2013 Annual Report

I'm wearing my Netflix sweatshirt, which I got on eBay, while I blog this. Time for my annual report. In 2013, this is how I consumed movies:

 I saw 123 movies in 2013:

Netflix DVD: 70
Theater: 39
Netflix Instant: 6
Other Internet: 5
Redbox: 2



This is the lowest number since before Netflix. I must admit, I'm not including many hours of television I got through Netflix Instant. I don't count those toward my movie totals. My viewing might have increased if I tracked those hours.

I've seen 999 of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 2002 edition. The book has been revised many times, so the complete list from all editions now has 1,153 titles on it. The newest edition has 28 titles I haven't seen, so there's a big difference among editions. I'm wondering if I should try to complete all editions, or is that a fool's errand? I'm getting my stats from the new iPhone app for the book, 1001 Movies Before You Die. You can also see them on Icheckmovies.com, which is the only list-tracking site I use now. I still have my stuff on Listology.com, but I'm not updating it.

I'm still keeping the DVD plan and the Instant plan, until I can afford a faster Internet connection. I'm currently using Freedompop.com for my Internet, and even on their best plan, I experience only 1-2 Mbps. I need an external antenna. My house is a Faraday cage, apparently. I've heard they throttle streaming users. Oh well. It's slightly better and cheaper than DSL or cable, except when it rains.

Shout-out to Reed Hastings and the Netflix crew for a job well done. Thank you.

IPhone app for the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

I just downloaded and installed the iPhone app for the book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which you know, is my favorite movie list. This is a great app. I'm so excited to discover it. It allows you to keep track of all the movies you've seen on the list. It includes a place to rate each movie, make notes, and a link to buy each movie, or share on Facebook and Twitter.

Wish I had this app back in 2004, because it has a place to save the date seen. If I hadn't already seen a great many of them, I'd add the dates, but that's too much work.

The app allows you to choose which list is your default: the newest edition, the essential, or the complete. I've seen 999 of them, so I'll be interested to see how soon I can complete at least the essential list, once I ch.eck them off.

It's only 3.2 Mb, and it takes just a couple seconds to open.

It opens with a splash screen asking you to buy the book, of course. It goes away with a single tap, and as long as the app is open, it doesn't pop up again.

It requires two or three taps to check off each title. First tap to select the movie, then tap to mark it seen, then tap the down arrow to go to the next title or tap to return to the list For someone like me, it would be nice to tap each title once to indicate seen or not, or import seen titles from another list. But it's very smooth and fast, so it's OK.

It shows you which movies are also on the 1001 Books list, which is cool. There's an app for that book, too.

I paid $4.99 for it, which is worth it, for such an excellent app.

Download 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die from the iTunes store
 it

Netflix DVD wins 2012

This month marks my ninth anniversary with Netflix. I still love Netflix, but 2012 was not a big movie year for me. My attendance at the movies was way down for several reasons. I worked longer hours. The people I usually go to the movies with were less available, due to work and school commitments. After seeing over two thousand movies in the last eight years, my interest in movies is flagging. I'm more particular in my taste. I've completed some great movie lists: AFI, Academy Awards, Leonard Maltin, and almost all of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. You can see my progress at I Check Movies.

I saw 136 movies in 2012

73 were on Netflix DVD
21 on Netflix Instant via Roku
37 at a theater or other public venue
5 were on DVD from another source

Still a Netflix fan

I'm still a huge Netflix Fan, but I'm slowing down. I saw only 202 movies in 2010, compared to 473 in 2006. I rented 52 of those on DVD from Netflix, and watched 40 instantly. I saw 67 movies in a theater. I'm still waiting to see the last seven movies of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, 2002 edition. I've been without cable TV for seven years.

1001 movies available at Netflix

You thought I was over my obsession with the 1001 movies you must see before you die. Not so fast. I found that Netflix Community user Knaldskalle has posted the list with links to Netflix where the titles are available on DVD, so you can quickly add them to your queue. That represents much work, for which I am grateful. I'm still stuck at having seen only 992 of the 1001 (2002) edition, but I've found sources for two of the remaining 9, so there's hope.

Fired by Amazon

I have been fired by Amazon, because I am an affiliate living in the state of North Carolina, which just placed a sales tax on anything you buy online if you click through from a site based here even if the vendor does not have a physical presence here. All I was selling was the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Taxes hurt everyone.

