MovieChat Forums > Cult Films > remember movie video rental stores?

remember movie video rental stores?


sad note: don't you miss video rental stores? the thing i miss the most in my life about nowadays is video stores. the reason why is there is something special about picking up a movie from a rack and an aisle and going to a counter, talking to the person working there, and renting the movie. we don't have that anymore and that is wrong. just because it's more convenient to rent movies on your computer or tv doesn't make it better than renting movies from videos stores. also, redbox only has horror movies made in the last year, so how can we rent horror movies that are from 5 years ago?

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For sure.
When I was a kid, there was one called "family rental", and I often rented Scanners 2 or 3 (they didn't have the original).
From 2006 to 2010, we had a Movie Gallery.
Good times.

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i remember movie gallery with the red box symbol. i never went in though. don't you greatly miss movie video rental stores?

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No question.
Not just the rental stores, but also places like Hasting's, which sold them and often had some gems.
The local library surprisingly has a very good collection of free rentals, though.

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when you said gems i thought it said guns at first glance which made me think of quickie marts with foreign usually asian people working there. they'd need guns to protect themselves working in these stores. i thought about how this convenience store by where i live used to have adult dvds. also where are playboys and penthouses in convenience stores nowadays? they aren't there or at the circle k by my apartment. also where is just any place that has movies for sale anymore? i mean are physical movies just done and gone now? that can't be! this is really troubling and nerve wracking to me.

what movies have you found at the library? also what gems have you found at Hasting's? i discovered one of my all time favorite films from the library, the company of wolves.

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At the library, there are too many to name, there's a good 200 movies there, from mainstream stuff like Hostel, Jarhead, and The Fourth Kind, to more obscure stuff like the 1999 Beowolf and several Agatha Christie short films. At Hasting's, I wound up getting Babylon AD, and Sublime (2007) before they closed.

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have you ever watched night of the scarecrow from the library? they haven't made a full transfer to blu ray yet though unfortunately but they do have shame on blu ray so that's really cool. have you ever watched it?

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I think the old Beowolf is the only film they have from the 90's era. They have post-2000 films, and really old shows from the 70's, such as the show Thriller. This is the first I've heard of Shame, actually.

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not true as far as us libraries go as i checked out night of the scarecrow about 15 years ago from my library as well as the company of wolves. wow, they have thriller? that's awesome. that's a really cool show. i love the episode with elizabeth montgomery and that guy from a newhart show where they unwittingly go to a vampire family's house. have you watched that episode?

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With Elizabeth from Bewitched? I'll have to look that up. I just remember seeing one called "A place to die", where no one is who they seem.

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yeah her and oh my gosh she looks like the most beautiful girl who has ever lived in this. the only bad thing is it's in black and white. she looked more beautiful and younger than she looked on bewitched even when she looked her most beautiful on bewitched.

maybe video stores will come back. nowadays they brought back records and also there are actually video boxes which look just like old vhs tape boxes which contain blu rays nowadays. go look on amazon. it's really cool. i bought sheena on blu ray in this packaging. so, the manufacturers know people love and care about nostalgia of the '80s so i think there will be at least some mom and pop small video stores in the near future. what do you think?

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That'd be nice, although at this point it's hard to imagine my collection being bigger or better. Between Black Friday sales and $2 movies at dollar stores, I'm actually satisfied with my collection, so I'd probably show up just to look at them.

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you mean just to get that old nostalgic feeling you haven't had since 10 years ago? but wouldn't you want to rent movies still at video stores even though you have a good enough collection?

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Maybe, but only if I could find something particularly obscure.

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like buford's beach bunnies? remember that movie? i rented it from my local mom and pop store king video about 15 years ago. sadly that store is no more. now it's a dumb and boring laundromat.

they had a closing store sale the last week they were in existence and i remember vividly going there on my bicycle and buying all these movies on vhs which i took home with me at night. also i rented vampire hookers, 3 day weekend, and midnight tease, midnight tease 2, and caged fury there. have you ever watched any of these movies?

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It's nice being able to watch anything you want at a moment's notice, but sometimes I do miss the video store experience.

The store I went to in my youth, was a owned by a couple, so it wasn't a chain like Blockbuster. They used to get like 3, 4, or 5 copies of new releases and it was sort of an adventure to try and get one of the copies as they would be gone pretty quickly. Anyways, I miss the feeling of walking in the store and running over to a section and finding that there was a copy left of something I wanted to rent. It always made Fridays more exciting as that was the day new releases would be on the shelves.

