
By: Erin
Posted: October 28th, 2024
Introduction | 1- 20 | 21 – 40 | 41 – 60 | 61 – 70 | 71 – 90 | 91 – 110 | 111 – 130 | 131 – 150 | 151 – 164 | Extras | Conclusion
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Introduction
In 2023, Mandy and I both made lists of our (at the time) favorite movies of all time. We tried to average around 100 a piece but I went a little overboard. After comparing each list, I put them together and ended up with approximately 163 movies. You can see what my list looks like here and Mandy’s list is here. Our lists have changed around a little bit since we made them, with movies coming and going, but they’re still a great canon of meaningful films for us both.
After making our initial lists, I was struck with a bit of an idea. We had recently preordered Shout Factory’s 4K release of Nightbreed that included the theatrical cut and director’s cut, and Kino Lorber was having a sale on 4K UHD discs. I wanted to surprise Mandy with a present I knew they wouldn’t expect, so I picked up The Night of the Hunter. While I was doing that I needed some more purchases to get free shipping, and while contemplating I came up with the idea of dedicating a shelf in our house to our favorite movies ever. We already had several DVDs and Blu-Rays from our childhood that fit the bill, so I figured I’d throw in some personal favorites and start a new collection.
So, it all started with a UHD of The Night of the Hunter, DVDs of Frank and Super Mario Bros. (1993) (which I actually owned the disc of but not the box from when I got it for Christmas in high school), and a Blu-Ray of American Graffiti. Combined with the movies we already owned and it was a good beginning to making a meaningful physical collection.
Mandy loved the idea, and so we started scavenging thrift stores and our favorite second hand video stores for movies we loved. At first we picked up whatever we could, no matter the format, but as we got deeper in the project we realized how vast the world of physical media really was. You had formats to consider, things like packaging and extras, new releases, alternate cuts, and more. It was a lot more difficult to own some of these movies than you’d expect, and some aren’t available physically in the US at all! Nonetheless, we succeeded – more or less.




Our favorites collection as of 2024 – always under construction!
Readers of this site know how important archival is to me. Owning the things that bring you joy is an important part of the archival process. I was talking about this project with my friend Sciura who is an archivist by trade, and they encouraged me to write about my experiences and findings. I’ll be going through each of our Favorite Movies that we own, revealing the troubles we went through to get them, the surprises, and what it takes to get your hands on some of these titles in 2024.
Being in the US, my main goal with collecting our favorite movies was to get everything in either Region A/1 and in the best quality possible. I considered things like extras as well, comparing releases, and I tried to get them at decent prices. It started with a mishmash of formats and I’m not stickler for quality – we still have DVDs of certain ones because they’re nostalgic or childhood copies, but if a really cool edition came out I jumped on it. I also had shelf space to consider – DVD boxes are much thicker than Blu-Ray or UHD! If something can’t be played in our off-the-shelf UHD player, or has to be imported, that’s a strike against availability. Believe me, I want a region-free player but it’s not in the budget right now. And foreign films need a release with English subtitles! I love these movies, but I’d like to watch them as they are on the screen, not consulting a Google document like I’m playing Super Danganronpa 2. Also, our list changed slightly in the years following make it, so I’ll be first breaking down the original list, and then I’ll toss on all the extras and a few additional ones I want to highlight at the end.
I’m going to give each movie a rough verdict as to its availability and the average difficulty it takes to get a copy. Let’s say Easy for widely-available discs through major retailers like Amazon or Gruv or a US-based boutique, Medium for those that involve importing a region-free disc from a major retailer outside of the US or have unusual caveats when it comes to owning the highest-quality edition, Hard if you have to go hunting for out-of-print copies through eBay (even if they’re easily available) or there are similar availability issues requiring a thrift store hunt, and Impossible for those with no Region A/1 release at all.
Anyway, with all that in mind, let’s get to breaking down each movie, the difficulty of them to acquire, and the story behind each release.