The Shelf

This is the DVD/Blu-Ray shelf that my roommate and I have featured in our palatial island estate. Six full shelves of movie after movie. It’s usually the first item that new guests notice when they visit us.

Any serious movie buff wants to have a kick-ass film collection and ours is pretty decent. Funny thing is, there’s always more that you want (that new Blu-Ray James Bond collection that just came out!?!?!) Whoever buys that for me is welcome to have my copies of From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace that I already have.

Alfred Hitchcock is my all-time favorite director, but right now I only have Strangers on Train, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho. Still need at least a half dozen more (Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, and Dial M for Murder especially).

Still, we’ve got a lot – covered from About Schmidt to Zombieland. At this point, there’s six shelves. One is for odds and ends, like TV series, concerts, some Disney movies, etc…

One is all comedy. And there’s lots of dramas, action, sci-fi, drama, a row to two of westerns and classics and horror. It’s organized in only the way true movie nerds could do it — NOT alphabetical (don’t be ridiculous). Mostly by genre — westerns here, horror here, 80s comedy here, crime movies set in the past here, crime movies set in L.A. here, crime movies set in Boston here (I’m not kidding). Some organized by director, some by actor (Will Ferrell flicks together, for instance).

So, the question I get a lot from visitors is: Do you ever actually watch them? Of course. But, there’s about 75 of them I’ve never seen (I think we’re getting close to around 700 movies). Most of the unseen ones belong to my roommate and I purposely haven’t watched certain movies yet because I know someday I’ll be bored and say, “Hey, I finally wanna watch the Sherlock Holmes sequel or Robert Redford’s 1975 conspiracy thriller Three Days of the Condor.” A lot of times, I’ll just watch the extra features. I love making-ofs and gag reels and commentaries. Sometimes I just put a couple scenes on for background noise. And I also LOVE when visitors come over, are looking over the collection, and say they haven’t seen something that I love. Time to watch it! (or let them borrow it, which involves heavy legal paperwork and making them leave something valuable behind).

A final note about The Shelf: I’ve now had Blu-Ray for about three years. Is it better? Absolutely. Truth be told, though, I still buy regular DVDs too. For one thing, not QUITE everything is available on Blu Ray (though we’re getting there). New releases are pretty much always purchased on Blu Ray now. If I’m getting an action or sci-fi spectacle movie, it’s gonna be Blu Ray. Still, I could really care less whether The Campaign is purchased on Blu Ray or regular DVD. Or a drama like Gone Baby Gone or Capote. If I’m getting an old 70s action flick, I don’t really care. Blu-Rays are for your visually spectacular movies. However, at this point, the new release Blu-Rays are only a couple bucks more, so why not? 

Coming tomorrow: a look at movies likely to be nominated for Academy Awards this year.