What’s the Point of Having All These Streaming Services?

family, humor, lessons learned, rankings 1 Minute

My son and I were planning to watch a movie this afternoon, and I thought I would try and knock off some of the movies on the American Film Institute Top 100 list, which I had mentioned a couple of days ago.

So I started scrolling through the list from the top, and when I found one I thought we would both like, I checked to see if was available on one of our streaming services. I’m embarrassed to say we subscribe to HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Apple TV Plus, and Disney Plus. The app I used to check for availability is a nice little app named JustWatch.

Despite having all those streaming services, I kept striking out with the movies I was picking. As you can see from the list below, none of the first seven films I checked were available. (The number in front of each movie represents its rank on the AFI list).

4. Raging Bull – none

16. Sunset Boulevard – none

27. High Noon – none

38. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre – none

53. The Deer Hunter – none

59. Nashville – none

86. Platoon – none

92. Goodfellas – available on HBO Max

I finally hit paydirt with Goodfellas, but at that point, my son and I had decided to watch Lethal Weapon.

I would have thought with access to so many streaming services, surely I would find all the above movies on one of those services.

Fortunately, one of the features of the JustWatch app is that you can tag a movie for your Watch List, and it will let you know when that movie is available on one of your streaming services. I’ve never used it before, but I’m giving it a shot. I’ve added Raging Bull to my Watch List; I’ll let you know if and when it ever becomes available.

In the meantime, we’ve got three more Lethal Weapon movies we can watch…

Published by Jim Borden

A 60-something guy trying to figure out the world, and his place in it. Happily married for 40-plus years, three wonderful sons. Accounting teacher, fitness enthusiast, blogger, reader.

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51 thoughts on “What’s the Point of Having All These Streaming Services?”

  3. I think Lethal Weapon is a pretty good flick. The first one. I’ve only watched one of the sequels, but it was “meh,” in my opinion.

    I’ve thought of going with more subscriptions, than just Netflix and Amazon, but I’ve wondered if it’s worth the money. After all, there’s only so much time in the day. How can I get around to watching all that can be watched?

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  4. I went to high school with the guy who wrote the Lethal Weapon series, Shane Black. SUPER nice guy!! His BFC wrote the House horror film series.

    I think Sunset Blvd is free on Roku this month. Could be Pluto. My tv shows it for $2.99 on Amazon Prime. Free on Kanopy

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  5. Good post. I find that with streaming services too. Really annoying. You can’t get some classic movies or old stuff. So I often end up renting off Amazon. I do think someone should set up a Retro streaming service where we can watch old movies and TV series right through from black and white to the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s etc. Some things are even hard to get on dvd now.

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  7. That is curious. It seems with all of those streaming services, one must have the films you want to watch. Danny Glover and Mel Gibson were brilliant in Lethal Weapon.

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  9. Having multiple streaming services is costly. I subscribe to Netflix and my son has HBO Max. Even with access to only two services, I feel like I’m wasting of money. I usually can’t find a movie I really want to watch and often end up paying to watch TV reruns. Goodfellas is available all the time on regular cable. Netflix gives me much wider choice when traveling outside the US. Studios and their parent companies are happy to have these new revenue streams to pad their bottom lines.

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      1. I find that my best source for movies is the DVR on the cable service. All of the DVR content is stuff I’ve selected. I can always find something there that is good even if I’ve seen it before. The trick is being able to spot the stuff I want to record among all the offerings on cable. Maybe JustWatch would help with that.

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  11. It seems like those well-established streaming services are now most interested in producing their own content. Movies and programming you can’t find anywhere else. Netflix, Hulu, and Disney are full of their own programs and movies. The app you mention seems helpful, as the real trick anymore is to find what you are looking for. Don’t give up, the classic films you mentioned are worth the effort!

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  12. some of the oldies can be found on regular cable at times, and like you, I find it a bit mind-boggling to try to find a specific movie when hunting, I like the alert service idea. it’s like the Wild West out in the streaming world –

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  13. Thanks for the tip on Just Watch. I’ve not heard of it before but have downloaded it. I also subscribe to the four of those which are available here, plus Acorn TV. This may be a way of making the choice less overwhelming!

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  14. I binge watched Nashville a couple years ago and loved it. Im not a huge country music fan but I still thought this series was great. The story lines had a little bit of everything. The best part about the whole show is they did an awesome job on the ending. Some shows have terrible endings but with Nashville, they did a fantastic job with the final episode. 😁

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  15. Well, Goodfellas is about the best movie ever made, but I’m sure lethal weapon was a lot of fun. I don’t think I’ve seen that since it came out. I never expect to find any of the movies I want to watch on streaming services. To point, when I was home sick for a few days in November, I paid to watch all three Hobbit movies. $12… on top of those streaming services (although not as many as you have). It’s all such a rip-off.

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  17. All available on Torrent Day which I use… it’s free you just have to seed for 72 hours but my laptop is on most of the time and you get bonus points…I have an invite as it’s by invite only if you want it? Let me know and I will email it to you 🙂

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  21. Up until 2 months ago, we were pretty old-fashioned here! We only have cable tv lol hehee.. but when I switched phone plans they threw in 6 months free of Disney Plus. So every weekend we’ve been doing movie nights with Charlotte and picking classics and new movies to enjoy with her! 🙂

    Never seen any of the movies you listed other than Goodfellas! I will need to check out the list myself to see if my favourites are on there!

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  22. I SO feel you on this! We share accounts in my family so we have access to pretty much every streaming platform available, yet when it comes time to watch an older (classic) film, we can never find it without either having to pay or signing up for some free trial somewhere. By the time the hunt is over, our enthusiasm has also dimmed . . .

    Love that you share your experience of the movie hunt! 🙂

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  23. Looks like everyone here had some good suggestions for your search. I’m sure you’re also aware of the free services available for this purpose through libraries. They don’t all offer the same ones and as with everything else these days they change frequently. There are also good old-fashioned DVDs you can get from most libraries, though of course the quality of what you can get your hands on varies.

    I’m in a class where we view and review films based on works by John Steinbeck. So far the best source for viewing has been youtube. Even rentals for these “classics” (mainly) have only run a few bucks each and I think that investment has been worth it!

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    1. not surprised to hear that libraries offer s solution!

      the problem with DVDs is that I don’t think we have player anymore…

      that sounds like a fun class, and that’s good to know about YouTube…

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