Episode #250: It''s A DVD Reality In A Downloadable World

I believe we need one final semi-real pic of Autumn in Connecticut until everything goes all the way to pot and becomes winter.

A few posts ago I touched upon how I'm currently expanding my c.d. collection by dipping my toes into the world of gently used music. This time around I plan to touch upon my nascent  (like I have exactly five dvds) DVD collection and how I'm doing it on the frugal end of the spectrum (i.e. gently used)

Presently, I have extremely eclectic tastes in movies, like none of that MCU or blockbuster stuff ever crosses my field of vision. Instead, I go for things like the odd action/adventure, noir, dark fantasy and the odd drama.

Note: roughly 95% of the movies that I like were originally discovered on the various sub channels of Starz, Showtime, HBO and Encore. You'd be amazed at the amount of quirky movies that no one cares about anymore on those channels.

For example, prior to adding to my collection with some used DVDs, I have the following films in my collection:

1. Drive Angry, featuring Nicholas Cage and Amber Heard: This is mostly a violent religious fantasy film, with Nicholas Cage portraying a man (John Milton) who escapes from Hell to rescue his granddaughter. The movie itself, at least that I can tell, is steeped in concepts of Hell, Satan and Redemption among other things. Believe it or not, most people give this move a 3/5 star rating.
2. 30th Anniversary collection of SchoolHouse Rock!: No further explanation needed (I also have the complete box set of the same).
3. Byzantium, featuring Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan: one of the better vampire films that came out of the early 2010s. Highly recommend it as this was compared to another excellent vampire film called Let The Right One In (watch either the original version in Norwegian with subtitles, or a very excellent American remake that takes place in Minnesota. Don't bother with the dubbed version).
4. The 13th Warrior, featuring Antonio Banderas: A very good film, in my opinion, that's set in the first millennia in the vast Nordic wastelands. To me, it feels like they drew on the old Icelandic saga of Beowulf to create this movie.

This is the extent of my very eclectic movie collection. I love movies that are mostly fantasy based but cover topics that intrigue me both as a writer and a reader, but as you can see, the collection is very tiny. The main reason is one that is always the major bugaboo when it comes to pursuing something that we like: money. 

I've always balked at paying high prices for movies (those mentioned above, except the boxed set, were in the $15-$20 range), and completely dismissed purchasing downloadable movies. I also wasn't too much of a fan of purchasing used movies, because for me, it was either new or nothing. But during this year, I softened my opposition to used movies when I started finding some faves in the used DVD selection at my public library. I was also re-introduced to the world of quality used merchandise when I had visited the Savers store (an upscale Salvation Army/Goodwill used good store) when I had decided to donate clothes that no longer fit me.

Another note: during my initial visit to that store, they had two high end sound/mixing boards for sale dirt cheap.

So in the past month, I decided to resume adding to my DVD collection by purchasing gently used DVDs of movies that I personally enjoyed throughout the decades. Here, in no particular order of importance, are the latest additions to my collection.

1. Luck # Slevin, featuring Josh Hartnett, Lucy Lui, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis: A very excellent NY based crime drama centered around a fixed horse race and revenge. What drew me to this movie was that it starred Josh Harnett, as at the time I was really into a Showtime limited series called The Penny Dreadful. If you like Victorian era drama centered around horror/fantasy, you'll love that series.
2. The Boondock Saints, featuring Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus: Another excellent crime drama movie about two brothers who believe that God choose them to rid the world of evil piqued my curiosity the multiple times that I had watched it. 
3. Reservoir Dogs, directed by Quentin Tarrentino: This was a movie that I had searched out after watching Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Another excellent thought provoking film by Tarrentino, this time about a heist that goes awry.
4. Eastern Promises, featuring Vigoo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassell: I stumbled across this one sometime after watching Vigoo Mortensen in a previous crime drama film called A History of Violence (the opening sequence to that movie is not for the faint of heart, as it is quite disturbing). Viggo plays a cop who infiltrates the Russian Mafia, who runs into a nurse (Naomi Watts) who has possession of a baby and an incriminating diary that the late teen/young adult mother wrote about how she became pregnant.
5. Snatch, featuring, among others, Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Dennis Farina and Benicio Del Torio. A very dark crime farce featuring the underground fight game and a very large diamond. This was a critically acclaimed follow-up to director Guy Ritchies debut of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Highly recommend both the movie and soundtrack.
6. 21 Grams, featuring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro. This was another movie that I had stumbled across during my movie channel surfing days. A quality suspense/thriller/vengeance movie that I highly recommend. Say what you want about Sean Penn's politics, but the man has grown way beyond his Jeff Spicolli character from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" as an actor.
7. Rounders, featuring Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich. I would say that this a crime drama of sorts that centers around illegal card gambling. This was another movie that I had stumbled across, and one that I highly recommend.

Like I stated earlier, I have very eclectic tastes in movies, and except for the SchoolHouse Rock! collection, all R-rated. I can unequivocally state that there are PG and PG-13 movies that I do like and want to add to my collection, but those are mostly rooted in the decades from 1940 through the mid-to-late 1980s.

I hope you've enjoyed this snapshot of what I enjoy for video entertainment and here's wishing a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday for you and yours.

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