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yeah, the whole experience is something you can't get from any other experience. the feeling of being there physically, mentally, and emotionally. it's besides watching movies the closest you can get to movies.

you can't get that exciting feeling of browsing the thousands of movies in a video store from any other activity and it's such a special experience. they are some of the best experiences of my life. it's also a comforting experience knowing people are there just like you who love movies and are passionate about them. also the community aspect of it is important, a big part of every town was lost when most video stores went away

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like buford's beach bunnies? remember that movie? i rented it from my local mom and pop store king video about 15 years ago. sadly that store is no more. now it's a dumb and boring laundromat.

they had a closing store sale the last week they were in existence and i remember vividly going there on my bicycle and buying all these movies on vhs which i took home with me at night. also i rented vampire hookers, 3 day weekend, and midnight tease, midnight tease 2, and caged fury there. have you ever watched any of these movies?

I actually am unfamiliar with all of them.
But to put my collection into perspective, even though I've thrown out about 600 movies out of disappointment, I have roughly 1,000 movies in my collection (pretty much exclusively horror and thriller).

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ok now we're talking. i'm referring to your horror collection. that's my favorite kind of movie and always has been since i was about 10 years old. i thought you would be more movie knowledgeable than that. i thought since you have such a big collection of movies that you are very knowledgeable in terms of knowing about movies seen and not seen. why did you throw out 600 movies? where do you put all your movies all 1000 of them?

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It seems to me that up to this point, you've been mentioning erotic thrillers, rather than horror. I threw out about 600, due to not having a pawn shop where I live. The 1,000 movies are spread out in my house in about 250 cases, since I have more movie packs than single movies.

I'm definitely more B than mainstream, in any decade. For example, I probably don't have enough 70's horror. But what 70's horror I have isn't Exorcist, Omen, or Dawn of the Dead. Rather, it's Legacy of Blood, Satanic Rites of Dracula, and the 1978 Terror (my personal favorite).

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no, why did you throw them out was it because they aren't good movies? are the cases those picture holder like cases where you don't have the movie boxes? i heard they scratch dvds. i've always loved b movies more than hollywood movies. i'll watch a small, independent or b movie over a hollywood movie any day. they are more interesting, edgy, unpredictable, and weird b movies are than hollywood movies. what is the 1978 terror?

i love the film the vampire lovers. it's so erotic, lurid, unique, and classy even though it has a lot of sexual undertones and sexuality and a couple scenes of nudity, and i have to say ground breaking as far as the amount of nudity in it in 1970. legitimate movies in 1970 almost never had as much nudity and nudity in more than one scene as this film.

a sci fi film i thought was a classic film is liquid sky. have you ever watched it or the vampire lovers?

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I've heard of both, but haven't seen either.
Terror is considered a copycat of the famous horror film Suspiria (which I haven't seen).
I actually think seeing Suspiria would alter my image of Terror, so I haven't.
For example, even though movies like Creature and Leviathan are clones of Alien, I like them better.
So you could say I like ripoffs.
But yes, I threw about 600 out of deeming them a waste of space and time.

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no, 'cuz you watched it first terror, so watching suspiria shouldn't alter your view of it. the first movie you watch like another movie should be the more special movie than the second movie if the first movie is special to you. oh, creature, is that the movie from 1985 with klaus kinski and the dad from ferris bueller's day off? i finally watched suspiria a few years ago and it's a great and classic film but not scary and not disturbing. i was thinking it would be both but it wasn't either which made me think less of it having watched it.

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I think Dario Argento's films haven't dated particularly well. But I guess I just consider it pointless to watch what I believe is an inferior Terror, plus I don't stream, I only collect. And yes, I was referring to the Creature with Mister Kinski.

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yes you don't stream you only collect! i'm old fashioned about movies. i much prefer to buy a physical movie than own it for streaming. i grew up in the '80s. when did you grow up? i just watched crawlspace with kinski about a week ago. it's a good film. have you watched it?

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I remember not liking Crawlspace when I saw it 10 years ago, but I do like Klaus, and I like voyeuresque movies like that. You feel like the creep, and it's a good feeling, like in the movie Disturbed (2007). Good stuff. But yes, I'm an 80's kid, born in 76.

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what is disturbed? who is in it? me too. i was born in '78.

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Who's in it? Melissa Deverian. I don't know who she is. She's bimbo-looking, but has an ok body. She gets victimized in that movie.

