How do you decide which DVD to watch from your collection? - Page 2

With my 5000+ collection, I usually go with a movie theme and choose from there.  Last weekend, I watched six film noirs.  This weekend, I'm doing the same, but with westerns.





Crawdaddy

 I've recently lit upon a pretty good little system. I generally just watch or re-watch whatever I'm in the mood for. That's the great thing about having a DVD collection. I must confess though, for a few years, I was buying kind of heavy, especially during the heyday of catalog releases we experienced during the SDVD boom years. 

The result was that I built up a pretty fair slush pile of movies that I just never seemed to get around to watching, and they run the gamut of all genres and styles. This year, since I'm participating in the 'Track the Films You Watch' forum, I decided to just alphabetize my slush pile and work through them systematically that way. I don't always stick to it - sometimes I just watch something I'm in the mood for or a new disk or whatever, but the key is I always, eventually return to the slush pile. 

Admittedly, this is a lot easier now since my DVD buying has dropped off significantly, but the system really is working - I am moving through my slush pile at a very nice clip and am discovering some really wonderful movies in the process. Makes sense, since there was a reason I bought them all in the first place! 

Watching films chronologically would be great at first (I prefer black and white to color, and the style of older films to new one, with some notable exceptions), but once I reached the 1980's, the diversity would narrow and by the late 90's it would consist mostly of heavy CGI'd action thrillers. Alphabetical viewing would solve that for me, except...

I have well over... oh, geese, you know, I'm not even gonna tell ya, 'cause it's almost embarrassing. Like many of you, I am a collector, and as we know, collecting can be for its own sake (simply to possess as much of something as possible) and/or for the sake of entertainment and pleasure. It is both for me. As a kid, I collected 8mm Castle (and other company) films, and just wanted every little 200' reel I could afford with my lawn-mowing money and whatnot. When I sold off this collection, which by 1980 included feature-length super 8mm sound films such as ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, I had about four hundred. I then amassed five hundred VHS tapes, and 300 laser discs. These gone, nearly all replaced with DVD, I now have half an entire room devoted to DVD and Blu-ray shelves. I love watching movies, of course... but I love collecting them -- possessing them. I am not a true completist (for example, I have 30 Hitchcock films but don't much care if I acquire his other 24), but I plan to own pretty much every movie I have really liked in my life, and I figure another 500 or so will probably do it for the rest of my life.

On topic, there are certainly times when it is hard to choose what movie to watch, even though I probably have 3-400 in my collection I've not seen completely through yet. I, too, return to favorites. I might well choose to watch a 50's sci-fi flick like CONQUEST OF SPACE for the sixth time rather than pull out FLOATING WEEDS for the first. It doesn't bother me to do this, and I do not feel remorseful for having built this collection. Movie fan friends of mine may be inheriting a helluva collection someday if they outlive me...

I'm mostly spontaneous in my disc-watching. Lately, though, I've scheduled my Saturdays (which are usually free) as nostalgic throwbacks to my childhood.

Mid-morning --I throw on the kid shows and cartoons:

* THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (just finished Season 5)
* BEANY & CECIL / TIME FOR BEANY (recently completed)
* SPACE GHOST & DINO BOY
* GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE
* MIGHTY MOUSE - THE NEW ADVENTURES (not quite from my childhood, but close enough)

Lunchtime:

* THE ABBOTT & COSTELLO SHOW
* THE THREE STOOGES (1 short, chronological, just began the Shemp era)

Afternoon:

* CREATURE TRIPLE FEATURE (3 horror and/or sci-fi flicks, nothing newer than the mid-1970s) --previously a Tarzan film, followed by a Creature Double Feature
* MUTUAL OF OMAHA'S WILD KINGDOM

--with a few exceptions, I've been focusing on unwatched discs of the above material so far; when I get caught up with that, I'll program killer mixes of genre films from my vast collection (though not quite as vast as Crawdaddy's). And, before long, the morning line-up will switch to WB cartoons, Fleischer POPEYE cartoons, JOHNNY QUEST, THE LITTLE RASCALS and Charley Chase shorts.

Sundays are somewhat similar, though a bit less structured--

Morning:

* ASTRO BOY (the 1963 original)
* SPEED RACER
* CAPTAIN SCARLET & THE MYSTERONS

Afternoon:

* ADVENTURE THEATER (loose two/three-film mix of fantastic and realistic, old and recent, foreign and domestic)
* ADAM ADAMANT LIVES! (via R2 disc, time permitting)

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Last Saturday's "Creature Triple Feature":

FLIGHT TO MARS (1951)
CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN (1962-Mexican, dubbed)
TROG (1970-British)

Last Sunday's "Adventure Theater":

THE MONKEY GOES WEST (1966-Hong Kong, subtitled R3 disc)
APOCALYPTO (2006, Blu-Ray)

My DVD collection isn't that big, occasionally I'll dig up a movie to re-watch, but I usually just browse Netflix and look for something I can stream.

I always go by "newest purchases/unwatched" first.  As far as the 4000 of titles in different formats that are lying around... human sacrifice and reading the innards is the only method that works.

I have over 700 DVDs - most of which unwatched. I am collecting ALL 475 best Picture Winners and nominees. Also right now, I am watching all 475 films in 365 days.

 

So, to answer your question, I pick the film that fits my time table. Some days I have to watch two films, so I try to pick the films that are 2h's and leave the four hour epics (GWTW, Cleo, Lawrence, Giant, Ten Commandments) for my days off.

 

I ahve a great many TV DVDs, and when I get a new one, I will usually watch all the episodes in a marathon... as amny as I can in one day, and the next days and so on untill the set is done.

 

Also, if it is a series that I really like, sometimes I will get the urge to watch it... so I start with ep 1 and go untill the series is done.

 

M*A*S*H I will watch all the way through, same with The Simpsons, South Park, and Friends.

My collection is small, so deciding what to watch just depends on the audience.  Is it just me (old b&w movies or classic characters like the Lone Ranger or Sherlock Holmes), my wife and I ('80s films, comedies, or 'chick flicks'), or the whole family (Pixar, Disney animation, "kiddie" movies).  After weeding out the collection of stuff we never watched or stuff that only got watched once, never to be revisited, I only buy stuff that I know will be watched several times, unless I can get it for around the price of a rental.  That way if I end up getting rid of it I don't feel as bad about spending the money.