The guy with the gun in the above photo is North Carolina.

Russian DVD rental service

RussianDVD.com uses the Netflix model to rent Russian-language movies to continental U.S. residents. They say they have 5,000 in their library, and many with English subtitles.

I discovered them when I was trying to finish the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. They had one of them (now out of stock), The Asthenic Syndrome, but it was in Russian, without English subtitles, and I don't want to watch it that way.

SilverScreenArchive

So, today I get a nice email from David at SilverScreenArchive, telling me that they are not going to make me pay for the DVD that got stolen on Veterans' Day! Sweet.

And he reminded me that my old posts about ClassicFlix should be updated to show the name has changed to SilverScreenArchive, the other best place to rent classic films. For you young folks out there, when I say "classic", I mean a film that was made between 1906 and 1969. Netflix is great, but they can't rent what isn't on DVD. So what SilverScreenArchive offers, which no one else does, is the service of renting films that have never been released on DVD, making them especially rare and hard-to-find. Their films are usually transferred from some other format to DVD.

SilverScreenArchive is located in California, so it takes an extra day for mail to get here to North Carolina, but the service is excellent.

If you're trying to complete the list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, SilverScreenArchive is a great resource.

Mad queue disease

I've emptied my queue! Yes, I'm just kidding. My queue hasn't been empty since January 12, 2004. But in a way I have. At one point, I had maxed out my queue with 500 titles from the book of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Netflix has just sent me the last one.

According to my Netflix History, which I keep in Netflix Freak, Netflix has sent me 606 titles since I joined.

But an empty queue is the devil's playground, so I am madly refilling it with the 389 movies I haven't seen of the Best 1000 Movies Ever Made.

Progress report on the 1001 Movies

It's been three months since I last reported on my quest to see all of the titles in Stephen Jay Schneider's book, 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, the 2002 edition. I started in 2004, having seen about 200 of them, and now I have seen 978.

Netflix sent me 595 of them.

Of the 23 remaining, eight are in my Netflix Queue. I have three from Netflix at home. I bought two on eBay. One I have to rent at the video store. One I have to watch at the UNC Chapel Hill library. The final eight are unavailable on home video, or if available, in a foreign language without English subtitles.

I'm going through the book in chronological order, and I just finished the decade of the Nineties.

If you're working on the same list, please let me know how far along you are. I haven't heard of anyone who has completed the list yet. You can track, share, and compare your progress on the fourth edition (2006) of the book at Lists of bests.

I beat Ebert!!

As of June 12, 2005 Roger Ebert has seen 943 of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

As of April 24, 2007, I have seen 944.

In other news, Roger Ebert's 9th Annual Overlooked Film Festival (aka Ebertfest) started in Champaign, Illinois today, and I'm sad that I can't be there. Ebert is being a trooper and showing up, despite his health problems.


P.S. I couldn't have done it without Netflix. I have 39 left in my Netflix queue.

P.P.S. I am using only the 2002 edition of the book.

Rumors of my Netflix addiction are greatly exaggerated

Some folks are addicted to Netflix. Thank goodness I'm not that bad. I can understand why some people become addicts, because Netflix makes it too easy. For example, before Netflix, I rented maybe two movies a month, and went to the theatre about once a month. Now I'm renting three a week and going to the theatre twice a week.

I used to have 500 in my queue, but that was in 2004. Now it's down to 55. See? I'm getting better. I have it under control. I promise I'll stop once I've watched 62 more movies. Besides, now is not a good time to quit Netflix, when I'm so close to finishing the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

I just use Netflix to relax at the end of a hard day. If you knew what a hard life I've had, you'd use Netflix too. I'm certainly not as bad as these pathetic people who post comments on Hacking Netflix.

If I didn't have this blog about Netflix, I could easily give it up, no problem.

Happy Netflix anniversary to me!

I have been a member of Netflix for three years! I joined in January 2004 and never quit. Netflix has sent me 544 titles, which is an average of 15 titles per month. My plan has been mostly 3-out. I took a brief foray into the 5-out and 8-out plans, in 2005, but I got way behind in watching them.

