Once upon a time, when the wife and I would take our break over the holidays, we would run down to the video store or the library and max out on movies that we had always planned to watch. Then in the first week of January, we’d return the stack, having actually seen maybe two or three. (Our unofficial record of 11 rentals without watching goes to Airheads, which still looks like it might be fun when we get around to it.)
These days, of course, we can skip the step of bringing home physical copies. With so many free, ad-supported movie services available, there are any number of films we can virtually thumb through and plan on watching tomorrow. Here are a just a handful of the titles that are available:
The Roku Channel: Mixed Nuts, Total Recall, Windtalkers, Les Misérables (the Liam Neeson version), Men at Work.
Crackle: The Nutty Professor, Battle Los Angeles, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 300 (which I always expected to be a bowling movie).
Pluto TV: Mad Max, Fiddler on the Roof, Manhattan, A Fish Called Wanda, The Last Waltz.
Vudu (the free Movies On Us section): True Grit (the Jeff Bridges version), Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Fantasticks, The Gumby Movie, Drillbit Taylor.
And Rifftrax and Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes on Shout Factory, and so many free movies on Tubi, Popcornflix, and any number of other niche channels on Roku.
Although I never have to bring them back, this wealth of choices means that I have that many more films to feel guilty about not watching. Too bad I can’t find Airheads streaming anywhere.