Gaping Holes

[AndyC]

Ever discover that, as movie literate as you think you are, that you've somehow missed seeing something that's pretty much mandatory for a movie fan?

I just rented 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Day of the Dead,' since so many messages refer to them. Great movies. I can't imagine why I didn't see them before. I saw 'Night of the Living Dead' and 'Return of the Living Dead' years ago.

[Zombie Keeper]

Jeez, someone's been living under a rock!

ZombieKeeper - http://www.zombiekeeper.com

[Josh Leman]

Happens to me all the time.  It's worse with my friends, though--I cannot fathom how these people make it through life without ever seeing any of the Star Wars films, Braveheart, American Beauty, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park... the list goes on and on.

[AndyC]

Not at all, which is why it's so strange that I let those two movies go for so long. I suppose my attention was elsewhere. We all have our 'gotta watch that sometime' lists. I'm just curious to know if anybody else has suddenly realized that a movie should have been much higher on their list.

[AndyC]

Sounds like you have very deprived friends. I agree that picky or unenthusiastic filmgoers are frustrating.

My best friend used to actually brag to people that he'd never seen any of the Star Wars movies if they happened to come up in conversation. I would tell him, as diplomatically as possible, how stupid that sounded. Seeing a movie and hating it is one thing, hating a movie you've never seen (and being vocal about it) is something else. He thought it reflected his good taste, and assumed everyone agreed.

When the remastered versions were released to theatres, we dragged him out to see them. I was dating his girlfriend's best friend at the time, and she was a big Star Wars fan, so it wasn't too hard to trap him into three double dates. I don't know if it changed his opinion of the movies, but now it's at least an informed opinion.

Come to think of it, I believe the two 'Dead' sequels made it so far down my 'to watch' list because of my own preconceived ideas. I'm not a big zombie movie fan (with some exceptions). It wasn't until I started reading this board that I found out that these were not ordinary zombie movies, but something more in the realm of post-apocalypse. That's a different animal altogether.

It's good to have other enthusiasts around, for purposes of comparing notes and making recommendations.

[Lester1/2Jr.]

I thought this was going to be about porno.  we could do that, but making fun of the acting in porno is kind of redundent.

[AndyC]

No, it's more of a reference to thinking you've seen a lot of the really important 'bad' movies, only to discover you've missed a good one. It's a gaping hole in your moviegoing experience. Actually, it's not a bad thing when you think about it. Just when you think you've seen every good thing your local video store has to offer, you find a classic that has been staring you in the face all along.

I tend to use up video stores too quickly. It's not long before I'm walking in, browsing around for ten minutes and leaving empty handed because I've seen everything that appeals to me.

There is one exception - a local video store that specializes in the unusual. This independent rental store, not far from where I live, is packed with bad movies, old movies, B&W classics, sci-fi, horror, cult classics, foreign films, blaxploitation, drug films, kaiju, and an entire room devoted to anime which is divided into anime series, movies and hentai. Actually, a few of the genre sections contain further divisions, such as the vampire films, Hammer films, etc. within horror. An unusual feature of the store is that only some movies are arranged according to genre. Imports are divided into countries. The work of sufficiently well-known directors are in a section arranged according to director. I think the fact that this place is a short bike ride from two universities helps considerably.

It's at least a 15-minute drive from my place, but the video stores closer to home are owned by people who are only interested in the business end, and don't seem to give a s**t about movies. Shelves full of the most common new releases and not much else.

Anybody else know a store like this?

[Vermin Boy]

There's a grubby little mom-and-pop place about ten minutes from my house that has the most amazing "used" section I've ever seen. Among the gems I've found there are Bad Taste, J-Men Forever, Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (although it is the version that censors Sid Vicious' performance, it's still a great find), Dark Star, The Devil's Rain, The Dark Power, Day of the Animals... Every time I think I've exhausted all the cool movies, they dump out another batch. The only problem is that I'm not the only b-fan who's discovered this, so I need to be quick; I've seen movies like Cemetery Man, Mondo Cane, Redneck Zombies, Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowlarama, and TWO copies of Bride of Re-Animator vanish before my eyes.

[Lester1/2Jr.]

I live in Boston.  I went to Tower video for years and never got to the end of it, but it closed which is two bad. 1.49 for two nights is pretty unheard of around here.  Now I go to Video Oasis in Cambridge.  They have just thousands of movies.  Hundreds of Something Weird, all those crappy straight to video action things with Chuck Norris in them, hundreds of Kung Fu titles and what amounts to a museum of pornography. It's like a hangar.  Ya know, when you hear a plane flying by now you know it's the military.

[Stupid Jacob]

Sweet jesus. I wish I had a place like that near me. Can you belive none of the video stores in town have Night of the Living Dead in there horror section? Insane man.