Physical Media Lives

Since I am avid movie collector, I almost purchased this movie for my collection. But after reading the reviews, I decided to just rent it to see if it was worth collecting it. It is not worth adding to my collection or anyone else's. I expected that there would be interviews with other collectors and there would be views of their collection and clips of their favorite movies. There are interviews, but each collector just blathers on and on about how much better it is to own the physical copy. OK, we know that! That is why you bought the movie on DVD, Blu-ray, VHS, Laserdisc, or even D-VHS (that's digital VHS for the uninitiated, I have about a dozen of those!). As I said, I wanted to see them watch at least a clip or two of their favorite movies and comment on them. And it would have been nice to see some actors or directors of consequence, rather than a bunch of obscure nobodies. Avoid unless you need something to fall asleep to.

I saw this film as Movie Hoarders. It is a collection of interviews with people who have large collections of movies on various formats (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, UHD, and even Laser Disc).

I am a guy who loves movies. I love owning movies. I have owned a lot of movies over the years. I have even bought movies because of the bells and whistles they were presented with. I should have enjoyed this film, yet I quickly became bored.

The first issue is that most of those interviewed seem to have similar tastes. Most of them (all but two males in their thirties or forties) love horror movies judging from their attire and the possessions they tend to show the camera.

I love horror movies too, but it would have been nice to interview a few collectors of a different sort. How about someone who name checks Eureka and Criterion and Kino labels instead of the constant Arrow, Severin, Shout, and Vinegar Syndrome? The subjects not into horror seem to be into about everything. One subject collects Laser Discs. I don't think it matters what the film is, only that the film is on Laser Disc. Another guy brags he has 6,000 movies. Okay, why? Is he just collecting to collect, so he can brag that he has 6,000 movies and we don't?

This brings me to another criticism. For a film about people who supposedly love movies, there isn't much movie talk. Occasionally, a subject will pull something from his or her shelf to show the audience, but not all that much. There was nothing in this documentary that made me envious. How about having the subjects show their favorite pieces of their collection and explain why? This film should have sent me down E-bay's rabbit hole trying to get some of the gems. It did not.

In addition, the film takes a nostalgic look back at the VHS days, one that is just not accurate. One of the complaints of streaming is censorship. As someone who grew up during the home video boom, I can attest there was just as much censorship in the VHS days. Tapes were often put out in "rated" and "unrated" versions. Those Italian horror films some of the subjects love so much were released heavily edited and rather indifferently panned and scanned. Furthermore, the much touted, by some of the subjects, Blockbuster Video went along with the censorship, avoiding unrated cuts and even banning Article 99 and The Last Temptation of Christ from its stores. None of this history is addressed in Movie Hoarders.

This documentary seems less made than assembled from zoom sessions with the director's friends. I am not sure who the film is for. The people interviewed in it will get a kick out of watching themselves, but there is nothing new here. There is certainly nothing here worth 129 minutes of one's time.

This was a long 2 hours and 10 minutes. It gets real redundant. Really, only a handful of subjects are discussed. AND I don't think there's a conflicting opinion in this entire thing. Some people are interesting, some not. Some people are clearly not hoarders. It appeared Cinema Sickness had the largest collection, then again, he was the one guy walking around. Most people were sitting in front of a case or two.

I was really hoping people would get to showcase their collections more. Lots of horror collectors. I would be curious to see what kind of stuff they collect (a couple people get to pull out a few things). There was one guy who had a large horror collection, and had them divided by subject matter! That was fun to see. This movie needed more of that kind of stuff.

Way too much focus on VHS, they spent what seemed like 45 minutes on "nostalgia" (today's buzzword that I detest), another 45 on how much streaming sucks, the good old days of Blockbuster, how you have to be able to physically hold a movie in your hands, and that boutique labels are keeping media alive. I think that about covers it.

The people appearing in this movie were obviously given only a handful of subjects to discuss. Collecting a large number of movies was not one of them. Movie Hoarders was formerly titled Physical Media Lives (as it's listed on imdb), which is more accurate.

I was disappointingly mistaken about watching this; as a movie collector myself I thought that I'd be seeing some interesting ideas and opinions on the subject. All I got was about a dozen schlemiels all saying the same things ad nauseam about being able to own their movies (meaning, of course, owning COPIES of the movies; the movies themselves are owned by the companies or corporations who produced them) and being able actually to hold these movies in their hands. If you watch the first 10 - 15 minutes of this drivel, you've watched the whole two hours of it.

No in-depth discussions about any of the movies themselves, though - and all of them seemed only to be interested in horror, zombies, schlock stuff. Don't waste your time.

Many interesting collectors are keeping these visual memories alive. As a minimal collector myself I can appreciate this content.

I have been collecting older game consoles, Laserdisc players CED Videodisc, VHS and in the future Beta. Having a Plex sever to share with my family and friends via VHS movies from 1982 with trailers and scenes after the ending to the Plex server has been a conversation piece bringing people closer through nostalgia.

From vintage and retro media formats to physical games, the infrastructure translates across countries, genders, cultures.

Those who create and share this piece of history, thank you.