Paranoid?

[Jenkins]

I recently rented this movie(Paranoid) from blockbuster by accident. First off it is a pretty bad B movie, but anyway.

This disk is what every DVD enthusiast fears. It's basically a VHS tape on DVD. Granted you have the skip and scan function, but that's all folks. Blockbuster animation to start, followed by three or so previews, then directly plays into the main feature.

No menu. No features. Nothing.

This scared me a little, becuase upon reflection I realized that you are digging DVD as we know it's own grave. I say you, because I am a little over casual DVD consumer, where as most of you just buy stuff because you can get it for over $5 off.

I know that seems like a generalization, but as far as I can tell, for the most part it is true. You buy movies that don't have the features or quality, then so does the moronic public and then studios just keep pumping them out.

It's kind of like a Catch 22, I think. You buy movies from studios to promote the format and entice studios to pump out titles because DVD is hot. But by buying titles like mad, you support crap and are expanding DVD past VHS. Studios will not stand for this much longer.

When the revenues for DVD's (rental and sales) surpass VHS (rental and sales), and replication facilities grow in number, which they will due to lowering costs and rapid increases in demand, studios will be forced to go to a rental model. I know, it's a sell through medium. But you people cannot live without your weekly DVD purchasing spree. These companies know you will fork over the money to increase your collection to 158 DVD's.

This is a ramble, and if you are not a massive buyer, I apologize for the generalization. If you are one of those deal hunters, don't flame me, I'm just jealous of your collection. The question is how do we as consumers balance boycotting crap and no feature rentals with the lust for watching movies in our home theatre environments?

Anyone having any info on this disk(Paranoid) please let me know. I wonder if blockbuster distributed it?

[brian]

I think some of us here are bargain hunters, but most of us only buy GOOD movies, even if the qaulity is lacking. I have never bought a movie that i never heard of just because it was cheap. Sometimes i try to get the best deal on a movie i have been meaning to buy, such as The Abyss which i got for $14, but price isnt the deciding factor(I expect to pay $15-$28). Anyways, if it was a bad movie, i dont think anyone cares. I have some simitar DVDs that came free with my Toshiba 3109, and these movies have 0 features too, some dont even have chapters!

I really dont think you should even worry about it. There has always been budget tapes, and that hasnt hurt VHS all that much. And the companies producing low budget DVDs dont really have that good of titles anyways.

Anyways, it would be a lot easier to not be so paranoid.



[This message has been edited by brian (edited 07-25-2000).]

[manigrasso]

I probably buy DVDs on a par with most others here (maybe a little less, but probably more than the casual viewer like yourself). I usually only buy movies I like, or movies about which I've heard good things. If I buy a bad b-movie like, say, Paranoid, it would only be because it was dirt cheap (example: Last year, Troma had a sale where every DVD on their website was 25 cents. I bought 21 DVDs, it was about $45, with shipping and handling, even if I used them as coasters, it's a good deal).

There are plenty of companies that put out inferior VHS tapes, usually of stuff in the public domain, or cheap to obtain the rights. They're recorded in EP, from a poor source. So there are bound to be companies that put out inferior quality DVDs. I have a DVD of Popeye cartoons that looks like absolute monkey turds.

If you buy a DVD and notice it's inferior, note the studio or company that released the disc, and never buy from them again. If you rented, try to get your rental fee back. Blockbuster's a big company, and I'm sure they want to make you happy. THat's what I do when I get inferior product, and if everyone does it, there would be a lot less inferior product out there, capice?

[Dehrian]

It’s not a catch-22. As described in the book, you’re screwed no matter what you do. In the book, anyone could get out of the war if they could prove they were crazy. All they had to do was ask. But the moment they asked, they obviously weren’t crazy, so they had to stay.

It really doesn’t apply to the situation. Fact is, any title that is considered low-grade like that, a relatively unknown B-movie, is going to get the crap treatment by almost any company, regardless of the circumstances or the format. Only Criterion, or maybe Anchor Bay, would put a lot of money into putting together a fine edition of a B-movie.

There are innumerable companies out there that put out crappy transfers with no extras on DVD. There are also companies who do basically the same on VHS. You just have to be careful about what company you buy or rent from.

As for me, I don’t have a large collection because I buy discs cheap. I often pay retail. Just this week alone I bought three titles at regular retail prices. I simply have a lot of spending cash. So, don’t be jealous of me for getting my titles cheap. I’ve simply watched my money carefully since I was a kid and now I can quite easily afford to indulge myself in a small luxury.