I've rated over 2,200 titles, but written only 11 reviews on Netflix. Here's a link to my Netflix Profile page, where you can see my reviews and lists. My profile nickname is RosieCotton. They wouldn't let me be Netflix Fan. Go figure.

I've seen 923 of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Because Netflix provides me with so much entertainment at such a great price, I quit cable in 2004. So this is also my Happy No-Cable anniversary day!

My Yearly stats

I saw 473 movies last year.
Of those, 65 movies were in the theatre, so the rest were on DVD or VHS (no TV).
163 were from Netflix.
42 were from Blockbuster Online.
73 were from SilverScreenArchive.
The rest were from other sources, like eBay, Amazon, Facets, Nicheflix, Public Library, or a friend.

I have seen 914 of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Queue progress update: a big milestone

I started watching the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, in May 2004, having already seen about 200 titles in the book.
Now I've seen 904.
I passed 801 in June.
I'm watching them in chronological order, so I'm in the 1990's now.
I have 78 of them in my Netflix queue.
I own 7 which I haven't watched yet.
Which leaves 12 missing titles, which I will have to beg, borrow, or steal from somewhere. I especially need to find sources for Hanyo (1960) and Deseret (1995) . If you can help me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Another queue milestone

For the first time since I joined Netflix in January 2004, my queue has dipped below 100 titles!! I haven't had to add anything in a long while, since I'm working on the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. I haven't put anything in my queue unless it's in that book. I have seen 881 of the 1001, which leaves 120. I have 97 in my Netflix queue. I own 12 which I haven't watched yet. I'm still looking for 11 of them. I have just 16 to watch before I'm done with every movie through 1990.

Neil and Linda

Neil and Linda are working their way through the list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, posting reviews of them on their blog as they go. Since they started in July, Neil has seen 72 and Linda, 75. They have a lovely blog on which they have listed all the movies by decade or genre, and linked them to Amazon.co.uk, where available. Since they are in the U.K., they don't have the benefit of using the enormous selection at Netflix, but it's a great idea for a blog. I've been able to see 861 of the movies on the list, of which, I rented about 450 from Netflix.

2-25-07 update: I just discovered that Neil and Linda have deleted their blog. Sorry about that.

If you can't see 1001, how about 50?

Perhaps I should re-name this blog after the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, since that's my current obsession, but there is no way I could meet my goal of seeing them all without my beloved Netflix. However, if you despair of seeing all 1001, or you have a short time to live (my condolences), the Sunday Mail has come up with a shorter list of only 50 Films You Must See Before You Die...according to "experts" of course. I have posted my checklist on Listology, where you can see that I have only nine more to go before I'm free to shuffle off this mortal coil (not that I intend to, of course).

I'm in the Eighties now

I'm using Netflix in my quest to see the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. I have put the movies in my queue in chronological order, and I have just started working on films made in the 1980's. I have already seen 816 of the 1001, and I have 147 in my queue.

Update re: SilverScreenArchive, formerly ClassicFlix

11/14/2007 UPDATE: I have replaced all references to Classicflix in this post to SilverScreenArchive, which is their new name since October 2006.

I am really enjoying using SilverScreenArchive, which I joined back in March to use as a supplement to my Netflix subscription. If you would like to see the greatest classics of foreign and American film, this is your source. They have thousands of titles which are missing from the Netflix collection, because Netflix carries only DVD releases. SilverScreenArchive does something very helpful for the customer. They take movies which are only on VHS and convert them to DVD for ease of mailing, which makes movies available for rent which you can't get any other way. Since I am trying to complete the list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, this is a big help.

They ship series discs in order, I haven't received any unplayable or damaged discs, and they've never made a mistake.

I have two challenges with using SilverScreenArchive, but these don't bother me enough to give up the service, because they still have movies I must see. Turnaround is slow. It can take about 4-5 days for them to receive my returns. They are in California, and I am in North Carolina. The fastest was 3 days once, and the slowest was 8 days once. As a result, even though I'm limited to 8 per month, I've reached my limit only once. Still, I get my money's worth.

The other challenge is that they do not ship in queue order, so there is no predicting what you'll get next. Blockbuster Online does the same thing. However, I never put anything in my queue that I do not always want to see, so that's not a big deal. It's just that there was a title at the top of my queue for three months that just now shipped.

Considering that they are a little mom & pop organization, they do a great job.