Movies & Popcorn

After a long hiatus from the movie world, hubby and I finally went back to Blockbuster Video to rent some new movies on DVD and Blu-ray. It has been our habit to rent movies during weekends, well at least before we had Isla. Now that things have started to settle, we tried to do movie weekends again and see if we can handle it now that we have a baby. So far, so good but with the frequent use of the pause and rewind buttons whenever the baby comes in the way. Good thing we also didn't miss that much movies since we last visited the video store. Being both movie fans, we have a variety of tastes in movies. Of course, we would watch the blockbuster movies but we sometimes get the indie films (which we've learned that we'd either love it or hate it) or not-so-popular ones which would turn to be really good ones. 

You might wonder why we do the old-fashioned rent-a-movie than go to the cinema or watch it through download or streaming. First, we still go the cinema but not that frequent because first, movies here are really expensive about £8 for one person plus more if it's 3D and of course, you got to buy food and drinks. Nowadays, DVDs and Blu-rays are usually released after 3 months or more so it's sometimes worth the wait. And it's a bit cheaper because you get to rent 4 movies for £10 and that's for newly released films, much cheaper if they are 6 months or older on video. 

As with downloading and streaming, I know that internet speed here is really excellent and a lot of people do this instead but we had a few cases of computer virus which actually 'killed' our laptops and our PC's hard drive so we don't want to risk it anymore. I know there are still good sites but hubby doesn't want to do it anymore. As for streaming, there are also really great and legit sites but the downside here is the monthly bill and we don't want to feel obligated to watch a movie, just because we are paying for the service monthly. At least when you rent, you only pay whenever you want to rent. No strings attached. I know that with the advancement of technology, it is possible that renting may not become an option anymore in the future. I can already see it now that business isn't so good. Some branches have closed down and the one we have here in good old Horsham is selling extra stuff just to keep it going, it also sells videos (new and pre-owned), games, sweets, crisps and popcorn and also has great deals with both movies and food. I think they also tried to do monthly memberships where they send you films by post just like Lovefilm. So sad but that's reality, I hope that people like us would keep the business afloat for now. I know we're a bit old-fashioned but I still enjoy renting movies, brings me back to my childhood when family time was spent watching movies at home, back then when Betamax tapes were the 'in' thing...and who can forget those rewinders (haha), maybe some people don't even know what they are now. I have seen things unfold and progress to Laser Disc (it wasn't really much of a hit and we never had it at home), VHS, VCD, DVD and now Blu-Ray. What great memories! I hope I can pass on this movie tradition to my daughter.