Forsaking DVDs again, and Disney's expanded roster

Two posts ago I bemoaned that I had opted to watch one of the DVDs I own on streaming rather than from my collection, though I did offer a glimmer of hope for dying physical media: I had taken out about seven DVDs from the library for the first time since the pandemic started, and expected to dig into them shortly.

A few days later, I doubled that number on another library trip.

A week after that, I had still watched none of them, and had to renew the originals for another three weeks for fearing of butting up against their due dates and getting fined. They still sat there in an untouched stack on top of our overflowing games shelf, to the left of the TV. 

So Thursday night I determined to finally get going. The majority of those I borrowed were ones I hadn't seen, but on Thursday night I opted for an old favorite, Crimson Tide, which I hadn't seen since the late 1990s or early 2000s. 

I did watch Crimson Tide, but somehow again failed to insert the DVD into the player.

See, we had talked about watching Cruella this weekend with the kids. I'd expected to watch this in the theater, where it is playing here in Australia, but we've just started another snap lockdown in response to a flurry of new COVID cases. It's supposed to end a week from now, but the number of new infections from now until then will play a large role in determining whether that actually happens.

So I thought, wanting to review Cruella early next week, I would pay the Disney+ premium rental price for it. A quick search on Disney+ showed me it wouldn't release until the next day, even though it had already released in Australian theaters. (We get a 24-hour jump start on the rest of the world due to the tradition of new movies opening on a Thursday.) I also found that the premium rental price was "only" $21.99, not the $29.99 they had charged for Mulan and others.

However, as I was searching up Cruella, Crimson Tide was also returned in the search results.

That's right, Disney+ is not just for kids anymore, if it ever was.

Seeing Tony Scott's 1995 film, complete with infamous punch-ups from Quentin Tarantino, available on Disney+ made me realize two things:

1) I was going to forsake a DVD for the second time in two weeks. 

2) Disney+ has a lot more stuff on it than I consciously knew.

I suppose I knew that Disney+ had other offerings than the obvious ones, like Disney animation, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, The Simpsons and the Muppets. But I didn't really know, until Thursday, that they've become the purveyor of just as many random repertory films as other streaming services.

Also uncovered in this search, for example, was The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, that "Cr" abbreviated search yielding up quite a bevy of interesting choices. As I've always really liked this Curtis Hanson thriller but had not seen it turning up anywhere recently, I now think I also have my Friday night viewing picked out.

Who knows what else is on there, but it looks like I've got some exploring to do.

Even the one reason I had regretted not watching my last forsaken DVD -- Vanilla Sky -- on DVD rather than streaming was not present with Crimson Tide.

Although watching Vanilla Sky on Stan had presented me with the convenience of not having to unplug an HDMI cable from one device and into another, it had left me with a lesser viewing experience, as the transfer of Vanilla Sky on Stan was not a great one. It didn't look bad, but it didn't look sharp, and I believe it also failed to preserve the film's original aspect ratio, though that's only occurring to me now as I type this.

There was no such issue with Crimson Tide. It looked goddamned great, certainly DVD quality if not better. I should know that a class operation like Disney would have a good transfer of the film ... one that might have just severed my connection to physical media a little more than it already was.

It was interesting to catch up with this again. I'd always loved the tension Scott and company produce here, and it did not disappoint.

One treat was to note how many familiar faces there were here. I had forgotten that Viggo Mortensen plays a central role here, probably because I wasn't consciously aware of him as an actor until six years later with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Others that I certainly didn't know as well at the time, but do now: James Gandolfini, Leland Orser, Steve Zahn and George Dzundza. Then there were those I knew at the time but nowadays haven't seen (or thought of) in ages, like Rocky Carroll. Heck, even Ricky Schroeder is in this movie.

And of course Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman crackled as much as ever, though it was at first funny to see Washington in such a straight, by-the-book role that relies so little on his extended riffing and verbal dexterity. Most Washington characters feature a certain pizzazz, but not this one, which made me appreciate his performance all the more.

So now that I've got Friday's viewing picked out too, maybe, finally, Saturday night will mark my long-awaited return to the DVD. Or Sunday, if we watch Cruella on Saturday.

Or maybe I'll just find another reason to hasten the demise of my personal relationship with physical media. 

Better cut back on the Disney+ searches just in case.