David Bobavid's

Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk. 

I love this guy. This is the 3rd book of his that I've read, and it's just as crazy as the others. It's about a guy who is the last surviving member of a cult, and becomes a celebrity because of it. 

Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. 

I've been meaning to read this since high school, and I finally did. It was great, but that's sort of to be expected. Vonnegut is amazing.

Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut. 

Ok, so I had a bit of a Vonnegut party one Sunday and ready two of his books in a row. So what? 

(Click a few times to bigify enough to read...)

Another movie I loved when I was younger was Ghostbusters. Awesome stuff. Even the second one, though it wasn't as good. So.. I bought them both, I was happy. All was well in my little DVD world. Then what happens? They come out with a nice green, slimed looking box with both movies. *sigh*


Oh look.. Bill & Ted's excellent adventure. Awesome. That movie was great and all. So I go and get it on DVD. I'm waiting to get the second one for whatever reason.. and then. Oh.. The Most Excellent Collection comes out. Shit. So since I didn't already have both movies, I bought it. Now I have two copies of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.


Edward Scissorhands is yet another one. Before the DVD days, I searched like crazy for this one tape because I loved it. It took a few months, but the bright lads at Chapters were finally able to get me a copy. Sweet. Along come DVDs, and they release it there. Awesome. I go get it, and I'm good. Was much easier than getting it on tape, so I was pleased. Then one day I'm in Best Buy, and what do I see in the front with the new releases? Edward Scissorhands Collectors Edition.. in a Tin no less. You're kidding, right? Oh, and it comes with some pictures or some crap too. Fuck! So I bought it. At least I had an out with my first copy. I lent it to a friend when I was returning some of his movies. I told him I probably wouldn't be asking for it back anytime... ever.


You'd think an indie movie like Napoleon Dynamite would get one release and they'd be happy for it. But of course, since it did so well, they had to screw me over. At any point in this post, you'll probably be asking yourself, "you'd think he'd have learned..." Sadly, I probably won't. And this is why they keep doing it. So, about a year after ND comes out on DVD, they released a collectors edition with a second disc of extras. And this time, I actually watched everything from the ND dvd. Damnit! Though, it was less of a piss off to buy it, because Future Shop was selling it with bobble heads of Kip and Napoleon. That's good stuff. Made it a little more worthwhile, but still annoying.


Speaking of 2-disc sets, one of the latest offenders is again a movie I love and have watched all the extras for. 40 Year Old Virgin just came out with a 2-disc set. Why? Why wouldn't you release this at the same time? I mean come on.. it's not like the movie wasn't popular or anything. It would have sold! I haven't bought the new one yet.. I'm still too annoyed. Though if there ever was a chance of burning through a dvd from watching it too many times, this'll be the one it happens with.. so I might need to get a new copy anyway.


And don't think it doesn't happen if I buy a movie as soon as it's released. No... They're tricky like that. They're patient too. I waited for Saw 2. I didn't really want to buy it, and I figured it would get a bit cheaper after a year. Anyway, about a year rolls around, and the 3rd movie is going to be coming out soonish. So.. finally, I give in and pick it up. About 2 weeks later they come out with a more un-cut version that also has more extras. Seriously. I missed it by like 2 weeks. I didn't buy it, but it pisses me off that it was so close. I have no luck with this crap.


That's not the only time either. I never had The Exorcist on DVD, even though the extended original one is fantastic. So finally I decided to buy it. Oh look, they have the original three shrink wrapped together. Good stuff, I can get them all. I think the next day, after I had taken them home and opened them, of course, I'm looking online and I see an announcement for the complete exorcist movie set. The original three, and the 2 prequels. Get the fuck out! Can my timing get any worse? I mean seriously. And sadly, the Saw 2 thing didn't happen too much longer after this, either.


So anyone that's played any video games has heard of Final Fantasy. FF7 was a great game, and every nerd on the planet was excited when they said they were making a CGI movie-sequel to the game. After what seemed like forever, the movie came out on DVD. I got it. Anyone guess what happened next? If you said 'Collectors Edition with some stupid cards, more extras and a bigger box', you get 13 cookies. I saw this newer, fancier edition a couple of weeks ago. The wound is still fresh on this one.


