Classic Move Rental

Classic movie rentals are another great way to break up a string of monotonous serial killer films and stupefying teen comedies. If the directors and writers of these latter two categories had only watched a few from the former category, perhaps their contributions to the film canon wouldn't be so miserable. Sure, there are guilty pleasures to be had from popcorn flicks and bad genre films, but most true cinema fans can't subsist on these alone.

If you think 'Dude, Where's My Car?' represents the pinnacle of modern cinema, perhaps you should simply tune out now. If you're feeling more like the star of 'Dude, Where's the Script?' or 'Dude, Where's the Acting?' however, you're in luck, for there's a whole backlog of great films for you to discover. You just need to know where to look.

Use the Web for Classic Movie Rentals

If you're not quite sure how to go about finding the great screwball comedies, war films, westerns, or film noir classics, don't despair. Not only are there thousands of Web sites dedicated to rating Bogey and Bacall's most sizzling scenes and John Wayne's greatest frontier rides, there are also scads of books available that distill everything down to the essentials. Scholars will continue to disagree on plenty, but films such as 'Casablanca,' 'Lawrence of Arabia,' 'The Godfather,' and 'Citizen Kane' are almost universally admired as a handful of the greatest films ever.

If you've seen all those classic movie rentals already, why not go for more modern "classics" such as 'Jaws,' 'Annie Hall,' 'Rocky,' or 'Ordinary People?' Enrolling in a DVD rental club gives you the chance to plow through dozens of films at a time, so if you're a newcomer to classic Hollywood, you can be an old hand in a matter of weeks or months. Better yet, most online DVD rental services have a better selection of older films than do their video store counterparts, as well as no late fees, taxes, or surcharges.