Organization Chat

[Jassassino]

Give me those sweet blue e-numbers.

[Dirty Duck]

My housemate brought a CRT with a built in VCR up off the street the other day.

It is currently our only way to watch things without horrible tinny sound since her boyfriend moved the speakers we used to watch films on the projector into storage at his parents (for some reason).

I have just bought 45 VHS tapes off of Vinted. I shall list them in no particular order:

1. Cruel Intentions
   
2. S Club 7 It's An S Club Thing
   
3. Lara Croft Tomb Raider
   
4. Blade
   
5. Aliens
   
6. The Simpsons Go To Hollywood
   
7. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
   
8. The Dark Crystal
   
9. Blind Date
   
10. Jumanji & Hook double feature
    
11. Killing Zoe
    
12. Chasing Amy
    
13. Tarka the Otter
    
14. Shrek
    
15. Goodfellas
    
16. Mrs Doubtfire
    
17. Shawshank Redemption
    
18. Men in Black
    
19. Men in Black II
    
20. Titanic
    
21. Trainspotting
    
22. The Day Today Part 2
    
23. Red Dwarf III Timeslides
    
24. Sister Act
    
25. Desperado
    
26. Mission: Impossible (guess I'll be watching it for the first time soon, @starschwar)
    
27. Absolutely Fabulous Absolutely Not
    
28. The Original Karaoke Elvis Collection
    
29. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcast
    
30. Doctor Who The Keeper of Traken
    
31. Batman The Animated Series The Cat and the Claw
    
32. Captain Scarlet/Thunderbirds/Stingray: Stand by for Action!
    
33. Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace
    
34. Jabberwocky
    
35. Buffy The Vampire Slayer Becoming
    
36. Wimbledon (ready for the Spider-Man Tennis marathon @Jassassino)
    
37. BBC RSPB Video Guide to British Garden Birds
    
38. Cats & Dogs
    
39. French & Saunders Series 3 Complete and Unedited-ish
    
40. The X-Files File 1 The Unopened File
    
41. Creature Comforts Series 1 Part 1
    
42. Red Dwarf Smeg Outs
    
43. Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 5 Episodes 12 to 22
    
44. Aardman Classics
    
45. The Matrix Reloaded
    

So what are you lot putting on first?

[NateDog]

Shrek, obviously

[Bread]

I would simply watch Shrek 43 times, then watch S Club 7 once and then watch Shrek again.

[Dirty Duck]

I would simply watch Shrek 43 times, then watch S Club 7 once and then watch Shrek again.

Live footage of Bread:

[Jassassino]

FUCCCKKK CATS & DOGS! I used to have that VHS!

[Bread]

I would simply watch Shrek 43 times, then watch S Club 7 once and then watch Shrek again.

Live footage of Bread:

Shrek 2 is objectively the better film btw, buy that on VHS.

Buy it on DVD and Blu-Ray too whilst you're at it

[Dirty Duck]

I would simply watch Shrek 43 times, then watch S Club 7 once and then watch Shrek again.

Live footage of Bread:

Shrek 2 is objectively the better film btw, buy that on VHS.

Buy it on DVD and Blu-Ray too whilst you're at it

Everyone knows Shrek 2 is peak. Unfortunately I was exclusively buying VHS being sold from people selling them at £1 that I could make massive bundles and ask for a discount on. Shrek 2 did not show up in my searches. But one day I trust I'll find it, and I'll enjoy it automatically starting Far Far Away Idol when the film is done without me having to traverse any menus.

[starschwar]

@Dirty Duck I can't wrap my head around watching a VHS nowadays (unless it's some obscure cut of a movie that never made it to newer formats). I say this as someone who does indeed still have a working VCR hooked up, but I'm a big fan of obscure Hong Kong stuff - though most of that is finally getting good HD/4K releases. To say nothing of being cropped to fullscreen most of the time.

The first two Mission: Impossibles are mixed bags, but have some really great moments. Basically take the first half of 1 and and the second half of 2 and you average out a pretty good movie. 3-6 are some of the best modern action/adventures. The final two... I hate them, but every Metal Gear fan should see them. And when the "homework" consists of movies that all have at least one show-stopping sequence, that's hardly a bad thing.

[Dirty Duck]

@Dirty Duck I can't wrap my head around watching a VHS nowadays (unless it's some obscure cut of a movie that never made it to newer formats). I say this as someone who does indeed still have a working VCR hooked up, but I'm a big fan of obscure Hong Kong stuff - though most of that is finally getting good HD/4K releases. To say nothing of being cropped to fullscreen most of the time.

It's more that the VCR is there and we, at least right now, don't actually have a communal way of watching that isn't huddling around a laptop (which I've always hated despite it's ironic closeness to the CRT in size). I quite like the act of just putting a film on from a pile compared to the sort of decision paralysis that streaming has sort of given us-I've wasted many many hours of my life flicking through the endless lists of films and shows. We watched Four Weddings and a Funeral while eating dinner the other day because it was just the VHS that was in the TV from the previous owner. We didn't even enjoy the film really but being able to sit at the table and watch it together while eating felt quite nice, and the decision was easy because it was what we had to work with at that time.

This is something that I sort of miss about the way television used to be before streaming too, you'd wind up watching stuff you maybe wouldn't have just because you were flicking through and had to choose from what was on. That feeling of finding something you knew nothing about but wind up really enjoying is kind of lost now, it's so rare to go into a film or show without knowing anything about it. It obviously does still happen, I watched The Hidden (1987) the other day as my girlfriend's housemate suggested it. All he knew was that Kyle MacLachlan was in it, and it ended up being a really enjoyable and surprising movie thanks to the lack of info. It feels a bit like you have to set those limiting parameters yourself to still get that pleasant surprise though.

Anyway really the VHS are just a novelty to make the most of a novel time where we have a CRT on the dining table (...though it is a much easier setup than what we had before which involved a projector and bluetooth speakers and connecting a third device to both every time we wanted to watch something).