Blind buy experiences?

The Killer: knew it was John Woo + Chow-Yun Fat, supposedly pretty good, not much else. Woohoo! First time I realised how much Woo loves his melodrama.

Movies I bought that I knew were classics, but hadn't seen until I'd bought them:
Lawrence of Arabia
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Once Upon A Time In The West

Edit to add: where the hell did you hear positive things about Heroes?

Great topic! I have a ton of blind buys, usually due to me hearing something positive about a film and having a strong urge to see said film. I blind bought Thriller-A Cruel Picture, and if I knew then what I know now, I would have just bought a porn.

Once you actually sit down with it, you'll understand the hype and never be able to go back again.

As for me, I sadly had not seen Mr. Arkadin or Casablanca before buying them. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed.

In that vein, I picked up The Spanish Prisoner as a blind buy. Of course it's not so blind when you trust the writer implicitly but still I hadn't hear a word about it. Great movie that proves Steve Martin should be doing more serious roles.

Audition was the best blind buy I ever made. I'd obviously heard a little bit of what it was all about, but I'd never seen any of Miike's stuff before that and so I was completely unprepared for it.

I'm personally wary of people who blind buy too many things. I always get the impression they don't care about what goes in their DVD collection.

I think the last thing I blindly bought was 300, which, now that I've seen it, isn't something I really care to own. Damn the hype!

Other things I've blindly bought include Oldboy, which was the best idea ever, and season 1 of 30 Rock, which also worked out wonderfully.

Once Upon a Time in the West. Best blind buy ever.

I rarely do blind buys, mainly because I've become so flush with news about every release just from the sites I visit on a daily basis.

Even if I'm not familiar with a title, I know a little about it going into the store.

But, if I really had to go with one...it would have to be "Umberto D".

I blind buy stuff a lot, mainly because discs have gotten so cheap over the years. If I end up not liking it and think I can get some scratch for it I'll just throw it on Ebay. If it's some cheap-ass Gary Daniels flick that doesn't strike my fancy then I just wait for the next time I'm headed to the used DVD shop and I'll trade it in there. May not be a perfect system, but it works for me.

Of late I tried the first and only season of "Playmakers." Wasn't a horrible show but definitely not good enough to keep until my dying day. Traded it.

I don't do it that often, though I used to with really cheap tapes out of store bins back in the 90s (things like the Third Man, Metropolis, etc.) and I don't think I ever regretted any of those. But when you factor out stuff that costs about as much as a rental or less, there's only a small handful. On top of that, I've had netflix for four-plus years now and that pretty much has eliminated blind-buying.

Two though I shelled out for, pre-netflix when I thought blind-buying was the only option, were A Touch of Evil and Meet the Feebles, neither of which I regret buying (especially not Touch of Evil) both based on secure director pedigree. I know I've bough TV sets that were sort of half-blind, but I'm not sure that counts, and I'll probably go ahead and buy Bender's Big Score next week, but same deal then.

My favorite blind buy ever though is the complete collection of Spaced. I exhausted all options at the time (it still hadn't showed up online) and finally gave in and ordered the Region 2. This was sort of super blind as I didn't have any discs at the time to check if I had successfully disabled the regional encoding (I had, it turned out) and it ended up being one of my favorite DVD purchases ever.

My brother does it all the time though, but he's got a hell of a lot more money to burn than I do.

I did the blind buy with Jodorowsky as well. I bought the boxed set with Holy Mountain, El Topo, and Fando Y Lis. But, I have been pleasantly surprised with my random act.

After listening to the commentary by Alejandro, El Topo went from good to great. I watched it three times that day. The third being the best one. He may be a bit avant-garde, but he definitely was ahead of his time.

I wished he had stayed on to direct Dune. Who knows how balls-out it would have been?

Another random buy that occured a while ago was Half Nelson. I think my subconscious has better taste than I do.

