my first movie collection was on laser disc (400+ titles) now sadly obsolete. i currently have 300+ titles on dvd, some purchased, some ripped and burned.

last film bought: i add 3 - 5 titles a week, so this one is not so meaningful to me. but i recently scored a very hard to find burt lancaster movie off ebay ("Midnight Man") and a very hard to find don johnson movie ("Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart")

last watched: swept away (not the madonna travesty!)

top 5 in rotation now:
- napoleon dynamite
- bubba ho tep
- the ninth gate
- night moves
- tollbooth

genres i like:
- 60's/70's college stuff
- blacksploitation
- sci-fi
- 70's euro classics ("The conformist", etc)
- 30's screwball comedies
- noir

i used to like war films but find them hard to watch now.

oj, have you seen "Prince of Darkness" by john carpenter ?

anyone who wants to chat about movies of any kind can email me, especially fellow collectors.

cjm:

What software do you use to rip & burn?

Is Prince of Darkness any good?

Films owned - 0
Bought - 0
Last Watched - "The Aviator" and "A Bridge Too Far" Netflix double feature.

Five watched a lot -
Last of the Mohicans
Reservoir Dogs
Blade Runner
The Outlaw Josie Wales
2001: A Space Odyssey (and 2010)

cjm - Big thumbs up for Napoleon and Bubba Ho-tep. You probably enjoy Army of Darkness as well?

Last bought: The Incredibles

Last watched: The Incredibles

Top 5 in heavy rotation:
The Incredibles
Miracle
Battle of Britain (courtesy my 9-year old, a WW2 airplane fanatic)
Lord of the Rings (counting the trilogy as a single work)
Master and Commander

Other favorites not listed above:
Apollo 13
The Wrath of Kahn
Saving Private Ryan
Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Zulu
Ordinary People
Dead Again
Field of Dreams

hopefully no one will be offended by this:

1. get a netflix account
2. do a google search on "DvdDecrypt"
this strips off the encryption on the dvd
and creates an "image" on your hard drive
3. I use Intervideo ($50) to do the burn, from
the hard drive files. a product called "Nero"
is also good (i hear)
4. buy a dvd burner ($75 online)
5. buy a stack of blank dvd's ($0.50 each, max)

i like intervideo because it can compress a movie to one disk, if necessary -- or split it onto two disks. it can also convert to other formats like divx, etc, which i use on stuff i grab off the satellite.

"Prince of Darkness" is a great john carpenter movie that is based on the interpretation of the bible being "inverted".

from imdb:
A sinister secret has been kept in the basement of an abandoned Los Angeles church for many years. With the death of a priest belonging to a mysterious sect, another priest opens the door to the basement and discovers a vat containing a green liquid. The priest contacts a group of physics graduate students to investigate it. Unfortunately, they discover that the liquid contains the essence of Satan himself, and they also discover that he will release HIS father - an all-powerful Anti-God! The liquid later comes to life itself, turning some of the students into zombies as the Devil comes forward to release his father. Will these students be able to stop him?

its a lot more interesting than the standard fare, in this genre. there is a guy in it who reminds me of harry :)

i do enjoy "Army of Darkness" and am a big Bruce C. fan :)

Last bought: Bambi
Last watched: The Lady & the Duke
5 favorites: Secret of Roan Inish, Into the West, Jesus of Nazareth, Abraham (Richard Harris), The Three Lives of Thomasina

Last Bought (this week): The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou (2004)& That Darn Cat (1965)

Last Watched: The Moon-Spinners (1964)

Top 5 rotation (watched so many time I've had to buy at least one replacement dvd or video):

Home Alone (1990)
Rushmore (1998)
The Wind in the Willows (Thames prod.)(1983)
LOTR: The Two Towers (2002)
Groundhog Day (1993)

Mike Morley:

You like WWII stuff in general? I thought The Gathering Storm, starring Albert Finney as Churchill and Vanessa Redgrave as Clemmie, was excellent. It originally showed on HBO in 2002.

The only downside is trying to forget about Redgrave's unpalatable political views during the duration of the show, just as I had to overlook my general dislike of the Fighting Irish while watching Rudy.

Judd:

Did you like Lady and the Duke?

Thanks! AOG was kind enough to send a DVD burner, but I've had trouble burning discs (since I'm technologically imbecilic).

Matt:

Two big thumbs up!

Does "Manchester United: The Treble Season" count as a film?

On a serous note, is Kiki's Delivery Service good?

The only anime I've seen is Spirited Away which was excellent. Watched it about 10x in one week with the three year old daughter, who now introduces herself at the park to other kids as Chihiro as a result.

Kiki is great:

http://www.brothersjudd.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/reviews.moviedetail/movie_id/

Three good soccer movies:

Bend it Like Beckham

Victory

Shiri

Special Mention:

Cracker: To be a Somebody:

http://www.crackertv.co.uk/tobeasomebody.htm

Typical Liverpool supporter.

