Shelf Regret – Why Did I Buy This?

I wasn't sure we could make a compelling show out of this topic at first but maaaaan we had a lot of fun talking about the stinkers we have in our library and the worst movies we have ever seen. @Brian Dobbs brings out the best in me!

For me the worst movie is Waiting for Guffman. What's the worst thing you've ever seen???

Stickied!

I have a feeling that a lot of Sam's faves would fall into my "stinker" category.

And vice versa.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for example.

Any guesses whose stinker and whose cherished piles that one goes in?

Stinker for me

...yet I think it's one of the very best movies of the entire decade.

JohnRice said:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for example.

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Think I saw some of this, but I can't remember it that well.

I rest my case.

Hey @Brian Dobbs I reviewed Hannibal after our discussion. Now I remember liking it, especially Ray Liotta's stir fry ==)
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/hannibal-uhd-review.362341/#post-4748011

Sam Posten said:

Hey @Brian Dobbs I reviewed Hannibal after our discussion. Now I remember liking it, especially Ray Liotta's stir fry ==)
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/community/threads/hannibal-uhd-review.362341/#post-4748011

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Sweet. I forgot about Gary Oldman being in this movie. Now I want to go back and watch all these, except for Hannibal Rising.

Technically I think he's just a disembodied voice =)

I'm listening to the final cut and I am DYING over here on your cut of 'I drink your milkshake' LMAO

Sam Posten said:

I'm listening to the final cut and I am DYING over here on your cut of 'I drink your milkshake' LMAO

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Yeah, it's funny how so many ideas come up during the edit that don't necessarily occur to me while we record.

I don't have the capability of listening to podcasts at this moment, but wanted to comment on the following, which is something I've been thinking a lot about lately:

Brian Dobbs said:

whether having bad titles in a digital collection is as bad as having them sitting on a shelf.

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I think the first question here is, how you define "bad". If "bad" simply means, "title that I get enjoyment from that is not appreciated by critics and/or the general public," I don't see any issue at all. Sometimes we like things that go against the grain.

But if "bad" in this context means, "title I didn't enjoy that I have no desire to revisit," having a digital copy you can't get rid of ends up being more clutter. I've yet to figure out if there's a way to remove an unwanted title from iTunes/Vudu/MoviesAnywhere/Ultraviolet. Over the years, as different services have sprung up and offered different perks for joining, I've gotten a bunch of free titles, and it turns out that I disliked a few of them. I'll never watch them again, and yet, they're still there in my digital locker. On the one hand, it's not taking up and shelf space, but it's just something else to be responsible for and to sort through. It makes browsing through one's digital library a bit clunky, because the titles I don't want are taking up just as much screen real estate as titles I do want. It's cluttered and inelegant, and it can make it harder to choose something to watch when I'm faced with options I'd rather not have in the first place.

But I didn't always think that way. I used to be more along the lines of "the more the merrier" and I felt strongly that I was doing some kind of civic duty all these years by collecting titles (both physically and digitally) that ultimately was more about reflecting what I had seen rather than what I liked, or reflecting that I had knowledge of film history rather than reflecting which historical films were enjoyable to me.

Over the past year or two, it's like a switch has flipped in my head, and I'm no longer interested in being a repository of everything that exists, or everything I've ever come in contact with. I now simply want to collect things that I enjoy and that I might want to revisit. And having a digital collection with titles that don't fall into that category just gets in the way of what I'm trying to do.

(As a sidenote to this, I've been converting a lot of DVDs that I still had to digital formats - when you can go from a non-anamorphic DVD copy of something like Field Of Dreams to a 4K UHD stream for just $5, that's a no-brainer. Major upgrade on the quality of the content, wallet savings, and shelf space saving, that's a clean win. But I've also looked long and hard at DVDs that simply haven't been touched in 10, 15 or even 20 years. Is it really worth buying a digital copy, even if it's only $5, for a movie I haven't touched in 20 years? I've decided in many cases to simply get rid of the DVD, and wait to see if I ever get the urge to see the film again, rather than needing to have the content upgraded before being willing to get rid of the DVD. While I wouldn't call all of these "bad movies," it was a similar dilemma - why pay money now for something I'm not planning to use?)

Josh Steinberg said:

Over the past year or two, it's like a switch has flipped in my head, and I'm no longer interested in being a repository of everything that exists, or everything I've ever come in contact with.

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Right, definitely with you here.

Josh Steinberg said:

when you can go from a non-anamorphic DVD copy of something like Field Of Dreams to a 4K UHD stream for just $5, that's a no-brainer

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Totally. FoD non-anamorphic DVD sucks!

Brian Dobbs said:

Yeah, it's funny how so many ideas come up during the edit that don't necessarily occur to me while we record.

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Me too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Lives_of_the_Potato_Men

Two very recent stinkers for me:

The Beach Bum
Backdraft 2

Todd Erwin said:

Backdraft 2

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Wow, they made a sequel? This reminds me, I need to pick up the original.

You guys mentioned Movie 43 in the podcast - it's on Netflix currently.

Brian Dobbs said:

Wow, they made a sequel? This reminds me, I need to pick up the original.

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A sequel in name only (one of the running themes of the show, right?).