h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Right I've been wandering too and fro here for sometime but see one key flaw

Money

Do a film a week, and all you have to do is check its in the listings. That way no one forks out lots of money and the conversations always stay fresh

*runs off in cape after scratching AD DVD's into the door*

>Do a film a week, and all you have to do is check its in the listings. That way no one forks out lots of money and the conversations always stay fresh<

That's not a bad suggestion, per se. But as some of us reside in the US, and some in the UK, and presumably lots of other places, what're the odds of finding a film that none of us have seen, that's on in all of those places during the same time period?

Fortunately, money shouldn't be a problem for film buffs in the States. The Netflix "Three-At-A-Time" program costs only $19.05 a month including sales tax. What does the Amazon rental program in the UK run per month, just out of curiousity?

Even cheaper! £9.99 for 6/month 3-at-a-time or £7.99 for 4 and 2.

I'd consider myself a film buff but I wouldnt fork out money to buy a film I've never seen.

The only exception to this recently is due to my film tutor saying buy a DVD without knowing what happens - which I sought of did with Shogun Assassin, which is excellently done and shame on Tarantino.

How about making it a voting system then? Three people put a film forward for viewing - one on TV, One on Cable (sky one etc) and One on rental. That way everyones got a fair shot at being able to see it for free whether there in the United Kingdom or over somewhere else.

>I'd consider myself a film buff but I wouldnt fork out money to buy a film I've never seen.<

I usually won't, either. That's why I rent them through Netflix first.

Anyway, I'm content to continue adding everyone's suggestions to my queue- the more I watch, the better the value! I will be cancelling my cable TV as of May 1st when my roommate moves out- I will not waste $50 a month for cable TV when I can rent all the movies I want from Netflix for $19. And for less than half the cost, I'm getting *only* the movies I want to see, and none of the garbage. So, movies on cable or on network TV are out of the question for me.

The more we can watch on the Netflix, the better a bargain! We get three-at-a-time, but no limit on how many a month. We're averaging three a week, which is twelve a month at $19, less than $2 each. It's well worthwhile!

That so sounds like marketing material its untrue but aside from that.

Even at that low low price many people arent going to fork out to watch a film. With that same cash I can go watch films I want to watch, and buy a film on ebay too.

Well, here in the States, to see a film in the theater costs $10.50 per person. Blockbuster charges $3.99 per rental, and has only the type of films you see on cable TV or in cineplex theaters- none of the good foreign or art house films. The Netflix subscription we use, which is unlimited rentals, three at a time, is $19. I know which is a better deal for me!

If people choose not to rent the films suggested, it's clearly their prerogative. I don't understand why anyone would want to spend more instead of less, but it's really none of my concern what other people do with their money.

Corner house - 3.50 student, shows art house films. If I want big budget hollywood nonsense I pay the same and walk up the road.

The difference is you wait six months.

But you've still missed my point - You HAVE to pay to watch the film everyones discussing. I have passed by many a time not knowing the film and with no wish to fork out money to - I can imagine many others doing the same. If you do a film thats on terrestrial British TV (or freeveiw), as provided by the Britsh Broadcasting Corporation, then more people can get involved.

If you get it so cheap, then it wouldn't make a difference if us lot got it for free now would it?

>If you do a film thats on terrestrial British TV (or freeveiw), as provided by the Britsh Broadcasting Corporation, then more people can get involved.

If you get it so cheap, then it wouldn't make a difference if us lot got it for free now would it?<

You've missed *my* point. Some of us do not have access to FreeView or to British TV. So, a great deal less people could get involved if choices were limited to those two options.

Perhaps separate threads here for those who have the option to rent, and for those who are unable or unwilling?

If its on the BBC then thats great for some of us, but not those who live in the US.

When you say 3.50 what currency are you talking, as Psychocandy was talking about dollars, were you?

I have to pay £5 or £6 over here, Psychocandys Netflix would work out at £1 a film, sounds good to me.

Remember you won't get a student discount forever.

(And obviously student admissions- which are $7.50 per person here- would not apply to me, no matter how good for my age I might look. )

Hi Kaz!

I just wish I could watch the DVDs and get them back more quickly, so we could watch more than three rentals a week. At least we've got the personal collection (combined forces, around 1100 films!) to tide us over in between.

Maybe we need to start a convo for every film once someone has seen it and then it can wait till someone else has seen it as well. Then the convos can begin, if you get what I mean?

That's actually what I thought was the plan, at this point (hence my thread for "La Strada"). Except that I've watched so many recently, I've decided only to comment on the ones that really stand out. I've gotten a bit behind, unfortunately. Time to play catch-up!

Anyone can post about any movie, whether they've seen it on TV or a rental or at the theater etc. It just works well for me to get mine through Netflix, because if one does rent a lot of movies it is very economical, and they have rare titles, which is kind of the point, to see something unusual. I haven't been posting much because I haven't been wowed by anything, but I have posted some to PCandy's journal about movies.