Blockbuster Total Access vs. Netflix

While not a film review per say, we have decided to review our main source of film-viewing: online movie rentals. Julie uses Blockbuster Total Access and Martin uses Netflix. What are the pros and cons of each? What do we love and hate? Well here you go...

JULIE SAYS:
I've been using the Blockbuster online rental system for almost four years. When it started it was pretty inexpensive, like $10 for 3 movies at a time, including a coupon for in-store rental, but no in-store exchanges. Then the price kept going up for the same amount of movies, and eventually they added the in-store exchange feature. This allows you to take the mailed movie into any Blockbuster store and exchange it for a new one at no charge. I like this feature because it provides the instant gratification kind of thing. If I know there's a new movie out, I can return my mailer and watch it the same day rather than wait for it to show up. The other bonus is that as soon as you return the mailer to the store, it counts as received, so they ship out the next movie by the following day. Usually it's about 3-4 days between receiving the mailers, so it's not too long of a wait. My biggest gripe is actually Blockbuster's policies for the store-rented movies, their "re-stocking fees" which is a fancy way of saying late fee, and if you don't return it within a certain time, you've bought the thing for way more than it costs everywhere else. And occasionally, the service can get delayed if they don't have the next movie in your queue in stock, or the post office isn't as speedy as Blockbuster has predicted. As far as selection goes, I have no complaints. They have a decent Blu-ray selection and any other film I've ever wanted to see, they have on DVD. The various plans and rates provide an excellent flexibility for the amount of movies you watch and your budget, although I feel it could be a little less expensive. Right now my plan is one mailer at a time with 3 in-store exchanges every month for $12. Overall, I'm generally satisfied, and give Blockbuster Total Access a B grade.


MARTIN SAYS:
I was on PocketBuster's mail system soon after it came out. After years of getting the financial beat down from them I finally was introduced to their mailing system as a free trial and I thought it was a great system that saved me money. The idea that you could get an extra movie from the store while you waited for the delivery of your next movie in the mail is a good concept, and the only thing I think that is keeping them alive vs. NetFlix. It usually takes one bad move to loose a customer and that is what BlockFlustered did. They changed the system to where I got less movies per month for the same money and I never even got a notice. That was all I could take, because at that point I had already spent years of paying for over-priced rentals at the store and I never felt that they really had that great of movie selections anyway. So I went online and signed up for NetFlix. They have yet to disappoint me, and they have a great selection of movies including really hard to find old flicks, or should I say Flix?

The Premiere

Welcome to Take Two Reviews. Just wanted to start off this blog with a note about our hopes and dreams for this project. I think the idea here is to establish a fun spot where people can get some good info and opinions on both old and new movies, favorites and dislikes, actors and directors etc., posters, you name it. But as a twist on the usual blurbs, we will offer you two sides: a guy's and a girl's, West coast and East coast. While the majority of stuff we tend to enjoy or loathe equally, our hope is we can give a more complete review than other spots. We look forward to sharing our reviews with you, and to hearing back from the fans!

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