:
Hey - came across your blog -- truly have enjoyed reading through it...
As for your post - I fought off the urge to go for those 7.99 dvds .. however, movies still in packaging (but not ashamed of)Glory; Ocean's 11;
I am proud of my small list of DVD purchases out of packaging: Three Amigos; Spaceballs; Coming to America...
Now watch out for those BluRays as they replace DVDs...
I have always been behind trends for example when folks had Atari 5200, I had 2600; when folks had playstation or x-box, i was still rocking N64! it took for ever for me to get into CDs and even DVDs. I am glad to say i came to my senses when it came to DVDs and i have only purchased previously viewed/owned DVDs (such as Matrix, Black Hawk Down). I only have about 12 DVDs. I don't plan to buy any more since i rarely replay movies anyway (except for porn!)...hehehe...dirty.
As you know D, I'm a film snob. My idea was to buy my top 25 favs on DVD and call it quits. I did that - but I rarely ever watch them - even the comedy ones. With TiVo, on-demand, netflix (and internet porn) it's hard to justify the DVD purchase. I guess I can say that I do watch all of the extras they put on the films - but they're rarely worth even the $20 I put down.
The two unnecesary buys I think I've made, that weren't top 25:
1. Party Girl (Parker Posey) - fun movie but you only need to see it once.
2. Breathless (remake w/Richard Gere) - I really only got this because I used to worship Valerie Kaprisky, the female lead in this one. She still looks good - but not enough for it to take up space on my shelf.
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