My Collection Is Complete
Tuesday, 22nd July 2008, 01:57

Do you think you'll ever reach a day when you can say "my collection is complete?"

Without, of course, owning every movie ever made since 1898? And of course not counting new movies you can't buy yet.

Can you see the day you've got every movie you wanted?

This blog is naturally aimed at obsessive DVD collectors, so the rest of you who watch once and eBay should talk among yourselves.

Believe it or not, I reached that epiphany point today. Well, almost. There's a honking great technical problem in the way but it was a near thing.

You know how in the past I've banged on about "comfort movies". Those wonderful movies from the past that are like a security blanket or a comfortable pair of slippers. Movies you can happily wrap yourself up in and forget the cares of the world.

This week, Warner Home Video announced the upcoming release of two movies I've been after for decades. Moon Zero Two and When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. They're stupid B picture fare made by Hammer in 1969, but I have a soft spot for both of them and they're among the last missing pictures in my "comfort movie" collection. Unbelievably the two movies are being released in a double-feature set (what are the odds), but here's the teeth-clenching, off-****ing bit - they're R1 exclusives to Best Buy in the States, and Best Buy doesn't ship outside the US.

I voiced an annoyance over at the US-based Home Theater Forum but got little sympathy as they were more annoyed that there were some US movies only available in R2. Somebody suggested I cultivate a friendship with somebody in the US who could buy it for me, but there are a number of holes in that plan.

How shallow do they think I am that I'm going to cultivate a friendship with somebody in the US purely to acquire a DVD - no matter how much I'm after it? There are discs I'd like from all sorts of countries, but I'm not about going pestering perfect strangers to go buy me them. They don't know me from Adam yet, and vice versa. It takes time to build up trust in somebody you've never met face to face. In any case, Best Buy are notoriously crap at stocking titles - especially exclusives - and the staff have no idea what lines they carry (sounds like a certain UK chain that rhymes with Nixons, and who oddly enough are prime targets for takeover by Best Buy when the company makes an aggressive move into the UK next year).

Ah phooey - I'll just live in hope they eventually do a UK release.

Posted by Mark Oates