Why We Still Get DVDs from Netflix

Netflix’s DVD.com just mailed out its 5 BILLIONTH DVD this week. That’s an amazing feat, especially when a large portion of the population doesn’t realize that Netflix still has a DVD subscription service. I’m a proud member of #dvdnation and I earn points for posts such as this. #ad

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In June of 2000, we attended a family get-together and my cousin mentioned how he had been getting DVDs through a subscription service called Netflix. “There are no due dates! You make a list of what you want to watch, and they just send you the next one on your list when you return the one you’ve watched, and they pay the postage!” At the time, we had a toddler and a baby on the way, and our movie-watching had basically come to a screeching halt. Both of us are huge movie buffs, so we went home and signed up for Netflix. Nineteen years and 1295 DVDs later, we’re still members of DVD Netflix and proud of it. That’s an average of 6 movies per month for 19 years!

Our friends always say “Wow, you guys have seen SO many movies.” And yes, on those lists of the top 100 movies or whatever, we’ve usually seen most of them. Yet there are still SO many more we want to see, and that’s why we keep our Netflix subscription.

Yes, there are many streaming services out there, and Redbox exists, but most of them only have newer releases and very select older releases. If older releases are available, you definitely have to pay for them individually, and those costs for us would add up more than our DVD Netflix subscription. We like being able to get nearly every movie we want to watch, when we want to watch it. For example, a couple of months ago we watched the series Hanna on Amazon Prime. We discovered that there was a 2011 movie of this same story. We put it at the top of our Netflix queue, and we were able to watch it right away.

The first movies we rented were:

Dave Matthews Band: Listener Supported

The first of many concert DVDs we have watched over the years

The Treasure Seekers

Check out that young Kiera Knightley!

Bicentennial Man

Robin Williams–what’s not to like? Well, we didn’t like it. But that’s one of the best things about getting DVDs from Netflix. If you don’t like something, just quit watching and send it back. In a couple of days you’ll have a new one.

The Beach

And yet another movie from our first batch that we didn’t care for, even with Leonardo DiCaprio and the gorgeous Thailand beach scenes.

The First Year

In the first year, we rented two movies that were amazing! I am a very tough rater–if you look at my book ratings my average is around 3. It’s probably the same for Netflix DVDs. I am super stingy with my 5s and not afraid to give 1-2 stars when I don’t like something. So in the first year of membership (5 months), only two were five star movies.

Life is Beautiful

With subtitles, always subtitles, never dubbed. Trust me. No movie is improved with dubbing.

Frequency

We have since purchased a copy of this movie, it’s one of our favorites.

Older Titles

Like I said, I love that we can get movies on Netflix DVD to watch that we can’t get anywhere else. The oldest movie we have rented was:

Laura–1944

Although this is the oldest we have rented, there are definitely older films we eventually want to watch like:

The Jazz Singer–1927

There are so many other great classics: from Hitchcock’s movies, to musicals from the 30s and 40s, and up to present day with the newer released movies and more obscure titles. My older daughter calls these the “wheat” movies, see for example this cover with the award titles surrounded by what looks like wheat:

When we first joined Netflix, DVDs were the only option, streaming didn’t come into existence until 2010, and even then it was limited for a few years. We had those small children, so going to the theater was out except for special occasions. Looking back through our rental history, we rented a fair number of children’s/family DVDs, but the bulk of our watching were movies just for us adults that we could pop in and watch after the kids went to bed.

Television Series

At this point in our lives, we didn’t have HBO or any premium channels, and TiVo really only started to take hold of the market around 2003. So renting DVDs of television shows was usually our only way to watch shows like:

The Sopranos

We would wait anxiously each year for the previous year’s season to be released on DVD, then we would “binge watch” the best way we could by renting one DVD after another.

We also did this with

Sex and the City

Land of the Lost

And when this one came out on DVD, we had the joy of introducing this beloved series to our kids. Do you remember this Sid and Marty Krofft series from the 70s? Not the Will Ferrell movie remake, but the cheesy original television show? Well, Netflix has all of the DVDs so you can introduce the show to future generations.

My husband is very into music concerts and documentaries, and Netflix has pages of these to check out. One example:

The Stax Records Story

Or, how about a live-action Disney movie?

The Apple Dumpling Gang

Old and New versions of the same movie?

The Flight of the Phoenix–1965 and 2004

Books to Movies

It seems as if 2017 was the year we started watching a ton of movies that had originally been books. In general, I have to say that the book is typically always better, but it’s definitely fun to compare the two. Take for example:

The Girl on the Train

I actually liked the book. I thought it laid out the narrative in an interesting way, even though I really disliked the main character. I gave it 4 stars. The movie on the other hand–gave it 2 stars. I didn’t think it conveyed the story as well. Yet I’ve talked to many people who think the total opposite. It’s fascinating to compare and contrast, especially if you’re able to read and then view the movie immediately afterward. Here are some other examples:

A Man Called Ove

Both the movie and the book were good, slight edge to the book because it gave more in Ove’s head rather than watching it from the outside. This is another movie where subtitles didn’t draw me away from the movie.

A Monster Calls

The book absolutely gutted me. It is such a powerful narrative about grief and life. Again, a slight edge to the book because it went a bit further than the movie, but the movie did the book justice.

Why do you choose such weird movies?

I’m the one who usually adds movies to the queue and who usually determines the order. From time to time, LeeRoy will add something or move something to the top that he wants to watch, but mostly, it’s me. And so we end up watching our share of what he calls “weird movies.” Occasionally, I will come up with a clunker that we will either watch the entire thing and then roll our eyes, or shut it off midway and pop it back in the mail. For example:

A Ghost Story–2017

So many people were gushing about how achingly meaningful this movie was, and we thought it was an achingly boring movie that tried too hard to be artsy. But we did give it a try, so there’s that. I do have a lot more hits than misses though, here are a few that we loved:

Lars and the Real Girl

LeeRoy said, “A movie about a guy and his blow up sex doll? What is this weirdness?” Yet…this film is sweet, funny, and an all around great movie.

Chef

Two of the things that LeeRoy thinks I watch way too much of are “doctor shows” and “cooking shows.” I think he had a major eye-roll when this movie arrived, because “cooking shows” make him either hungry or bored. Well, this one made him hungry, but never bored. The soundtrack is AMAZING and the movie is uplifting and fantastic. If you haven’t seen it, get it. If you have, then check out The Chef Show (Netflix streaming), which is a cooking documentary show with Jon Favreau and Roy Choi (the consulting chef for the movie) cooking their way through the movie’s dishes and more.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Yeah, having the words “dying girl” in the title doesn’t instill a lot of hope that this will be an uplifting movie. Yet…it’s a really great one that you’ll be glad you watched. So much to say about friendships, family, and relationships.

Streaming and the Future

We’ve slowed down somewhat over the past couple of years with our DVD watching. First, we had MoviePass for most of a year (while it was still an actual, functioning thing) so we saw pretty much everything in the theater that year. Also, streaming has taken over a larger percentage of our viewing than it used to, mostly because there’s a great deal of high quality original streaming programming available these days (Russian Doll and Stranger Things, for example). However, we still manage to watch a fair number of DVDs, and since it’s much more economical than going to the theater or purchasing a new release to stream, and movies are released on DVD within a very short period of time (Avengers: Endgame was four months from theater release to DVD), it is totally worth it for us to continue with our Netflix DVD membership.

Did you know that Netflix still has a DVD subscription program? Have you seen any good movies lately? Are you ready to jump on (or back on) to the DVD Netflix bandwagon? Check it out here DVD Netflix