The middle ground here is, of course, that not everyone buys
or watches movies to see Behind the Scenes information or Commentaries, some
folks just like to plop down on the couch, watch Steven Segal abuse minorities
for 90 minutes and get on with their day. Thus, Netflix. You can make the
cheapest, ugliest, least-worthwhile piece of shlock possible and if there's a
large enough audience out there (and in the case of Steven Segal and the many,
many dads who follow his adventures, there always is) you'll see your movie
plucked from the masses by your distributor, offered to Netflix or iTunes on a
distribution deal and have a whole new viewer base.
I know that during
that interim period when I stopped renting, started using digital services and
then started renting again afterwards I found that something was missing. My
selection was extremely limited, especially within the confines of 'Canadian
Netflix'. I found myself more often than not simply watching what was popular
at the time, and 90% of the time it was something AMC had made in the last 5
years. In my opinion, not based on any concrete fact, Netflix deliberately
pushes the really popular Network Television stuff and BIG NAME movies so that
what a lot of people really got the service for, watching movies they already
like, is forgotten. That doesn't diminish the quality of the content at all,
far from it. With the exception of The Walking Dead, which is the TV Scripting
equivalent of a Francis E Dec rant, the majority of what's really pushed is
good, quality TV. It's big budget, bombastic and you love it.
But what has always made movies special to me is that what
you find on the fringes is the real indicator of quality. Sony or Disney or NBC/Universal
can crank out a certain type of movie with a certain group of actors at a
certain time of year and know they'll make bank. Even if they don't
domestically succeed big budget action schlock always finds its way to Asia and
makes millions. So the model in place is thus: Make a by-the-numbers film
that's either straightforward or mildly complicated, release it when the iron's
hot, throw it on Netflix if it stuck in the American markets or forget it and
try again next year if it didn't. Thus the pool of samey, relentlessly boring
action cartoons grows and the space for independent or initially forgotten
greats becomes smaller.
Which brings us back to rental stores.
Let’s be honest, with the way Apple, Sony and Microsoft push on demand services with their products, and the fact that digital cable companies can advertise movie package deals out the wazoo (while airing the same 5 movies and terrible series ad infinitum) it might seem like the choice is already made up for you, but seriously think about this: How much time and money do you really put into these services? How many movies or shows a month do you watch? Bluntly put, unless you buy a lot of on-demand television, renting is going to be more expensive. But if you collect physical movies as well, renting is a good go between. And as opposed to unpredictable, distributor-managed on-demand services, renting lets you watch what you want, when you want. So go out and rent. Find the closest rental place you can. Use a convenience store. At the very least, make sure you’re watching what you want to watch and not what THEY want you to watch.
Let’s be honest, with the way Apple, Sony and Microsoft push on demand services with their products, and the fact that digital cable companies can advertise movie package deals out the wazoo (while airing the same 5 movies and terrible series ad infinitum) it might seem like the choice is already made up for you, but seriously think about this: How much time and money do you really put into these services? How many movies or shows a month do you watch? Bluntly put, unless you buy a lot of on-demand television, renting is going to be more expensive. But if you collect physical movies as well, renting is a good go between. And as opposed to unpredictable, distributor-managed on-demand services, renting lets you watch what you want, when you want. So go out and rent. Find the closest rental place you can. Use a convenience store. At the very least, make sure you’re watching what you want to watch and not what THEY want you to watch.