Normally I avoid the big chain stores in favour of independents, but the Blockbuster is the only video store (besides the anime store) within walking distance.
I went to rent Monty Python’s “Live at the Hollywood Bowl” to settle a debate between me and my husband. I get there, and they have no Monty Python whatsoever. None. Except in DVDs for sale.
I look around a little more, to see what else they’re missing. They don’t have “The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover”. They don’t have a lot of really good movies. They have a lot of really crappy DVDs, but no good VHS.
What the fuck?
I’d heard they have a censorship policy but not having Monty Python is truly obscene. I’d boycott like I did in Vancouver, but I can’t afford to see movies in the theatre.
It might have been the particular location that you were at that didn’t carry Monty Python. The one that I go to has at least four or five Monty Python titles.
It must depend on where you are. In the city I used to live in, the Blockbuster had a huge selection of little known independant movies, documentaries, British comedies, etc. In the city I live in now, the nearest Blockbuster has lots of British comedies and a fair selection of indies, but I have to go to a place called Alternative Video to get my documentary fix.
“Go to Blockbuster! It’s just like living in the UK!”
(for those scratching their heads now, it’s a reference to the recent British Board of Film Classification decision to cut scenes out of the French art film Romance.)
Part of the problem, I think, is that more than half the shelves are filled with video games. Row after row of Nintendo 64, Playstation, and God knows what else.
Then, the large sale sections dedicated to unloading all the pre-viewed overrun stock.
With the additional tendency to keep 30+ copies of all the new releases, it is very difficult to find older or less well-known movies. I mean, I like classics, foreign films, quirky comedies, Sci-Fi, horror, and the like, in addition to major studio releases. But try to find a good selection amidst the games and 50 copies of the latest pile of Hollywood crapola.
[slight aside]I attended one of Monty Python’s Hollywood Bowl concerts in person. I was thrilled when they mentioned my hometown of Glendale. (In a derogatory manner, that was even better! ) It was a great show.[/slight aside]
Don’t expect much from Blockbuster. It depends on the individual store, and the employees. From what I’ve heard, Blockbuster is retail hell for the employees. But maybe it’s just with certain places…
What I hate particularly is when they do have on copy of an older film, only it is the original copy and so has become unwatchable, and auto-tracking cant seem to get the hang of them. I am too cheap to watch the new releases, but nothing irritates me more than to rent the blockbuster of 1988 that I never saw (I am a little behind) and get home only to find it is worn away.
In an aside, is there anyone here who, um, who has a friend who rents a lot of porn on VHS? I have always wondered if the particularly good sex scenes on those tapes perhaps get blurred over time from repeated rewinding-replay-rewind-replay. I don’t care quite enough to do the research on my own, but was curious if anyone else knew. . I mean, if anyone else knew someone who knew.
Most porn is cycled through faster than a tape can be worn out. If you were to go to a adult rental store, you would see every tape for sale, even the ones that are still renting. Also, when the next “new” shipment comes in, a whole bunch of the current rentals go on the sale (non-rental) shelves. Turnover is the key.
It didn’t use to be this way. Used to be, you could find actual erotic movies. Now “new” porn tapes are mostly scene compilations (e.g. “Sex-hungry sluts #24” or “World’s grossest facials #63”). The state of porn thesedays is a shame. I have to search long and hard (no pun intended) to find something erotic enough that my girlfriend and I both can enjoy.
I was wondering through a blockbuster one day, and started having a conversation with one of the employee’s. In the course of the conversation he told me it was company policy to remove the picture from the display box for any movies that might be considered “objectionable”. Not just porno, but certain independent films, even some main stream stuff. Walk through a Blockbuster and look at all the cases that do not have the original picture in them, but instead have a photocopy of just the title, or a card with the title written on it, no one lost it, it was removed.
It is not exactly censorship, but enough to keep me from renting at blockbuster.
I do believe they refuse to have “x-rated” movies, and I believe the second title you mentioned might fit that bill (even though there isn’t a real x rating, so to speak). Blockbuster sucks. The only reason I go is because the hours are convenient (its open until midnight).
I tend not to rent from Blockbuster. I know there’s a video store somewhere that offers an editing service for people, which is fine. If they ask for it, that’s up to them. But I will not allow some nameless, faceless fanatic to decide what is not good for me to view!
Blockbuster has a policy of no NC-17 rated films, so they get the special R-Rated release. Many of your crappier straight-to-video “erotic thillers” are often released in an “unrated” and “R-Rated” versions, with the R-rating going to Blockbuster, usually, though they sometimes have the the “it-would-get-an-NC-17-if-submitted-to-the-MPAA” version, too.
I used to work at a video store and I remember that the Ken Russell film “Whore” was available in THREE verions - the NC-17 rated version, the R-Rated version, and a version just for grocery stores and the like, which was the R-rated version with a different box, which, instead of having the title of “Whore” was called “If You Can’t Say It, Just See It”. I’m not making that up.
I’d be curious to meet the people who prefer the shorter, cut and less offensive versions of movies. If you’re going to see a movie about a woman’s exploratory sexual odyssey, for example, do you really need to have the sex parts cut out so you’re not offended? I go out of my way not to patronize Blockbuster because I like having a little looky-loo at the dirty parts when I rents them art-house, foreign, and just plain sleazy films. If you don’t rent from your independant video retailer, it won’t be long before Blockbuster is your only choice…
Blech - I avoid BallBuster Video at all costs. I rent from a local store, which stocks something like 300 lesbian porn titles alone, in addition to it’s normal G/PG/PG-13/R fare.
In many places in the USA (like here) Blockbuser is the only choice. So you rent the blockbuster version or none at all.
My blockbuster actually has a “adult” section of those R rated direct to video movies. I imagine they do OK because its the “hardest” thing you can rent.
) It was a great show.[/slight aside]
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