The revival of brick & mortar video store thread brought back some memories. It wasn’t so long ago that I used to walk the aisles of video store shelves picking through dvd’s or VHS tapes, looking at the cover art or at the information on the back of the box and making judgements about whether or not to rent a video based on that scant information.
While it may not have always been possible to pick out a good movie based on the cover, it wasn’t that difficult to identify what was most likely a bad movie in this fashion. Things like garish art, movie titles with roman numerals, or one or two-word excerpts from reviews with no context (e.g. “riveting action”) all suggested inferiority.
How did (do?) you select videos at brick & mortar stores if you weren’t walking in already looking for a specific title?
Maybe I’m just not remembering, but I don’t think I’ve ever rented a movie that I never even heard of before. Rather, I’d be browsing and see a movie that I’d heard somebody talking about or that I’d read about or that sounded interesting when it was new but I never got around to seeing it in a theater.
You ask the person working there, of course, who, even if he or she does not have encyclopedic knowledge, has presumably seen all the worthwhile videos. Even watching one movie a day adds up over a few years, and true movie fans certainly watch at least a few videos every week.
You could go by actors that you were already familiar with, or talk to the clerk. But for the most part we never rented movies that were completely unknown quantities. Renting a movie was a treat, and treats weren’t something to get risky about.
There are plenty of used DVD stores about, and I browse the same as I always have: I would look for titles or graphics on the cover that grab my attention, whether they sound like an interesting idea, or it’s “what the fuck?”.
For example, my copy of Invasion from Inner Earth has on the cover a man and woman in ski gear against a bad blue drapery backdrop, looking up at a pink Starship Enterprise.
Neither person was in the movie, there was no skiing, and needless to say, the Starship Enterprise, pink or not, did not appear.
If the cover (or back) showed an actress with feathered hair it was probably some bad 70s movie that I didn’t want to see.
A lot of 70s movies also used animated pictures of the cast in some sort of group shot on the cover. Meatballs, Cannonball Run, etc. If it wasn’t a hit I heard of then I’d avoid the animated covers.
Just imagine where Fluffball would be today if, after the success of Acorns Away, he didn’t meet Tom Sizemore and get into hookers and heroin. Kinda sad really.
The last video store I went to my children were young. I never got a chance to pick. Disney movies always took priority. I never was so glad when my oldest became a sci-fi geek. And then the video stores were all gone. I still spent a few more years watching cartoons and princess movies with the lil’wrekker. I know all the songs. It’s a talent I keep under the bushel.
He didn’t see the version of Tail Fluffers with Fluffball. I suspect he saw the version from the back room starring Anita Squirreljob and so naturally he thinks poorly of people he thinks saw it.
The scene with Anita and the squirrel and the midget in the camel costume was very well lit.
