Diggin' those DVDs

by Molly Dempsey

You're sitting on an airplane with 200 other passengers  who are staring mindlessly at the in-flight movie.  But not you--you're trying to control your hysterical laughter.  While your seat neighbors are cringing their way through the airline's idea of a great flick, you're watching This is Spinal Tap on DVD, getting your requisite yuks for the day. To live the fantasy, just run out and buy yourself a DVD-equipped laptop, then start building your movie library in preparation for next quarter's finance meeting. 

You won't have to search far to find a huge selection of DVDs for sale online.  I found lots of sites offering thousands of titles.  Here are the best of the bunch.

The reel thing
Reel.com provides in-depth information for the shopper who likes to make educated purchases.  From the "Reel Snapshot" synopses to the summary of reviewer's comments, everything you need to know about a film is here.  The editors have even created a handy "Movie Anatomy" which rates 14 key elements, including standards like character development, sex, violence, and humor, along with more elusive categories like "Hollywood style" and "offbeat energy."

I found the order pages cumbersome, as you often have to scroll through a clunky list of all the different formats available for each film to get to the DVD.  For example, on the page for There's Something about Mary, the DVD is at the end of a list that includes the CD soundtrack, the videotape, and the video tape with Spanish subtitles.  While the obsessed Cameron Diaz fan might appreciate this, I consider it a design flaw. 

Reel.com's subcategories deserve applause from the balcony.  In searching the drama category, drilling down through subcategories brought me to: Drama, Emotional, Hanky-Soakers, Tearjerkers, Sweetly Sentimental.  And placing orders over the secure server should keep your own hanky dry.

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Super stuff
I was not impressed with the site design, but navigation and purchasing are simple at DVD Superstore. You can search by movie title or star's name, browse the entire collection by category, or view a list of all the over 3000 DVDs available. Film titles are linked to information pages complete with rating, year the film was released, date the DVD was issued, film length, stars, a synopsis of the story, and a list of special features like whether the disc includes more than one version of the film, subtitles, interviews with directors or stars, or music videos from the soundtrack. (These and other bonuses are common on DVD, since the discs hold much more information than a videotape.) 

Two thumbs up for convenience on this site: ordering is just a click away from almost any page--whether it's a list of titles, or a detailed page about an individual movie. The site claims to offer 30 percent off retail prices on all DVDs, plus they will beat lower prices if you find them. Secure ordering rounds out the experience.

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All in the studio
If you're partial to Columbia Tristar films, you need go no further than the CTHV DVD site, a subsection of parent company Sony's Web site. For a site that's part of such a mega-corporation, you would expect sleek technology. Instead, this is a refreshingly basic, easy-to-use site with few extras. The DVD section consists of an alphabetically arranged series of all Columbia Tristar titles on DVD. Each page has about 10 titles, with a one-sentence description of the movie and a photo of the DVD case.  There is also a scrollable drop-down menu at the top of each page, so you don't have to click through a bunch of pages to find the title you want.

One irritating feature: each time you click to put a disc in your "shopping cart," the contents of your cart replace the page you were browsing.  It only takes a click to get back to the list, but if I want to see my shopping cart, I'll ask for it, thank you.  Ordering is secure.

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Attack of the amazons
Of course, the giant of all media retailers online is amazon.com.  Normally, I wouldn't mention the obvious, but it's worth checking out just for the customer comments. You can entertain yourself for minutes with such insights as: "It was such a good movie.  It was sad but that was part of what made it so good."  Comments like these are sure to sway your purchasing decision.  As usual, amazon carries a huge selection, and the ordering process is secure and as flawless as they come online.

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Molly Dempsey avoids those rotten airline movies by traveling with a DVD-equipped laptop running Windows 98.