It's funny that two of you mentioned Thriller: A Cruel Picture, because I blind bought that one too. Then I sold it (though I was happy to have the viewing under my belt). In that vein my best Blind Buy in a long time has been Lady Snowblood.

It's not much different than buying a book. You take a chance and sometimes it's worth it and sometimes it's not. Plus it's usually easier to sell or trade in a DVD as opposed to a book. For those the only option available is to hurl it out your car window while driving at night.

Why does it have to be at night?

As for me, Accepted was the best blind buy of all time. I've watched the shit out of that film over and over. So damn good, and it has no right to be.

I've blind bought horror a couple of times based on nothing more than an interesting description and some positive customer reviews.
Dead Birds and The Ugly both turned out pretty good, however.

Best Buy had an offer where you chose from a selection of films for $4.99 when you bought the 300 DVD, and The Bourne Identity was one of them. I hadn't seen any of the Bourne films and the third one was coming out, and $4.99 was cheaper than renting it, so I went ahead and got it. And ... well, it was okay, but it didn't excite me enough to go see the second and third ones.

There are porn scenes in Thriller, why not just masturbate to them instead?

Most people wouldn't find these scenes 'erotic'.

Most of my blind buys have been excellent choices, particularly Ray and Scent of a Woman.

This probably doesn't count, but I blind bought Battle Royale on ebay, but only after reading the novel first. A fairly decent purchase.

Battle Royale didn't have enough violence or gore. Yeah, some kids died, but I just didn't get it.

**I couldn't help myself, forgive me.

Is it a true blind buy if you've heard great things about the movie and it's widely accepted as a classic? I blind bought The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Good Bye Lenin!, Yojimbo, etc. etc. etc. but I was buying it because of the reputation of either the film (like Good Bye Lenin!) or the filmmaker (Yojimbo). That's not really a blind buy. Even if you've never seen The Godfather (who are you?), you're still reasonably sure that you won't regret your purchase.

My bad, i thought i was talking to Fabfunk.

I blind buy only when the situation demands - like the John Wayne set, where I discovered his and Hawks' terrible, yet wonderful Ghengis Kahn flick and the spectacularly overwrought Von Sternberg movie - JET PILOT - that showcases his insane framing skills and ability to light the hell out of people.

Mostly, however, I just put the movies I want to see in the queue, and then if it's awesome (as in the case of IF... and O! LUCKY MAN!) then I'll buy it once the cash flow starts trickling in.

I have only done maybe two blind buys...

Bubba Hotep

RepliKate= Guy from Psych + Girl from Doritos laundremat Super Bowl Commercial+ Eugene Levy (rehash of his role in Splash). For about $6..I was impressed

Is buying Casablanca or a John Wayne set really a "blind buy" in any legitimate sense? You know what your are getting.

Children of Men was a blind buy for me. i knew the cast, director, and premise, but no one recommended the film to me, no one i knew had seen it. Ended up being one of the best DVDs I've ever bought.

Most of my blind buys are things I know I will like. Knocked Up and Death Proof

Then, how is that a blind buy?

That little green fella is pleased to be associated with the second movie you mentioned.

I blind-buy all the time, especially when Hollywood Video would have a previously viewed sale for 3 for $25, 4 for $20, etc (sorry, Blockbuster, they put them out sooner and usually cheaper, and in a better amray). But my fave blind buys that come to mind are Lost season 1 (got it for $20), Veronica Mars season 1, Firefly (having a kid will kill your ability to watch regular TV if you have no Tivo), and Shaun of the Dead.

Classics are classics for a reason, they stood the test of time. Newer hyped stuff can be hit or miss and are much riskier. With that said, I plan on blind-buying Black Sheep, Fido, and Evil Aliens.

I used to be against blind buying so many years ago, but when more obscure movies started hitting DVD and I grew more to completely tired of renting, I started going blind buy crazy. Though I guess it depends what blind buy is. I wont just go in a store, grab a random DVD, and say okay. Movies I haven't seen but buy anyways are usually because I've read/heard about them prior to them coming out.

