You’re Gonna Want This for Movie Night! Rent New Release Movies for $1, No Need to Return and Safely Edit ANY Movie Legally!

Have you guys heard of VidAngel?  I thought it was too good to be true when I first heard about it.  So I tested it out and can tell you it’s legit and is going to get a lot of families excited!

Some of you might remember when there was a company called Clean Flicks.  Basically it was a place to go and rent edited movies.  It was a great way to be able to watch a movie without any of the extra “Stuff” you didn’t really want to watch or have your kids watch. However, Congress decided it was illegal

VidAngel has actually come up with a way to do something very similar and still be protected under the “Family Entertainment & Copyright Act of 2005”.  So, it’s legal!

So now I’m going to get a little personal with you.  I’ve never watched a Rated R movie in my life.  I have always been worried about the content that might be in them like language, nudity or even graphic violence. My stomach just can’t handle that kind of stuff.  So I have just stayed away from watching them altogether–but also realize I have missed out on watching some really great movies with a great story as well.

Now that VidAngel is an actual option to watch movies edited, I can watch those movies I have always wanted to see, but didn’t feel comfortable with before.

Before I get too far, let me explain that you can pick and choose every single filter in a movie you either want to enforce or leave in the movie.  So each person can completely customize what THEY are ok with seeing and what THEY want to see!  I think that’s the best part.  

Not only do they edit PG-13 or Rated R movies, but they edit PG & G movies too.  So if there are certain words you aren’t ok with your little kids hearing, or you want to take out certain “touchy content”, you totally can.  You can customize each movie to how you know your kids will react to it.

All of this is done on their website and you rent directly through it.  Here’s how it works:

• Head to VidAngel to see what movies they currently have available to rent (and edit).
• Click on any movie you are interested in watching.  **You can watch the movie as is-without ANY editing for $1 or $2!  Or you can click on the blue “Filters Available” link to see what type of content is in each movie.  
• Check or un-check any filter you want added to your movie. Then hit “Save” at the bottom.
• If you want to watch the SD version, you will pay $1.00 to rent that movie.  Or if you want the High Def version, you will pay $2.00 to rent that movie.

Here is the kinda confusing part: One of the ways VidAngel has been able to get around what Clean Flicks was doing is to actually own copies of the movies and then letting families choose what content they want to watch in the protection of their own homes.  So you will need to pay $20 to VidAngel when you want to rent your first movie.  When you do so, you will see a checkbox that will let you say something like “automatically return this movie after I’m done watching it”. It’s called “Sellback”. By doing so, after your movie has finished, VidAngel will digitally return the edited movie back to them, and put a $19 (or $18) credit back into your VidAngel account!  You can use that credit on future rentals. Or if you want to keep that edited version of that movie, VidAngel will keep your $20 credit in exchange for your copy.

If you ever decide to stop using VidAngel altogether, you just have to contact them to close your account and cash out any credit you have in your VidAngel account.  So they’ve made it really easy to rent, buy or get your money back if you don’t want to continue.

After you have rented your movie, you can watch it on:

• Roku
• Apple TV
• iPhone/iPad
• Your Computer/Laptop
• Android Device
• Chromecast

If you need help or have any questions on details of how this all works, definitely head over and read their HELP section.  It was VERY helpful when I first started using VidAngel because the concept is so new, I wasn’t sure exactly how it all worked.

My Own Personal Thoughts On This Service:

First of all, I NEVER remember to return my RedBox DVDs.  So I end up with ridiculous late fees.  And renting on your DirecTV, Comcast or Dish can cost $5.99. So even if you didn’t edit any of the videos you rented, this option is a fool-proof way to only pay $1 or $2 for your DVD/Blu-Ray.  (Especially with their auto-return/sellback option!)

Second, since they purchase copies of these movies to be in compliance, they have movies BEFORE Redbox and Netflix do.  So that’s a plus.

Third, I would be careful with the movies that have a lot of swear words.  You can check that with the “filters available” section. I had heard such good things about American Sniper and really wanted to watch it.  But with 111 F-words, even filtering those out, there were a lot of spots where the sound was gone to help filter all of those.  And it was a little annoying.  So you might want to keep that mind when you think of the filters you are editing out.

Lastly, if you are going to use this service to help you filter out parts of movies you wanted to see, remember that the type of content is still the type of content.  If the story of the movie still makes you uncomfortable, you can’t filter that out.  So be smart about what movies you do filter and which ones you watch.  VidAngel can only do so much!

Hopefully you guys are excited about this concept-whether you edit or not- it’s a great way to save money on renting movies!