The Chronicles of Narnia really bugs me. I didn't see it in theatres, and I was waiting specifically for a "better" DVD to come out, because we all knew it was going to happen. So I did, and I got the 2 disc edition, with more extras than I can stomach. Great. Couple of months later, however, Disney says, "Oh.. did Bobavid get it? Sweet. Let's put a 4 disc set together. That'll piss him right off." And you know what. It did. It pissed me right off.


Anyone who's bought any Star Wars DVDs knows how much The Lucas hates them. I don't need to say anything about the originals being released. Or that they're sold individually. Or that Han shot first.


Same with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This one isn't as bad, because they made it pretty clear there was going to be an extended edition coming out later. I bought into that, but I was excited and I couldn't wait. So I have two copies of each movie. And I got the big gift sets of the extended ones. The little statues are sitting on my shelf. I'm not bitter about this one so much, but I know that some people are.


And here's one that's just more proof I can't buy anything without something happening. I first became aware of Chinatown after talking about the Ninth Gate and some other Polanski movies. Anyway. Chinatown came up in the conversation, and for about 4 months after that, every time I walked into Best Buy or Future Shop, I saw it. It was right in front. On the sides of the racks. In the discount racks. Everywhere. It was only 13.99, and I couldn't avoid the movie. Finally I bought it. About a week later I told my friend that it was haunting me and I finally got it so it would leave me alone. His reply: "Yeah my mom just picked it up too. It's 9.99 now." Fuck. The. Hell. Off.


Oh Science.. are there still more? Yeah. I'm getting tired of complaining, believe it or not, and I think you all get the point. Anyway. Big Fish. Awesome movie. I loved it.. got the DVD. Months later, it's out again in a nice box with some fancy booklet. *sigh*.


Robocop. Another movie I loved and have seen a bajillion times. I had the original on tape from a Viewer Choice (old pay movie channel) free weekend. After the advent of DVDs and the Criterion Collection, the unrated Robocop Criterion DVD came out. It was extended with more violence. Hellz yes! Though as I learned, Criterion DVDs aren't cheap. So I didn't get it right away.. but finally got it. Had to get it used, because they didn't sell it anymore. Anyway. Glorious movie. Then what happens? Ohhhh.. the Robocop triology, with the first one in it's unrated glory. With parts 2 and 3. For 30 bucks. How much was the other one? 50 bucks.


Reservoir dogs is yet another one. When it came out and they had the colored ones for each of the main characters, everyone was excited. Everyone wanted Mr. Pink because he was awesome. Well, I got stuck only finding Mr. Orange. Whatever.. I like orange anyway. So now there's a super cool anniversary edition that comes in a gas-can tin. Makes me mad enough to want to cut someone's ear off.


And last but not least, another price-screw-over. Invader Zim is probably the funniest cartoon ever. I bought the first DVD to get free shipping on an order from Amazon, and I fell in love. It took me a little while, but I finally bought the second and third DVDs. Each were about 25 bucks. Fine.. it's a great show. I'm happy. Maybe 2 and a half months ago, I'm out with a friend and we're looking at DVDs. He picks something up and puts it down quickly. I was looking at something else, but I saw him out of the corner of my eye.
"What was that one?" I ask.
"Oh.. Nothing.. Invader Zim." he says, and then "oh what are you looking at?"
I show him, then I look for that box.
"Neat, they have all three Zim dvds in a box now. I wonder how much it is..."
I pick it up and turn it over.
$25.
I sigh and put the box down.
"I wasn't going to tell you. That's why I put it down right away," my friend says.


Oh yeah. And check this out:
Was that anywhere at Future Shop when I was there yesteday? No. Was that on any of the DVD-news sites I had looked at when getting excited for the DVD? No. Did I find out about this today when I was looking for a picture of the Pan's Labyrinth DVD for this post. Yes.