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Ah, Blockbuster... · The Recess Bell

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  This production is brought to you by the Reesa Scull. Imagine the perfect video
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  store. It would have a great select like right over, ten thousand videos,
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  three evening rounds, so no rush, no hassle, fast check out,
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  twenty four hour, quick drop return, open late every night. Well,
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  the perfect video store is popping up all over the country. There's one
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  near you. Hey, everybody, my name is Justin Greenberg and this is
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  Film Real and today we're talking about, well you just heard it, Blockbuster
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  Video and just renting movies in general, because it is something I talked to
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  the youth of today and they have no idea what the hell I'm talking about
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  when I mentioned about going to an actual store and renting a videotape. Nowadays
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  everything is on a streaming service, and that has its benefits for sure,
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  but I think you also lose out on a lot of great things by not
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  going to these rental stores. So when I was a kid, we had
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  a Blockbuster Video just a couple of blocks away from our house, and we
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  would go consistently. Unfortunately, there are no more Blockbusters in New York.
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  There's only actually one Blockbuster in the entire world, which is in Bend.
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  Oregon, and I don't plan on going there anytime soon. My Blockbuster is
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  now a Chase Bank. At any time I go to that Chase Bank,
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  I'm flooded with memories and nostalgia, and I wish I could go back in
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  time and relive those days, or at least, you know, go in
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  there with a camcorder and film my old Blockbuster. I'm so autistic that a
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  few years ago I mapped out exactly the layout of the old Blockbuster, so
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  like where the new releases were, where the video games were, where each
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  section was located, because we were there very often. So let's talk about
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  some of the benefits of actually going to a place like a Blockbuster Video or
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  a Hollywood and why I think it's superior in a lot of ways to something
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  like Netflix or HBO. First of all, let's start off with the selection.
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  The selection at Blockbuster in Hollywood Video is going to be much more diverse.
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  I think you're gonna find a lot of more bizarre films out there than
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  you would on your typical streaming service. There were so many just B movies,
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  not the B movie with Jerry Seinfeld, just like schlocky B films that
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  would never be on a mainstream service like an HBO Max or Hulu or Disney
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  Plus or any of those things. I remember renting these really obscure robot films
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  from the nineties with these giant mech warriors. I think it was called Robot
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  Jocks, if I'm not mistaken, that was the name of the film.
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  But you would never see that anywhere. So you got a lot of obscure
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  stuff at Blockbuster at Hollywood back in the day. It's a new age of
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  combat, human beings phytically engineered. To me, the fights in history two
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  champions, it isn't over until someone wins at war with each other. I
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  think another positive to renting movies back in the day is you would give movies
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  a chance. Now when you have so many options on the streaming services and
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  there are a lot of films out there, there is a lot of stuff
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  on the streaming services, but there's all there might be too much. So
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  if you watch something for five minutes and it doesn't click right away, you're
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  gonna stop it. And I've done that a lot often. I don't give
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  movies the opportunity to breathe because I just know there's another film out there that
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  I could just put on in a second, but when you rented something from
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  Blockbuster, you were stuck with it. Now, sometimes that would suck because
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  the movie wouldn't be good, but other times the movie would have to breathe
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  a little bit, and then by the end of the film you're completely sucked
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  into it. I remember renting very old films like Frankenstein from the nineteen thirties,
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  and I couldn't imagine putting that on today. And I remember being bored
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  at first, you know, the first fifteen twenty minutes, I don't know
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  if I like this, it's in black and white. But then by the
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  end of the movie, I'm fully engaged with this film. And I think
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  that is completely lost with today's generation. They're not gonna be watching these older
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  films. They're not gonna be giving the opportunity even to TV shows. I
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  remember as a kid, you only had a few channels, so if a
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  movie was on, you were gonna watch it, regardless of what it was.
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  I remember a lot of shows as well, like I couldn't imagine a
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  young kid today putting on the TV and watching a sitcom like Taxi or Cheers
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  or Mesh. But when I was a kid. That was one of the
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  few shows that was gonna be on late at night, so you were watching
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  it. And I'm so blessed to have watched those shows because I think they
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  shaped who I am as an adult, and I think that is something that
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  is definitely missing out. The ability to shut off a program or a movie
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  and just move on to something else, I think is detrimental to I think
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  a lot of like could be the reason why a lot of kids these days
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  have add and learning disabilities. They just the constant change. They can't focus,
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  and that's a bad thing. Let's talk about video games. Think of
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  all the mature, responsible things you could be doing, helping old ladies cross
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  the street, probably maintaining your yard, hang on with your boat, or
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  cleaning your root. But get real, you'd rather be playing video games.
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  You can read them from Blockbuster. They've got more of the coolest new Nintendo,
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  Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis games for rent than anyone in the world.
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  Why not get your games from Blockbusters. It's the mature thing to do.
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  I was trying to play one of these newer systems actually, just a
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  few moments ago, and you turn on the system. You have to do
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  an update, you have to log into in an account, and then you
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  have to update the actual game, and then you have to remember a password,
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  and then you have to connect to this and do this, and then
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  even if you have the physical copy, the actual disc, you still have
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  to download it to It's very, very complicated. When I was a kid,
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  you just get a cartridge. You might have to blow it pause,
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  and then you put it in and then you know the game works right away.
