Anyone here who has subscribed to Gamefly or Netflix's disc-based service has experienced this issue. A movie/game that you had at the top of the queue (and possibly positioned it there around the time you returned the previous rental) is unavailable at the last minute and the next title in your queue is shipped to you.
The pro-football rom-com Draft Day was released on dvd recently and I felt like something simple this weekend. I knew the work week would end protractedly rough (and holy shit, it didn't disappoint) and I wanted a movie that was light-weight, something that I could just relax to. I like Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner and the director is Ivan Reitman (he directed Ghostbusters, fer chrissakes) so it could at least be fun.
Instead I get the next film on my queue: Hotel Terminus: The Life & Times of Klaus Barbie. It's a documentary about Barbie, a Nazi SS officer whose methods of interrogation and torture gave him the nickname "The Butcher of Lyon". The film covers his life, his involvement in WWII, and how he escaped military tribunals and lived in Bolivia for a time before he was extradited, taken to court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
And it runs 4 hours and 30 minutes long.
The director, Marcel Ophuls, directed The Sorrow and The Pity, one of the best documentaries ever made. It was also Nazi and WWII themed as it chronicled the Nazi occupation of France. It was also a date movie in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall."
Like I said, it was in my queue and it wouldn't be there if I didn't want to see it. But still, what did I just get myself into?
4 hours??? That's a long documentary!!
What is The Sorrow and the Pity about?
Through archival footage and interviews, it documents the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.
That's part of why I only use Netflix for streaming, even though I miss having their DVD selection that I could request random, obscure stuff on like the Paradise Lost documentaries. Who knows what mood I'll be in by the time those DVDs come.
It doesn't really happen that much with Netflix but with Gamefly, it happens a lot.
I think I'd be about the opposite with those services. I'll at least try a game I would have preferred to play at another time, but if a movie's the wrong tone for what I'm wanting, game over.
How much does it cost to get blu-rays in the mail? I cancelled that portion when it went up and cost. Wouldn't mind getting it back.
Depends on how many discs you rent per month but its usually a $2 charge on top of a dvd plan, so for example, one disc per month plus blu-ray access is $9.99. If its 2 per month, it's $15.
I have that feeling all the time. it's why I cancelled my subs to those kinds of services. I'm too much of a "mood" person to be able to pick up just anything to watch. I have to be in the mood. Like right now in having an X-Files marathon on Netflix before my Octoberween proclotivities!