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ok so, you hit on something i love about horror movies. girls getting physically and emotionally preyed upon and disturbed and damaged. i love it in slashers in particular when a girl is physically and emotionally assaulted and feels emotional turmoil. when a girl is terrorized. is this one of the reasons why you love horror movies? that is the reason why i will watch this movie disturbed.

so when you described this actress it made me think maybe you think the way i do about girls in movies. when you watch a movie is one of the best things about it how the girls look, act, talk, move, and respond and how hot and beautiful they are, how much you like how they look?

i didn't like crawlspace either when i watched it about a week ago. though it has some really beautiful women in it. i liked the idea of the hot blonde being victimized by her boyfriend in a fantasy way. at first i thought he's a killer he's breaking into her house but then you find out he's actually her boyfriend and playing a kinky game of play victimizing her. it wasn't the kind of movie i like and i didn't like the tone of it and i hated klaus kinski's character but that's because he was such a horrible person, which is a credit to his acting. it is a good movie.

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That's pretty screwed-up, because they're nothing that damn entertaining about seeing a woman preyed on and damaged by some psycho in horror films or any film. It's pretty exploitative and disgusting. As a woman, I don't find that s*** entertaining at all unless the woman is able to fight off the psycho and kick his a** for good.

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[deleted]

why would you miss cinemas?

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GREATEST LOSS OF MY ADULT LIFE...BORN IN 81..I WAS A VIDEO STORE BABY.WATCHING THEM ALL DIE IN MY 20S WAS TOTAL SHIT...IN RESPONSE TO THE DEATHS,I BUILT MY OWN...FLOATING AT AROUND 20,000 TITLES ALL IN BETWEEN BLU RAY,DVD AND VHS...ACTUAL HARD FORMAT MEDIA IS PART OF ME.

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ok so, you hit on something i love about horror movies. girls getting physically and emotionally preyed upon and disturbed and damaged. i love it in slashers in particular when a girl is physically and emotionally assaulted and feels emotional turmoil. when a girl is terrorized. is this one of the reasons why you love horror movies? that is the reason why i will watch this movie disturbed.

so when you described this actress it made me think maybe you think the way i do about girls in movies. when you watch a movie is one of the best things about it how the girls look, act, talk, move, and respond and how hot and beautiful they are, how much you like how they look?

i didn't like crawlspace either when i watched it about a week ago. though it has some really beautiful women in it. i liked the idea of the hot blonde being victimized by her boyfriend in a fantasy way. at first i thought he's a killer he's breaking into her house but then you find out he's actually her boyfriend and playing a kinky game of play victimizing her. it wasn't the kind of movie i like and i didn't like the tone of it and i hated klaus kinski's character but that's because he was such a horrible person, which is a credit to his acting. it is a good movie.

Disturbed is definitely all about that. The movie pack I have with Disturbed is one of my best. There are 3 other films on that disc, and 2 of them are as good as Disturbed. One is Gingerdead Man, which is only 65 minutes but very good, and has an attractive dame. The other is Cruel World, starring Eddie Furlong (which also has attractive dames).
On a side note, I recently bought Insidious (2010), which I haven't seen, but intend to watch next week.
Got it at Dollar General for $5, expecting good things from it.

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you didn't answer these two questions: but is this one of your favorite things about watching horror movies, the stalking, preying upon and terrorizing and disturbing girls? also, is one of your favorite things about watching movies looking at and staring at beautiful girls, is how they look, act, talk, move, and respond and how hot and beautiful they are one of your favorite things about watching movies?

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I really dig the atmosphere and suspense of horror. Having said that, I find nothing wrong with brief nudity, I just don't like it if it overwhelmes the film.
For example, the horror Jack Frost (1996) has a scene in which Jack the snowman violates some dame. That was compelling.

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but wasn't that movie purposefully funny, wasn't it meant to be funny? so, it wasn't suspenseful or scary right?

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It was suspenseful in a Child's Play kind of way. But my point is the nudity took a backseat to the overall tone/point of the film.
I'm off to watch an Outer Limits (90's) episode.
They have them on IMDb.

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what do you mean? i didn't know imdb has movies to watch for free? does it?

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Actually, it turned out to be an Amazon Prime thing. So 10 years ago, they were free, but now they're ($2). "Daily motion" apparently has them for free, but the ads are persistent. Oh, well.

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but wasn't jack frost(1996) funny in a campy way in the same way as i heard silent night deadly night part 2 is? where it's intentionally funny?

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It's intentionally funny, but suspenseful at the same time. For example, while the Scream series had funny moments, they still managed to be suspenseful, per se.

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it's really cool you think the gingerdead man is a good movie. it's cool because i a few months ago found out robyn sydney, the impossibly beautiful, perfect looking, and amazingly hot girl in all of the evil bong movies is the main girl in the gingerdead man. have you ever watched any of the evil bong movies?

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I think I saw the first one only.
I didn't realize there were sequels.
I remember the first being funny.

