A couple of months ago, I took the plunge and signed up for Netflix.Basically, you pay a monthly fee (In my case $16.99 per month). You pick the movies you want (In my case, I opted for the three out at a time package). And voila! Your movies are in the mail and in your DVD player in a day or two.
...awesome...
Going by Blockbuster Video prices (of $4.50 per movie), if I'm on the three-movie Netflix plan and I view four DVDs per month, I've more than made my money back. And that's not even counting the free postage.
For example, this past month I've viewed six DVDs. So, right now, I'm $10 ahead. By Vegas standards that's pretty good.
During summer, however, I'm sure my viewing habits will change. That's fine, I'll just change my plan to one movie out at a time, which will cut down my fee to about $6.99 per month.
Like I said, it's brilliant.
ANYHOW...One of the perks of being a Netflix member is the fact that you can A.) write reviews and B.) rate all of the movies you've seen on five-star basis.
When work is slow (which it has been this past month), I find myself on the site rating movies that I've viewed. If need be, I'll also write a brief review.
It's almost turning into an obsessive-complulsive disorder. Whenever I have any free time, I find myself on the site searching my memory banks for distant movies. In fact, it's been so insane that I probably have the following conversations with myself on a daily basis....
"Oh yeah, remember when I was eight and I went to see The Cat from Outer Space and The Apple Dumbling Gang at the drive-in? Better go to Netflix and rate 'em"
or
"Hey, I remember Meatballs 3 with Patrick Dempsey. I saw that twice at the theater! Time to go to Netflix and rate it."
Not bragging or anything, but as it turns out, I've rated about 2,942 DVDs. I'm 35-years-old. So that equates to about 84 DVDs per year since birth. And 7 DVDs per month since birth.
And I'm being honest here. I haven't seen classics like Gone With The Wind or Singin' in the Rain. Sure, I've seen snippets of the movies (who hasn't), but I haven't actually sat down and watched them. Thus, I haven't rated them.
And since Netflix doesn't sell pornos, they aren't on the list either (Although I guess that would up the ante by only 100 or so. I prefer the internet and magazines, you perverts.)
It's funny because when you rate that many movies on Netflix, they sort of have these lame recommendations for you such as old Mickey Mouse collections (Steamboat Willy?), Three Stooges collections and My Little Pony TV series stuff. I also received a recommendation for the silent movie Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein (Seen it. Rated it.).
It's a sad day when you've only been a member for a couple months and your Netflix recommendation cache has already run dry.
Like I said. Some people will think my DVD total is pretty impressive. Some will think I need to get a life. Personally, I'm shocked. However, after I clicked on RottenTomatoes.com a couple days ago, I didn''t feel like such a geek.
I came across this entry about a film critic who has been keeping tabs on his movie viewing habits since he was 12-years-old. Turns out he's seen more than 7,000.
I wonder if he's counting pornos as well?
2 comments:
If you rate the movies that you saw as a child, don't you have to go back and watch it again as an adult, in order for you to write a fair review or give it a fair rating? I loved a lot of Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris movies as a child but when I'm able to catch one on cable nowadays it never holds up to that first opinion when I was ten or eleven years old. (Except for 'First Blood' it still kicks ass)
Hmmmm. Good point. I'll still let my Cat From Outer Space rating stay at 3-stars (I liked it) instead of five (I loved it). Just like First Blood, Time Bandits, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the first Star Wars, I remember that I thorougly enjoyed all of them at the theater. So all of them get, at least, three stars. Some possibly more than three. You're right though First Blood still kicks five-star ass.
Post a Comment