I love watching movies with my family.  A big bowl of popcorn, sharing an experience all together.  Heavens knows today’s TV’s are almost as big as the screens at the movie theaters when I was growing up!  There are SO many good movies out there, we love to cuddle up together on our comfy couch and enjoy some time together.

*2017 Update*

VidAngel had to pull most of its movies as it was being sued by the big movie prodution studios.

While that lawsuit is being carried out (they hope to return to the process as I wrote it up below) they are offering a new streaming service.

So, for under 8 bucks/month you can have it filter streams from Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and more!  It can be rough to monitor everything your kids are watching (also, can Amazon MAKE a show without a pornographic sex scene?)  and make it clean as a whistle (as always, you can pick the filters you want applied).

Hopefully Vidangel comes back to its former glory (boy oh boy do I miss the $1 movies) but until then, at least there’s filtering on my favorite streaming. 🙂

I got an email earlier this year from a friend telling me how great VidAngel was.

I was skeptical though.  What’s the catch, and I’m not sure I want my movies filtered…..

And what is the initial buy-in?

How Does VidAngel Work?

Selection

Ok, first off, I was skeptical of selection.  But there is no need. They have tons of new releases and lots of movies you remember from your childhood (we watched the whole Back to the Future series with them when “the date” rolled around).  Check out the most popular new releases:

And right now (I’m writing this in December) check out all the awesome Christmas options:

Ok, so that’s not an issue.

What’s this about buying the movie?

Yes, your intial purchase is the “catch”.  In order to stream at such a reduced rate (as well as filter them — more on that below!) they make you “buy” the movie.  That means, they initially get 20 bucks of your hard earned cash.  BUT, at any point you can say you’re done with VidAngel and ask for that money back.  They’ll refund it to you.

BUT, each movie after that will only be a dollar ($2 for HD).  They will only charge you a dollar (possibly less if the movie you’re “buying”is less than your intial purchase.

So, let’s take a real life example.  You want to watch Star Wars, you pay $20 to “buy” it.  Then, you “sell it back” when you’re done (more on that later), and they give you a $19 credit on your account (taking out the dollar it costs to get the movie).  The next time, you want to watch Return of the Jedi — you are charged $1 (it is a dollar/day).

That’s it.  I was worried I’d have to pay $20 again.  But, you don’t.  Just a buck.  And then, you decide you’ve watched them all — just email for your initial purchase back (although, I don’t see that happening any time soon at our house).

And returning it?

I was right there with you?  What if I forget to return it?  I don’t want to end-up paying 20 bucks in forgetting to return the movie.  RIGHT after you watch it, you’re given the option to return it.  It is just a click.  They email you and there are plenty of reminders to click to return it.  They call it “sell it back” — but you’re basically returning it.

Yes, if you rent it and then completely forget it — you could get in trouble, but because the movies are ALL only a dollar it doesn’t make sense to buy the movie until you’re going to watch it.  It’s super simple, and it’s just a click.

Let’s Talk About Filters….

Sure, I may want all the sex scenes, F words and bums as I can get, but some people don’t….

So, they have filters.

There are a TON of them, and you can customize them as much as you please.  You want sex, you want nudity, but you don’t want the F word — they can do that!  That’s why they have to “sell” you the movie first.  This way they can edit “your” movie and avoid copyright infringement.

We rented Top Gun to watch with our boys and they loved it.  But, there were parts that were just silent because we clicked to filter profanity.  It also skipped a scene where there’s some sexual/nudity.  It just skips it or eliminates the talking at those points.  It’s not a BEEP or a black screen.  FYI.  I thought this little video was pretty amusing:

What about Quality?

They recently did an update and somehow it wasn’t working well with the laptop we use to stream to our TV.  They immedately gave us our money back, no questions asked.  Of the 20 or so movies my husband/kids have watched — that was the only time we’ve had an issue and we haven’t had an issue since then.

So, that’s VidAngel.  I have had TONS of clicks to the site, but hardly anyone has registered/ bought and we LOVE the service so I thought I’d share.

I will disclose that I do get an affiliate credit when you buy your first movie with them (if anyone’s bought through one of my links I’d love to know as I can scream at them).  I mostly share it because my husband LOVES the service.  I really like the filter option and also not having to go to RedBox.  Our family uses it.  And often.

#lazy

Check them out!

Haha, you can even filter Jar Jar….