My Viewing Pleasure

I recently bought a DVD player so that I could watch the DVD-Rs that I’m burning. I got a Cyberhome CH-DVD 300/S — only $30 after rebate!

Of course, once I had a functioning DVD player in the house again, I wanted to watch some movies. So I reactivated my old Netflix membership. Last week Xy and I watched Shattered Glass, the first six shows in The Office series, and American Splendor. Edifying stuff.

Over the last few years I’ve kept a haphazard list of films I want to see. Netflix seems to have expanded their selection quite a bit since I last used the service a few years ago, and they now have a lot of the films on my list (about two-thirds, I’d guess). So I’ve been obsessively adding them to my Netflix queue.

Just in case anyone’s curious, here are the 284 items currently in my queue, which I’ll try (somewhat haphazardly) to link to IMDb:

3 Women
A Double Life
A Hard Day’s Night: Collector’s Series
A High Wind in Jamaica
A Man for All Seasons
A Place in the Sun
A Private Function
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
Andy Kaufman: Hollywood / Breakfast
Apartment Zero
Atlantic City
Attack!
Barbarella
Battleship Potemkin
Best Seller
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Big Trouble in Little China
Big Trouble
Birdman of Alcatraz
Born Yesterday
Brainstorm
Breathless
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Catch Me If You Can
Chasing Amy
City of God
Colors
Company Business
Contempt
Cook, the Thief, His Wife, Her Lover
Cops and Robbers
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon
Darling
Death of a Salesman
Depeche Mode: 101: Disc 1
Dinner for Five: Season 1: Disc 1
Diva
Down by Law
Dr. Seuss’s The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
Dreamscape: Special Edition
Dressed To Kill
Drugstore Cowboy
Easy Rider
Eating Raoul
Fail-Safe
Fathom
Fitzcarraldo
Friendly Persuasion
Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns
Gigi
Going in Style
Gosford Park
Hard Times
Harvey
Heart of Glass
Hearts and Minds
Heavens Above!
Heavy Traffic
Hercules in New York
Here Comes Cookie / Love in Bloom
Hidden Agenda
Hidden Fortress
High and Low
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Hope and Glory
Houseboat
How Green Was My Valley
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Hud
I Am Curious: Blue
I Am Curious: Yellow
I, Claudius: Disc 1
I, Claudius: Disc 2
I, Claudius: Disc 3
I, Claudius: Disc 4
I, Claudius: Disc 5/The Epic
Igby Goes Down
In a Lonely Place
In Cold Blood
In the Heat of the Night
In the Realm of the Senses
Invaders from Mars
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Irma La Douce
Is There Sex After Death?
It Happened Here
It Happened One Night
It Happened Tomorrow
It Should Happen to You
Ivan the Terrible: Part 1
Ivan the Terrible: Part 2
Joe Versus the Volcano
Ken Burns’ America: Huey Long
Kind Hearts and Coronets
King of Hearts
Kon-Tiki
Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet
Le Cercle Rouge
Lenny
Lightning Over Water
Local Hero
Lola Montes
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Look Back In Anger
Lost Horizon
Love Affair
Love and Death
Love at Large
Loving
Man of Aran
Man with the Movie Camera
Manhattan
Marat / Sade
Marnie
Masque of the Red Death / Premature Burial
Matewan
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
McKenzie Break
Medium Cool
Melvin and Howard
Mephisto
Mon Oncle
Monsoon Wedding
Mountains of the Moon
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Murder by Death
My Man Godfrey
Mysterious Island
Nashville
No Mercy
Number 17
Odds Against Tomorrow
Once Upon a Time in America
One, Two, Three
Only Angels Have Wings
Othello
Patton
Peeping Tom
People Will Talk
Persona
Phantasm
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Postcards from the Edge
Pretty Baby
Prizzi’s Honor
Punch-Drunk Love
Quest for Fire
Richard III
Richard Pryor: Live in Concert
Rififi
Road to Zanzibar
Robin and Marian
RoboCop
Room at the Top
Ruthless People
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Savage Messiah
Scenes from a Marriage: Disc 1 (TV)
Scenes from a Marriage: Disc 2 (TV)
Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Seconds
Separate But Equal
Separate Tables
Seven Samurai
Singin’ in the Rain
Skokie
Sleuth
Smiles of a Summer Night
Spellbound
Streets of Fire
Style Wars
Sullivan’s Travels
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Sunset Boulevard
Swann in Love
Sweet Smell of Success
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
Tape
That Obscure Object of Desire
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
The Andromeda Strain
The Beguiled
The Bride of Frankenstein
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Browning Version
The Captain’s Paradise
The Collector
The Comfort of Strangers
The Cooler
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
The Decameron
The Deer Hunter
The Devil and Daniel Webster
The Draughtsman’s Contract
The Dresser
The Duellists
The Eagle Has Landed
The Element of Crime
The Entertainer
The Freshman
The Guns of Navarone
The Heartbreak Kid
The Homecoming
The Iceman Cometh: Disc 1
The Iceman Cometh: Disc 2
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Ipcress File
The Kid Stays in the Picture
The Killers (1946): Disc 1
The Killers (1964): Disc 2
The Knack…and How to Get It
The Lady Eve
The Last Hurrah
The Lavender Hill Mob
The Leopard (Original Italian Version)
The Lion in Winter
The Long Good Friday
The Long Walk Home
The Maids
The Man in the White Suit
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Mystery of Picasso
The Naked Kiss
The Odd Couple
The Office: Series 2
The Old Dark House
The Pawnbroker
The Philadelphia Story
The Point
The Pornographers
The President’s Analyst
The Prisoner
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
The Professionals
The Return of the Secaucus 7
The Right Stuff
The Russians Are Coming …
The Rutles
The Singing Detective: Disc 1
The Stranger
The Stunt Man
The Sunshine Boys
The Tall Guy
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
The Thing
The War of the Roses
The Weather Underground
The Whales of August
The Winslow Boy
Tiger Bay
Time After Time
Tin Men
Tom Jones
Tomorrow the World
Topper Returns
Touch of Evil
Trouble in Paradise
Truly, Madly, Deeply
Tuck Everlasting
Two-Way Stretch
Under Fire
Uptown Saturday Night
Vampire’s Kiss
Vampires in Havana
Vampyr
Victim
Victor / Victoria
Waking Life
Wall Street
War and Peace: Bonus Disc
War and Peace: Disc 1
War and Peace: Disc 2
War and Peace: Disc 3
War and Peace: Disc 4
War-Gods of the Deep
Witches
Young Frankenstein
Young & Innocent / Cheney Vase
Z
Zelig

I’m guessing that there’s maybe 150-200 films on my list that Netflix doesn’t have, so I’ve been looking around at other DVD rental services like GreenCine, which appears to list about half of my remaining films. (That’s a little misleading, since GreenCine lists out-of-print titles which they don’t actually have available for rent.) The other half are just not available on DVD yet. I might subscribe to GreenCine for a while and compare the quality of service, but I am pretty sure Netflix is going to be faster because they have more distribution centers; GreenCine is focused on the West Coast, and I don’t live there. When you’re paying a flat monthly fee, turnaround and delivery time is an important factor. I like GreenCine’s attitude, but I have to confess that I much prefer the design of the Netflix website.

Update — June 30, 2004: I mailed in my $10 rebate coupon for the DVD player, with a photocopy of my receipt and the UPC symbol from the box. They say I should get my money in eight weeks.

Update — August 16, 2004: Got my check for $10 from Best Buy.