Films Owned: 0
Films Stolen: 1 "The Last Waltz"

Last bought: Sunset Boulevard

Last Watched: Punch Drunk Love

Top whatever:

Repo Man
Donnie Darko
Terminator 2
The Lady Eve
Groundhog Day
Jacob's Ladder
Godfather 2

OJ:

Glad you liked it! I don't know anything about Albert Finney, but my mom watched the show and was amazed because she said he normally doesn't look anything like Churchill.

I thought it was astonishingly good considering it was made-for-TV.

Oh, and any true WWII buff oughta read the book, too. Great stuff.

OJ: Good movie pics, but: What are the legal- ethical consideratioins of ripping and burning DVDs? What about all those warnings at the begining of the DVDs?

RC

Matt: I'm quite interested in WW2 and military history in general, but I have a hard time with so many WW2 movies because they get the equipment wrong (e.g., using postwar Patton-series tanks (M-46/47/48/60) in land battles, repainted AT-6 Texans for Zeroes). One reason I'm so fond of Battle of Britain and Private Ryan is that they do get the equipment right.

Just noticed a serious omission from the list of favorites: The Wind and the Lion. Best Teddy Roosevelt ever!

its legal to make personal copies of vhs tapes, or radio broadcasts, or tv shows. what happens if your copy of a dvd stops playing, do you get a new copy ?
how ethical are the companies that make movies ? maybe you thought farenheight-911 was a morally good thing. same for Triumph of the Will ?

what if the media companies decided you have to buy a separate copy for your house and your car, for example ? a lot of what-ifs, aren't there ? maybe you can get a reward! maybe you can get into heaven!! maybe even get to sit at captain stubing's table!!!

Total Number of DVD's owned: 12 or 13

Last One Bought: Mysterious Island (Ray HarryHausen)

Last One I watched: Napolean Dynamite

Ones Mean A Lot:

The Great Escape

The Magnificent Seven

The Seven Samuria

Jaws

A Bridge Too Far

Lawrence of Arabia

Zulu

Rear Window

Ones I want to Own:

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Pinnochio (Disney)

The Last Detail

The Guns of Navaronne

The Road Warrior

Waiting for Guffman

The Natural

The Right Stuff

Stop Making Sense

Honorable Mentions:

Kingpin (I know this probably cheapens the list but Bill Murray is hilarious in all his scenes)

Office Space (the sum is not better than the parts and the movie falls completely apart at the end. But so what, the first half is hilarious)

Goodfellas (although the last 25 minutes is a music video)

Total movies owned (DVD, VHS, hard drive) 20 or so.

Last movie purchased: The Incredibles
Last movie watched: To Kill A Mockingbird (from MovieLink)

Lately I've been into the Ghibli Studios stuff (Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies stick out).

Had quite a few of DVDs stolen (along with the PS2) when the house was burgled last year. I'm more of a renter.

I've heard that there was CBC production of Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, but I have been unable to locate a DVD. Maybe I dreamed it. Perhaps one of you Canadians can set me straight.

RC:

If you're using the material for yourself there's a well established societal norm for doing so.

Total collection: about 20-30 DVDs
Last purchased: Kiki's Delivery Service (about 3 months ago)
Last watched: Tenchi Muyo

Favorites (I only watch about 7-8 movies a year, so none are in the frequently watched category).

Dark City
Tenchi Muyo
Army of Darkness (I knew this weblog would have fans of this movie around)
Repo Man (glad to see another fan)
Better Off Dead
Ruin Explorers

OJ: "Lady" was excellent. It has been a while since I saw a really good pure dialogue/idea movie. Not perhaps since "The Insider" (Crowe, Pacino). The visuals were intriguing. Overall impression- reminded me of some movies from 50 years ago.

Excellent! I thought it wonderful.

When your baby is 18, you start going to the movies again.

Last Weekend: Kingdom of Heaven. Better than reviewed. Politics and theology are iffy. Great Battle scenes.

Previous: Millions. Highly recomended to parents with kids. OJ will enjoy theology.

P.S. is Kiki's Delivery Service what it sounds like. Is it straight sex or BDSM?

Hey ! Better Off Dead... !
I haven't thought of that in a while, but what a great little film.

I'm not a great fan of Tom Selleck or of Westerns, but for some reason I've really enjoyed every Western I've seen Tom in...

Of course, LoR

then, Gettysburg

Casablanca

Red Dawn, and

Conan the Barbarian.

Mike Morley:

This particular film is really about the run-up to WWII: Churchill's years in the wilderness, etc. It's still very good even with a notable absence of testosterone-flushed battle scenes.

My favorite movies, based on how often I watch them, are:
1)Mr. Roberts; 2)Some Like It Hot; 3)French Connection I; 4)Footlight Parade; 5)Life of Brian/Full Metal Jacket (1st half only.)

Mr. murray:

Does anyone ever watch the second half a second time?

"Last of The Spartans" is a far superior movie to Kubrick's. to my mind, the best war movie ever made is "Best Years Of Our Lives".

cjm:

Am having a great deal of trouble getting hold of a copy of Journey's End (R.C.Sherriff play - there have been 6 different film versions made). As a collector, could you give me a tip?