I’ve already hinted at my disdain for Redbox, but I think I
need to rant for a minute anyway.
There used to be these magical places—roofed places, with
walls and doors and heat and air conditioning—where you could walk around and
browse movies to your heart’s desire. You could actually say to yourself or your
spouse or your girlfriend or buddies, “Hey!
Let’s watch Ace Ventura: Pet
Detective tonight!” then go to this place and rent it for a small fee, and
bring it back three-to-five days later depending on policy.
You didn’t have to wait in a line in the
rain/snow/wind/sweltering heat.
You didn’t have to feel guilty for making others wait while
you painstakingly selected a movie for the night.
You didn’t have to deal with a machine.
There were people with (sometimes) valid opinions on movies
who could take you to the one you wanted or select one you didn’t even know you
wanted. If you didn’t like it, nine times
out of ten you could just trade it for a different one free of charge. And the selection was unmatched by anything outside
of Netflix’s mail service. You weren’t limited
to new releases and straight-to-DVD hack jobs like * Zombies vs. Nazi Hookers from Outer Space.
Netflix instant has a great selection of Television shows
but its movies are limited. There are
some great ones, don’t get me wrong, but you’ve really got to choose from their
selection. You can’t watch movies on a
whim there. Their mail service is the
most complete, but again, if you want specific films you’ve got to wait ‘til
they're mailed. The closest you’ve got to
“whim watching” is “Hey, let’s watch Ace
Ventura on Thursday, cool?”
So the last bastion of great film outside of buying them is
your local library. They’ve got all
sorts of great stuff. They’ve got
classics, documentaries, kid’s films, new films, old films, bad films, good
films—they’ve got films. And they’re housed in a building.
Go to the library.
* Note: not a real movie (I don't think)
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