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  There's a reason why I'm bringing up video games because renting video games at
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  Blockbuster was such a delight and also saved you a shit ton of money because
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  you didn't know back in the day if a game was going to be good
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  or not. You would judge movies and you would judge games just on the
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  cover and maybe read the back a little bit. And maybe you had a
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  Nintendo Power or you know, a Game Pro one of those magazines to sort
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  of, you know, read a bit of the review. But some of
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  those reviews a little bit sketchy. But you're certainly not going to be seeing
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  gameplay footage unless it's from a commercial or whatnot. So instead of spending seventy
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  dollars to buy a game, at funk Go Land or to us. If
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  you could just rent a game, you could test it out and if it
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  ends up being a game you really like, then you ask your mom or
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  dad, you know, it's birthday coming up, can I get this game
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  that I was playing a ton of from Blockbuster? Or you would just continuously
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  rent the game. I never owned Mario sixty four as a kid, but
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  I definitely rented it a lot, and I would create a save file and
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  I'd hopefully rent the same cartridge that I saved the file on. You know,
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  the next time I would rent the game, or hopefully nobody deleted it
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  by the time, you know, I got the game back. I have
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  such fond memories of going a Blockbuster with the family with friends. We just
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  go there. We would look at We didn't even need to buy or rent
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  anything. Half the time. We would just look around. Bullshit. Go
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  to McDonald's next door, you know, rent something, bring it back,
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  have a slumber party. You rent like three or four games, you rent
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  the movie. You just spend all night around the TV screen playing and laughing
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  and watching a movie and playing a video game. It's just something that I
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  think is missed and I know a lot of people play multiplayer games online,
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  and that is not the same being in the same room with your friend or
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  your brother while playing the game and you see the rage in their eyes,
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  and yeah, you could talk shit in front of the person. That's another
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  problem with kids these days. I hate to be that old man that yells
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  at the cloud, you know, the the Grandpa Simpson mean. But it's
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  true a lot of these kids talk so much shit online. But if you
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  were to do that at an arcade back in the day, you're gonna get
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  punched in the face. They say the most awful things on these Xbox chats
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  and the PlayStation online stuff. But imagine saying that to a you know,
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  a skateboarder guy out of Nathan's Arcade. You're gonna get a skateboard across your
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  face. So yeah, I just think living in the time that I lived,
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  it taught me how to respect people in person. It taught me how
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  to interact with human beings. I'm I'm noticing a lot of you know,
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  younger kids these days have a hard time interacting with one another. I'm around
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  people, and it's not even just younger kids, it's it's everyone. It's
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  people my age now they're obsessed with their telephone. They just they're just constantly
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  looking at their phone. They're not engaging with one another. And maybe if
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  we had something like Blockbuster, stuff like that wouldn't be happening. I want
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  to tell one last story about Blockbuster, and it's my favorite story involving,
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  you know, Blockbuster video. So me and my dad and brother were obsessed
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  with pro wrestling I still am to this day. So my dad wanted to
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  rent wrestle Mania two from the local Blockbuster. So we got the cover.
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  We brought it up to Blockbuster man and he said, oh, I'm sorry,
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  this is not from our Blockbuster. You cannot rent this movie. And
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  my dad was flabbergasted. It's in your Blockbusters, sir, we are definitely
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  allowed to rent this movie. My dad was sort of like the original Karen.
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  He was going to complain and he was going to get his way.
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  So eventually he makes his way to the manager and he would get into these
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  loud arguments. It was very embarrassing to be around my dad from time to
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  time, especially when he was in this type of mood. But he wanted
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  to watch wrestle Mania too, and I think more importantly, he wants to
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  show me and my brother WrestleMania too, because he liked showing the things that
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  he was into to us, whether it's sports or movies or wrestling. But
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  I remember him having this conversation with the manager of Blockbuster, and then he
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  turned around to us and said, all right, let's go, and he
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  took the cassette tape and he said. I was like, well, what
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  are you doing. You can't take that, and you can't certainly take that
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  copy they usually give us, you know, the Blockbuster copy. It's in
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  its own Blockbuster case. And my dad said, oh no, he said,
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  we can have it. So my dad complained so much. It must
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  have been like a ten minute argument because me and my brother just walking around
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  the store killing time as my dad was arguing with the Blockbuster employees. And
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  I guess they just want to shut him up, so they let him take
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  this WrestleMania to VHS tape. And not only did we watch it that night,
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  I still have it to this very day. It's actually on my wrestling
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  shelf, and it's one of my favorite memories, not just with Blockbuster,
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  it's just one of my favorite memories of my dad. So I thought i'd
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  share that when talking about Blockbuster. But I miss it. I definitely miss
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  it. And like I said at the beginning, streaming has its benefits.
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  You don't have to, you know, drive out in the cold. You
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  can watch anything at any point. But I think you miss some of that
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  social interaction. I think you missed when you go to a local shop,
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  you know, mom and pop, you know rental store. You miss talking
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  to the guys working behind the counter, he as, you know, what's
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  a movie that you recommend. I loved going to Blockbuster when a new release
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  would come and they'd have seven thousand copies of Titanic, and that's part of
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  the reason as to why Blockbuster's not around. Just poor business decisions, but
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  getting a new release on the day that it's released was a thing of pure
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  beauty. So I would love to go back to that time, but unfortunately
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  you can't go back in time, but you can still relive the past.
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  And there's no more powerful drug in the world than nostalgia. This has been
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  film real. Thank you all for listening so long.