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oh wow, this is really cool we have this movie in common having watched it. so, did you remember robyn sydney from the gingerdead man and from evil bong? did you know she is in both movies?

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I saw Evil Bong one time at a friend's house, didn't realize she was in it, I just know she looks good in G-man. Are you in lockdown?
What've you been watching?
I saw a good psycho movie called Followed Home (2010).
I'll be watching the first half of Insidious tomorrow night, the second half on Tuesday night.
I "stretch" films like that, to keep the suspense alive, per se.

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i'm still working. i work at a grocery store. i've been watching movies on screenpix, it's a new free movie channel on comcast. she looks so beautiful in the evil bong movies. she's the perfect Italian girl of your dreams, alyssa milano looking girl. i watched street smart recently on screenpix. it's a great crime film with morgan freeman and christopher reeve. have you ever watched it?

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I saw the cover
many moons ago,
in a Critic's Choice catalog, never saw it. I take it you haven't seen Insidious,
since you haven't commented on it.
Am I wrong?

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you're right. i'm not into paranormal movies like insidious.

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are you working now?

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I work at a restaurant that has been drive-thru only for 10 days. 🚗
I go back to work no earlier than Friday.

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i just went to a chic-fi-la and it was drive-thru only. they have the best chicken sandwich ever called spicy chicken sandwich. why are you not working there right now? what is your name? my name is luke.

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Semi-OT: If you find a movie
called The Inflicted (2012), I recommend it.
I always like watching movies where the awesome killer gets away with the hot slut, and a trunk full of cash. Life doesn't work that way, but you gotta love the irony.

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wait really? i don't know if i've ever heard of that ever happening in a movie? which child's play were you talking about the old one or the new one?

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You mean in the replies up there? The old one; I haven't seen the new Child's Play.

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i just went to a chic-fi-la and it was drive-thru only. they have the best chicken sandwich ever called spicy chicken sandwich. why are you not working there right now? what is your name? my name is luke.

Why am I not working right now?
The owner and his wife are pretty much covering it themselves.
Nothing wrong with my first name,
but on the internet, I like to go by Franco
(my middle name).
I'm a Steeler fan, and obviously
a Franco Harris fan.

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YOU TWO HAVE SPIRALED DOWN A VERY STRANGE RABBIT HOLE.

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lol 🤘

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oh, ok franco, so where are you from? are you from pittsburgh?

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Actually, I'm a Texan.
Side note: Is being able to physically hold movies the main reason you're a collector? I think it's even bigger that they keep from indecisiveness. If you're streaming, it can be very difficult to choose a movie.
Side note #2: Do you like Supernatural? I'm halfway into season 13, even though I didn't see the first 12 seasons.

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it can be very difficult to choose a tv show to watch nowadays i noticed recently because there are so many tv shows. there's actually more tv shows now than movies it seems like. it used to be in the '90s there were only like 50 shows on at one time. now there are 200 shows on every day. it's exhausting just thinking about how many shows are on nowadays.

it's like this, a guy says to another guy, "hey have you watched a certain show," then the other guy says, "no, i'm too busy watching all these other shows." the point being, you can't watch a show and have any other person say they've watched it like you anymore because there are too many options now.

it used to be a special thing to share this show that everyone has watched back in the '90s now we don't have that special thing because no one watches the same show anymore. this is really sad to me. don't you agree?

yes to your question. why is it easier to choose what movie to watch if you own the movie than if you're streaming movies?

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In my opinion, it's hard to tell what the best material is (without a collection) in terms of movies, more so than shows.
There may be many shows, but their title seems to summarize the content, which often doesn't apply to films.
For example, everything in Supernatural is pretty much supernatural.
A movie can be called "blue monkey", and may have nothing to do with a monkey.

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i don't like supernatural. so, do you agree with me that it's sad that the days of sharing a show that you watched in common with someone of the '90s is now over because there are too many shows on right now?

sadly the days of appointment television is over also with dvrs and streaming tvs shows and on demand. it used to be you all, the millions of viewers around the world or at least the us would watch a tv show episode when it aired. that was such a special shared experience that sadly is no longer around. doesn't that make you sad also?

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Not really, since I only identify with 1 or 2 shows per decade.
For example, while I respect the X-Files and certain shows of the 90's, Outer Limits is really the only one I consider top-notch.
Is the reason you don't like Supernatural that it's religion-themed, or because it's somewhat paranormal?

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LMAO... I JUST PICKED UP A COPY OF BLUE MONKEY ON VHS LIKE LAST MONTH.

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LoL, I never even saw it, I just remember Leonard Maltin said that the makers "almost called it green monkey".

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ITS PRETTY BAD...BUT THE BOX ART IS A MUST HAVE.

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