The Internet Archive and my PS3

I'm going to wait on the PS4. First, I don't think a lot of great games are out for it yet. Secondly, and most importantly, I've got a ton of movies on my PS3 HDD that I enjoy. I can't get rid of the system just yet. Thanks to the Internet Archive (Disclaimer: it's just a website I enjoy and this blog post is not an official endorsement), I've turned my PS3 into a portable nostalgic box office.

Your local Best Buy or movie store too expensive? Hell, just go to the Archive and download a bunch of classic movies that have fallen into the public domain. If you've got a New Year's resolution to save some cash, this is a good start. You don't have to be rich to enjoy classic films. As my grandmother says, "I can squeeze a nickel 'till the buffalo shits."

First, you've got your obvious movies like "Night of the Living Dead", "Nosferatu", and "Carnival of Souls" if horror is your game. Then there's some lesser-known classics, some of which I've enjoyed recently. One of these movies is the British wartime spy/drama/comedy "Cottage to Let".

So this wartime evacuee from London, a cocky teenage kid, gets sent away and dumped off at a Scottish estate run by a socialite and her mad scientist husband (Leslie Banks from "The Most Dangerous Game", free to download at the Archive too!). The kid is bored and despondent, but not for long. The guest cottage is turned into a military hospital which takes in a crashed Spitfire pilot. Another boarder takes over one of the rooms, and it's obvious he's not who he says he is.

It also turns out that the scientist is developing a bombsight for the Allies, and the plot takes off when German spies pull off a snatch and grab in the third act, taking both him and the prototype sight. It's pretty good, there's some great comic relief, romance, and action sequences too, which is surprising for a black and white movie.

Then on the Archive there's some movies that are either unique but not great, or are just so bad they're good. In the former you have
"Things to Come", the movie based on the story by H.G. Wells. It's not great, just unique, and there's some post-apocalyptic and science fiction action at some point. In the latter you've got "The Incredible Petrified World", a cheese-fest of a movie that I think was featured on MST3K. These hapless divers go into this giant diving bell and then explore underground caverns. Basically, it's a low-tech movie version of Minecraft.

OH! And I almost forgot to mention this. If you're going to download some movies and make a playlist, you can't go wrong with downloading some drive-in theater intermissions or other stuff to use as filler. The Archive even has Duck and Cover! Yes, the movie that was shown to all of the kids during the height of the Cold War, basically telling them that their school desks, a newspaper, and even a picnic blanket would protect them all from a nuclear bomb blast.

Aaaah, nostalgia. It's the start of a new year, but any time is a good time to enjoy free classic black and white movies, pop open a Coca-Cola, and FIGHT COMMUNISM!