Essential DVDs

ToneControl

Do what I did 23 years ago: go to imdb, download the top 100 films ever, and some top 100 of genres you like
Look at the scores.
Take the scores of the most recent ones with a pinch of salt

Make a list of the ones that sound most interesting.

Go to justwatch.com, to find out which streaming firms supply them.
Some are available free.
Some are never available - cult ones rarely are, music ones rarely too.

When you say "DVD player", do you mean bluray player, I hope so.
Ideally you'd want a 4k bluray player, and a 4k TV, preferably with HDR and OLED.
If just DVD for now, that's OK, lots of budget stuff available

for LOTR, try to get the extended ones, they are not your typical directors cut, they had to massacre the plot to get to times suitable for cinemas.

Clockwork orange
Shawshank redemption
Casablanca
Seven samurai
Godfather trilogy
pulp fiction
Cape fear  original and remake

Millenium trilogy -I watched recently (Girl with the dragon tattoo), often in charity shops

Inception

Matrix trilogy
Seven

Silence of the Lambs

Gladiator
Apocalypse Now - directors cut

Das Boot

Lawrence of Arabia - directors cut

V for vendetta

Fargo

Trainspotting

12 years a slave

Omen




Get to the charity shops, our ones have DVDs 10 for £1, some won't even accept them now.
We've had 3 carrier bags off people full of them twice for free, from local facebook marketplace - my Mrs sifts a few out then the rest go to the charity shop

BluesLover

Thanks to everyone for some great suggestions and advice. I have a 42inch Panasonic tv, a sonos soundbar and a recently acquired Arcam dvd player (for £20!). Hence I'm not looking for Blu-rays, but I'm getting in the habit now of popping into charity shops!

Greatape

The Last Waltz
The Life Aquatic
Point Break
Heat
Ran

All movies I have watched countless times 

strumjoughlamps

BluesLover said:

Thanks to everyone for some great suggestions and advice. I have a 42inch Panasonic tv, a sonos soundbar and a recently acquired Arcam dvd player (for £20!). Hence I'm not looking for Blu-rays, but I'm getting in the habit now of popping into charity shops!

If it’s a DV88 then you also have a more than credible CD player

Philly_Q

BluesLover said:

I have a 42inch Panasonic tv

It's not a 1080 plasma is it?  That's what I've got.  It's about 15 years old and I'd like to move up to 4K, but I almost never replace anything before it breaks.

Keiko

My mate has some gadget he plugs into his TV, he can watch pretty much anything. Only pays about £75 per year something like that. Just type it in, and it will be there.

jonnyburgo

Keiko said:

My mate has some gadget he plugs into his TV, he can watch pretty much anything. Only pays about £75 per year something like that. Just type it in, and it will be there.

Yeah seemingly everyone's got one of those nowadays, I haven't though. I don't trust them.

equalsql

I've got a very large DVD collection and what with the experience of seeing so many films being constantly removed from streaming services or not being available I'm disinclined to get rid of them.
Some of my absolute favourites in my collection which are rarely, if ever, streamed are.

• A Canterbury Tale 
• Singing In The Rain
• This Island Earth 
• Bagdad Cafe
• Betty Blue
• A Matter Of Life And Death
• Garden State
• The Unbearable Lightness Of Being
• Ring Of Bright Water
• Amelie
• Badlands

Budgie

As well as lots already mentioned

Withnail & I
Night of the Demon (the Jacques Tourneur film, not the more modern one with a similar title)
Jean de Florette & Manon Des Sources
The Haunting (1963 version)
Local Hero
Night on Earth
The Breakfast Club
Clerks

Philly_Q

jonnyburgo said:

Keiko said:

My mate has some gadget he plugs into his TV, he can watch pretty much anything. Only pays about £75 per year something like that. Just type it in, and it will be there.

Yeah seemingly everyone's got one of those nowadays, I haven't though. I don't trust them.

China or Russia?

JEM

boogieman said:

Where to start??!!

Blazing Saddles (too unPC nowadays to be shown on most tv channels)

It was on the BBC earlier this year.

As others have said, DVD really does look pretty ropey compared to 1080p and above. There's a reason you can pick them up dirt cheap in charity shops.

goldtop

Cinema Paradiso

The Sopranos (of course).

Although the #1 bad thing about watching physical DVDs for big boxsets is that you can find one disk is faulty and the picture freezes. Try again, freezes again. Repeat, repeat. Bad sector? (shrug) In the past, I've had to carefully try to sync a FFWD jump past the faulty moment to continue watching the show. 

Sassafras

South Park.
I watch them all the time and never get bored of 'em.

ToneControl

Twin peaks