Online video rentals. It’s probably the best thing I’ve done to improve my life over the past 6 months. There are many to choose from, but the two big guns are Blockbuster.com and Netflix.com. Before I delve into the pros and cons of each, let me just say that getting DVDs in the mail nearly every day is a wonderful thing. I no longer have to travel to the video store, pay crazy prices and deal with people.

     Here’s how the whole thing works in general (for both outfits):

     First off, you pay only one monthly fee. You don’t have to pay for each video; very reasonable prices. Then you manage the movies you want in your queue. Your queue can be as long as you want it to be and you can add or remove movies at anytime. You can also change the order in which you will receive the movies. Then the company sends you the first movie in your queue. Once you return it, they will send you the next one on the list. A very nice system. All postage is paid for by the company. You can keep the titles as long as you want (forever if you want to as long as you keep paying the monthly fee); there are no late charges…ever.

     My friend and I have been “debating” about which company is better. I feel that it completely depends on what you want from your service. If you’re looking for economy and just a better overall deal, Blockbuster is your company. If you want easier navigation and a website that makes more sense and maybe has a little better system, then Netflix is where you should be. Here’s why:

Price:
Blockbuster.com has 3 package options ranging from $10, $15 and $18/month.
Netflix has 4 package options ranging from $10, $12, $15,$18/month.
i.e. They are the same, except Netflix has the one weird package mentioned below.

What you get:
Blockbuster gives you unlimited number of DVDs per month with a choice of 1, 2 or 3 movies in your possesion at any one time (depending on your package choice).
Netflix has one package where you can only get 4 movies per month for $12. The other packages let you have unlimited rentals for the month, and you can have 1, 2 or 3 DVDs at a time depending on which package you buy.

Selection:
Blockbuster claims 40,000 titles.
Netflix boasts a huge 50,000 titles.
Which is ridiculous. Both companies will probably either have or won’t have any movie you can think of. In other words, think of a movie, and if Blockbuster doesn’t have it, Netflix won’t either; or they both will have it.

Availability:
Blockbuster: of the 50 titles in my queue (list of movies), maybe 8 of them are on a short wait, while one or two are on a long wait. This problem continues to improve every month.
Netflix: My source tells me not one film is on a wait.

Speed:
Blockbuster: I put a DVD in the mail Monday morning, I get the replacement (usually) by Wednesday.
Netflix: I don’t know. Probably about the same.

Website:
Blockbuster: grade C. The personal recommendations it gives you (based on what you have rented before) are completely off-the-wall ridiculous and the way you view movies and find them is mediocre at best. There is no discernable rhyme or reason to the way movie titles are listed. It’s possible they’re listed in order of popularity or chronological release.
Netflix: grade A-. The recommendations it gives you are spot on. The browser is a little easier to use and titles are easier to browse through.

Extras (and this is the big one to me):
Blockbuster: You get two coupons per month for a free rental of anything in the store (new releases, older films, games, etc.) They also give you one free used DVD per month. There is a store chosen list you have to pick from, but a free DVD is a free DVD.
Netflix: nothing I am aware of.

Problems:
Blockbuster: of the roughly 40 movies I’ve gotten from them, about 5 have had problems; i.e. they were scratched or never arrived. They have a very easy way of informing them of the problem and you just let them know with a click if you want the next movie in your list, or if they should re-send the same movie again.
Netflix: I don’t know.

     So my over-all consensus is this. I am a Blockbuster customer. I will stay that way for these reasons:

1) When I got into Blockbuster, it was $15 for the 3 DVDs per month package. It has not changed for me, although the price seems to have gone up by $2 for new customers.

2) Since I am a gamer, the two free rentals of a game per month equals $13 in money I’m not spending. That almost puts me at even right there. Or if I’m really impatient, I can stop by the store on my way home from work and pick up the new movie I want instead of waiting the two days for it to show up in the mail.

3) I get one free DVD per month. Cool. I just got “Sideways” (on a glitch, that wasn’t on their list of movies to choose from, but I tricked them). This month I will be getting “Constantine.” Hey, it’s free.

4) I don’t really care about the recommendations. I pretty much already know what I want, or don’t want, to see. If I want recommendations I’ll go to a real movie website (like MoviePatron.com).

5) Like I said, I already know what I want (usually) I don’t need to browse through titles. So the usability of the site works just fine for me. The queue is a very nice system and is easy to manipulate on both sites. They both have a search system that works great.

6) It’s fast.

     I just go with the better deal. I get the movies I want quickly and hassle free. If a movie on my list is on a wait, they just send me the next one on my list until the other one is available. I can live with that. So check out both sites and make up your own mind. Either way, I highly recommend investing the $18 per month. If you normally rent one movie per week (minimum), and you’re getting them by going to the store, you are losing money, time and convenience. Plus, if you’re one of those people who tends to return movies late and you have to pay an extra three dollars in late fees next time you go to the rental store (and I know you are), online renting is for you!

     Oh, and one more thing: you can rent TV show DVDs from them too. I’m currently watching “The Greatest American Hero.” Here’s why this is cool. I would never ever buy this show (or lots of others I can think of), but I really wanted to see it again. If I rented it from the store, I might not have time to watch all 6 episodes that are on the disc within the alotted 2-5 day rental period. Hence, I would have to either return it before I’m done with it, or start racking up late fees. Not with online rentals.

Lucas had his DVD junkett for “Episode III” last Thursday.

Rick McCallum spoke a little about the upcoming Star Wars TV series and Indiana Jones IV.

REGARDING SWTV:
“the live-action television series is something we’re planning for just at the beginning of 2007 and we’re just starting to interview writers and trying to really figure out, you know, which direction… It is going to be much darker, much grittier, it’s much more character-based. He envisions somewhere like 100 hours between ‘Episode III’ and ‘Episode IV’ with a lot of characters that we haven’t met but have been developed in other novels and other things. So, we’re really excited about that because I think finally we can have the opportunity to answer everybody’s questions once and for all by the time we finish the series…principal photography will take place all around the world, probably with a base in Sydney. And, yes, we will be shooting in hi-def. Or, if anything else evolves within the next 12 months, you know, that would replace hi-def. I don’t see that happening, but there may be new and more, or less expensive cameras with more optical imagery or optical discs that we record on. But basically it will be hi-def, yes.”

REGARDING INDY IV:
“[George is] doing ‘Indiana Jones’, the script, which he should finish by Sunday. He’s meeting with Steven [Spielberg] next week to try to figure out where they are going to go and what changes they want to make on it.”

     Sick of endings that are just totally unbelievable and ridiculous that make you say, “I just spent ten bucks on that!? Damn!” Well, here are some folks who agree with you, and they’ve changed some ending of films to the way they should’ve been. I particularly like the Star Wars on best, but Braveheart and Seven are good too.

Check em out at
How it should’ve ended.

     Recently, a blog entry at “makinglight” posted the story of how a movie house has challenged film makers to re-edit some films to make the movie seem like it is a totally different genre. The following examples are amazingly well-done and hilarious.

West Side Story as a zombie film.
Titanic as a ghost story.
The Shining as a feel-good summer movie.

Check these out. You won’t be disappointed.