When I started this website for my movie reviews, I also said that I would use it to write about other things that are about film or certain films, but I haven't written anything besides reviews, and I thought of this fun idea to talk about the movies in my DVD and Blu-Ray collection that I don't like. If you like some of these movies, it's okay. These are just my opinions, just like a film critic review. Film is art, and art is subjective. So why do I have these movies in my collection if I don't like them? Here's why.
If you ask any teenager today if they know what a video rental store is, they wouldn't have that great idea of one. With streaming services and the internet, there is no reason to go to an actual store to pay three or four bucks to borrow a movie and then return the movie on time or else you would have to pay a late fee. There were a number of video and grocery stores that rented out movies. The ones I remember going to were Hollywood Video, Blockbuster Video, Reams (A local grocery store), and Top Hat Video. Blockbuster had the most stores, but Hollywood Video and the grocery store, Reams, where the closest video rental places by my house, so I went there more than the others, although when I was little, there was a Top Hat Video close to us in Magna. There were also other stores that I can't recall the names of, but they were there.
One of the most fun things to do was to go to a video rental store and see hundreds and hundreds of movies on the shelves. The stores were actually pretty big, and some of them even rented out video games, but that's a topic for another time. There were so many to choose from. They had a ton of old movies plus new releases. New releases were hard because if you went to the video store hoping that you could get a new release, they were always out, and you would have to put your name on a reserve list, and when people returned the movie, they would go on the reserve list, which was a first come first serve basis. The store would call you and let you know that your reserved video tape or DVD was in and reserved for you.
One of my favorite things about going to the video store is, you have to remember, the internet either wasn't a thing yet, or it was in its earlier stages, but there weren't any websites that would tell you what new releases were coming out. You would go to a video store, and they would usually have a poster board sign with what was coming out on video, and when. Also, again, there weren't any websites to go to that would have that information, so those poster boards were fun.
I think the release posters were so great because there weren't any streaming services, and VHS videos took a long time for the studios to make. Files weren't just burned onto a disc that was cheap and easy to produce. Videos had magnetic tape and a lot of plastic to hold the tape inside. Back when I was a kid, and even most of my teenage years, a movie would come out in theaters. It would play for a little while, and then when new movies came out in theaters, they would take the movies that had been playing at one theater would give the film canisters to "Dollar Movie Theater", which is, you guessed it, one cost one dollar for a ticket, but they had good popcorn and candy where they made most of their money. I bet I saw Jurassic Park fifteen times in theaters because of the dollar theater.
After movies were in theaters, they would be taken out, and it took a year before they were released on video. I have to also say, if you wanted to buy a movie, you could go to stores in their electronics section and buy them to keep, but I'm talking about the rentals. It was so exciting to go to the video store and see a movie you loved in theaters and the release date on the poster boards. Not only did they tell you they would be in stores to buy, but they were also coming to the rental stores on the same day. Those new releases were usually hard to get right away, so reserving them was the way to go. However, Blockbuster and Hollywood Video started to do something new when DVDs were starting to come out, and it was kind of a game changer for the new releases.
Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video started ordering 100 DVDs of just about all of the new releases. They guaranteed that the new release would be in stock for you to rent on day one, and if they were all gone, they would put you on a reserve list, and you got to rent the movie for free. This made it fun knowing you could get the new release very easily, or you got to get the free rental. It was awesome. However, once the movies started getting less popular, they would put two or three DVDs on the regular shelves, which were organized by genre and then alphabetical order. For example, Jurassic Park would have been in the Action section, and then you would find it alphabetically. So, what happened with the rest of the DVDs that they didn't keep?
The best thing about the guaranteed in stock DVDs was that they usually were only used for three weeks, and then the video stores would sell the used copies of the DVDs, and not only could you buy them, but they were cheaper than renting it. They were also guaranteed to work, or you would get your money back, like if a DVD was scratched and wouldn't play. So, they were selling these used DVDs for $2.50 to $3.00. So back then before my film critic years, I wouldn't see quite a few of some movies that I was only about half interested in seeing. When the films came out, used for three weeks, and then sold for a really cheap price, I would just go down with ten to fifteen bucks and buy three or four movies instead of renting them since they were cheaper to buy the used discs than the rental charge.
Needless to say, I have a lot of DVDs and Blu-Rays in my collection that I really don't like. Most of my Blu-Rays were ones I bought myself because Blu-Ray disks weren't a thing until after the video store markets started fading away, so just about all of my Blu-Ray movies are ones that I liked and wanted. So, with that in mind, here is a bunch of movies I own that I don't like, in no particular order.
Stuck on You
Shallow Hal
Daddy Daycare
V For Vendetta
Shark Tale
Blades of Glory
Lady in the Water
Zookeeper
Yes Man
The Island
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
So, these are the ones that I have on my shelves right now, but there are still quite a few movies I have that are in storage at my parent's house. Like I said, you might like some of these movies, but I didn't. They were cheaper to buy than rent, so I bought them and then didn't care for them. If I get to them any time soon, I will either write another blog post or just update this one.
I really hope this wasn't a boring post. I wanted to explain the video rental stores in detail to show kids and teenagers that things weren't easy when it came to watching movies you want to watch, and not have instant access to it, and being able to watch them on day one. Movies that are in theaters don't go to a dollar theater anymore, and it only takes a maximum of 45 days after a movie opens up in theaters. If the movie isn't performing well, it can even be streaming at home to buy or rent in even less time. It's interesting to see how technology can be great, but it can also take away things you love to do. I love listening to actual vinyl records on a record player sometimes, even though I can stream my music easily. There's something nostalgic and magical about using physical media from the past to capture what made something so great, even when it was just a common place or thing that we took for granted at the time.
Anyway, I apologize about the length of this post, but I wanted to try and recapture that feeling of going into a video store to try and explain things to a generation of kids who will never know the joy of renting a movie from a store. I know that there weren't a lot on my list, but like I say, I do have more in storage that I am not exactly thinking about at the moment.
I hope you are all doing well and that things are going well for you and yours. Life gets busy and crazy, and I am so grateful to have people who take their time and enjoy what I have to say. I don't do it as much as I used to, but I really want to get back in the habit of writing more posts. Thanks again, and I hope you will read the next one.
