Cheepnis: Part 2

Second post from a while ago covering my cheap DVD interest. Some material is out of date.

OK, here's part two in my series about the stupid obsession I have with cheap DVDs. Why, I don't know? But maybe I can explain a little bit today.

When you find these discs, they're cheesy looking, often times have movies you've never heard of and the quality is usually questionable. So, why would any same person give a damn about these things?

First off, they are great for cheap entertainment. I don't have cable and sometimes I get tired of the DVDs I own. For a dollar, I can try something totally off the wall that I wouldn't pick up for full price and if it sucks, it was just a dollar.

Also, as I said earlier, I'm a fan of drive-in schlock. There's tons of it on these cheap DVDs. In addition, there's lots of made for TV movies (some of which aren't bad from what I understand) which are all but neglected from the mainstream studios. It seems Aaron Spelling, who produced most of these in the 70s, wasn't concerned with the long term when it came to these movies and many of them are public domain today.

Speaking of TV, old TV shows are a staple of the cheap DVD scene. Now since a lot of these shows are getting authorized DVD releases, collections of Andy Griffith, Beverly Hillibilies and Dick Van Dyke are pretty much worthless. There are other shows that haven't made it out yet, like the early Dragnet that you can still get for a dollar. There's also a lot of obscure shows that probably wouldn't warrant a full price release but it's there in the cheap bin, if you can find them.

There's also a lot of animation to be found in the cheap bins. I will warn you, the quality of the prints used for all the animated discs I've seen range from worn to unwatchable, but you can collect some real interesting stuff this way. There's also been some more modern anime I've seen in the bins, but I'm not a fan, so I don't know what it's about.

I've also seen some really off the wall stuff like a "conspiracy" series of documentaries featuring Princess Diana and Michael Jackson. I've also found a few generic looking travelog vids and some educational kids programs as well.

In addition, part of the fun is just finding what's out there. These companies are often times fly-by-night and sometimes put out things under several names. It's kind of a puzzle figuring out what is what. It's also pretty cool when you find some movie you've been looking for that you never though would make it to DVD. It's all kind of a mystery as to who is putting out what and what could possible appear next time you look.

Well, that's a little bit about what I like about collecting these stupid things. Next I'll do what I originally said I was going to do this time and I'll talk a bit about some of these strange companies that are putting these things out and tell you where you can find these discs.