8 Reasons Not to Buy DVDs
1. The Hangover. Yeah, I’ll admit it feels great to walk into Blockbuster or Hollywood Video on a Tuesday night and go straight for that new release rack. At around twenty bucks, DVDs are so reasonably priced compared to the $99 price tag on VHS tapes a couple decades ago. And with those commercials – “Own it forever on DVD” – how can one resist? It’s not easy, I’ll admit. It feels great to bring that DVD up to the counter, toss down that debit or credit card, and walk out of the store never having to return it. You get home, rip open that package, and pop that baby in the DVD player, thinking what a steal. But nine times out of ten, you regret it the next morning. “What the hell caused me to purchase The Ring 2? I’m going to own this forever?” That’s the DVD Hangover.
2. The Hand-to-Hand Transaction. Once every couple months you sort through your stash. You take The Ring 2 and Scary Movie 3 and The Benchwarmers, and return them to the video store, eager to trade them in for credit or cash. You’re bringing in a dozen DVDs, all purchased over the past two months, and what does the cashier give you for them? Something like nine bucks. The video stores advertise this “opportunity” to trade in used DVDs not as a service, but because they make a fortune reselling them. They make a fortune off our DVD hangovers.
3. The Kingpins. The movie studios now make more money off of DVD sales than they do off sales at the Box Office. I love movies, and I’m not against movie studios making money. But they’re producing many bad movies that they know will fail at the Box Office but will excel in DVD sales. In fact, some studios are considering releasing DVDs simultaneously with theater runs. By not buying these terrible DVDs, you’re sending a message to the studios to make quality films.
4. The Junkies. Most people I know that own more than ten DVDs, own more than two hundred. It’s easy to get hooked. You figure, “I would’ve spent ten bucks just to see it once in the movie theater, now I can see it as often as I’d like for twenty.” But then, you get to Hollywood Video, and The Ring 2 is sitting on a shelf right next to Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo, and you say, “What the hell? Why not get both?” Then you get to the counter where The Brothers Grimm is staring you in the face, and the next thing you know, you’re walking out of the video store with three terrible movies and your wallet is $70 lighter.
5. The Additives. DVD manufacturers need to hook you, just like the tobacco companies, so they use additives they call Special Features. Wow, you can listen to Tom Cruise and Steven Speilberg try to explain why War of the Worlds really doesn’t suck, or you can see Deleted Scenes that weren’t good enough to be included in the movie. You can watch a gag reel so that you can see that people had fun making the movie, even though you had no fun watching it. Frankly, Special Features suck. And don’t get me started on 2 and 3 disc sets.
6. The Cost. You may be saying, “Well, I can rent a movie or see it in theaters before buying it on DVD.” The problem is then instead of paying just $20 for the DVD, you’re paying $25 or $30 or more. And if you have an addiction, those costs quickly begin to add up.
7. Another Fix. If you have a little patience, the movie you’re dying to buy will eventually come out on HBO or Showtime. With DVRs and HBO on Demand, you don’t have to worry about missing it. And with HBO, you get great original programming (at least until The Sopranos ends its run next summer).
8. The Cure. The secret to curing my addiction was simple: Netflix. Any movie you want, when you want it. Pay $17.99 a month for unlimited rentals, with up to 3 at home at any given time. Much more economical, and you don’t have to explain to anyone why you purchased Showgirls: Special Edition. If you simply need to watch The Fantastic Four three times a month, no problem, you either keep it home with you for as long as you’d like or put it back in your Queue. It’s simple, it’s inexpensive, it’s the perfect cure to your DVD buying addiction.