Like the other night I bought Inland Empire. I'm a Lynch fan but I wasn't too interested in seeing this one, but Sunday I finished going through the Twin Peaks DVD set, I had some extra dough and a best buy coupon so I figured what the hell. Haven't watched it yet though.

I've been pretty good with my blind buys, the last really good blind buy for me was The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.

Synapse ended up releasing a version of the DVD minus the Hardcore scenes later because so many people were turned off by them.

My best blind buy was hands down Torque. I bought it after reading Nick's awesome review of it. Now I am fairly sure it has seen more action in my player than any other DVD I own. We even have a drinking game for it. Probably why it's the most watched DVD.

My worst blind buy was Clerks 2. As opposed to 95% of Chewers, I actually like Kevin Smith. I have liked all his films, with the exception of Jersey Girl, which I never saw. I never did catch Clerks 2 in the theater, so I blind bought the DVD the other day. I mean, I love his other films. How could this be a bad buy? I think I made it about halfway through (the "ABC" dance scene on the rooftop) before I finally just turned the damn movie off. For the most part, it was not funny. I was even getting my drink on, and when I get my drink on, everything is way more funny. But worse than that, it was just boring the fuck out of me. I would take it back (bought it used at a used book store, where I can get away with exchanging it) but I lost the fucking receipt. I am thinking a Christmas present for someone I don't care too much about. Or don't really like at all.

I've often blind bought CDs from bargain bins, but very rarely DVDs. I don't usually buy films unless I know I'll watch them multiple times.

Not necessarily a game, but a command to drink every time there is a shot featuring some sort of reflection, be it from a rear view mirror or a knife. Needless to say that it gets us fucked up every time.

The Double Life Of Veronique. It's hard to go wrong with a blind Criterion buy. Now I'm a Kieslowski nut.

Yes I take it back when I said I only bought things I hadn't seen if I heard or read good things. When it has the Criterion brand on it I've bought movies I've never heard of.

Seconding the Spaced box set. All I knew going in was that it was from the Shaun of the Dead guys.

I blind-bought Donnie Darko after reading good things about it on CHUD. Didn't like it. But for the record, CHUD site recommendations work in my favor about 3/4 of the time. A blind-buy that worked out well for me and was based mostly on good word from CHUD: Children of Men.

When you say that, do you mean you won't be able to watch it again or your movie viewing experience will change forever? I've personally watched it a good 5 or 6 times since it came out on DVD (it was my first blind buy at age 12).

I'm always torn about one blind buy. Sometimes I think "Battle Royale" is a fantastic movie. Other times, I think it's borderline terrible. It depends on my mood. I think I just like Kitano a lot. Which brings up "Brother." While I made sure it was unedited, that doesn't mean it was any less disappointing. On a lighter note, I have not once regretted my purchases of "M" or most of the Criterion Hitchcock boxset (I hadn't seen any of those movies except for "Notorious").

post-revamp bump

Blind buy? Most of my collection (no, it isn't full of shit). The one that floored me was oldboy. I was not prepared. I developed a taste for squid after.

Phantasm. The first DVD I ever bought. I had heard the name so much, but didn't know what it was. I've now watched that glorious heap 20 or 30 times, and I still don't know what it is.

Blade back in '98. Never saw it nor heard of it before, and fucking loved it. Still the best blind buy.

No one does, it's okay.

Mine are Lost in Translation, Bubba Hotep, and Shadow of the Vampire. Two out of three ain't bad (Dafoe's great in Vampire, but overall it wasn't something I like enough to own).

I blind-bought The Gate because someone said good things about it in these boards. After that I'll never blind-buy anything.

Donnie Darko (theatrical cut), Bubba Ho Tep and Terror Firmer. All three are now safely at the top of my favourite movies list.