Ep. 48 Make It a Blockbuster Night

Join me and writer/producer Armando Chapman as these two former clerks reminisce about the old days. 

Remember the magic of walking into a Blockbuster on a Friday night? That familiar scent of popcorn, the neon blue and yellow signage, the rows upon rows of gleaming VHS tapes just waiting to be picked up and taken home for the weekend... this episode is our love letter to those golden days. We take you back in time, reminiscing about our memories from behind the counter as former Blockbuster employees, sharing the vibrant Friday nights where the weekend truly began for many movie lovers. We'll explore our personal experiences with the popular culture of the 90s, and the way Blockbuster shaped our love for movies.

Ever wondered how a mammoth like Blockbuster fell? We take a deep dive into the turbulent journey of this video rental giant, and discuss the effects of digital streaming platforms like Netflix, which played a significant role in its downfall. We'll also reflect on the impact this transition had on the movie industry as a whole. From the bustling aisles of Blockbuster to the comfort of streaming movies on our couch, we reflect on the drastic shift in our movie-watching habits.

Nostalgia enthusiasts, movie buffs and anyone looking for a trip down memory lane, this episode is for you. We discuss our fondness for the tangible aesthetics of video tapes, the charm of movie box covers, and the thrill of picking out a movie for the night. We also delve into the evolution of exploitation films and the recollections of our trips to Disneyland. So sit back, relax, and join us as we take you on a nostalgic journey to the bygone era of Blockbuster and the iconic films of the 90s.

Transcript

Opening/Ad: 0:05

எi Ra R. What, what a difference. Blockbuster video. I've never seen 10,000 tapes in one store. There's so much kid stuff and I can keep them for three evenings Now.

Armando: 0:41

this is a video store.

Opening/Ad: 0:43

Ordinary video stores don't even come close to blockbuster video. You've just got to see it to know what we need. Wow, wow, wow, what. What a difference blockbuster video. Come discover the blockbuster difference, Wow.

Vito: 0:59

Fucking face. So, hopefully, alright, we'll see. We'll see what happens here, but it's Friday and we decided to make it a blockbuster night.

Armando: 1:07

Oh, I know it's funny. I was going to say Friday night, man, I remember a time that I worked Friday night. Oh man, Friday night was like the night, you know.

Vito: 1:16

Yeah, yeah me too, so we were both ex blockbuster employees, and you were longer than I have, though.

Armando: 1:24

Yeah, I started there I want to say in 1999, like I remember it was right out of high school, but not that far out of high school.

Vito: 1:34

We're at.

Armando: 1:35

Yeah, so I got a job and this was in Clovis, california, so it was up in like near Fresno, okay, and you know, even more of a place where, like shit, the only thing you know that was where the night started. You know that was where the weekend started. It was at blockbuster every Friday night. So I like that Awesome. So you, you only were. Oh, so no, I worked in from 99 to like about 2005.

Vito: 2:00

I want to say yeah, that was a few years you've been there. I was there from 99 and then I I'd like 2000. Like, I was there for less than a year probably. I just, yeah, I worked in Tampa, florida, it's where I was. It was my first left Pittsburgh and my brother Joe and I, we were just rolling around like bums while we were in Tampa, our friend was living there. They were like, oh look, I took a blockbuster video. I was like, oh, this is awesome, that's where it was.

Opening/Ad: 2:26

I was like, yeah, this is awesome.

Vito: 2:27

It's been like, oh, this is awesome, yeah. But I was like you know, I don't know, I'm not in here because I'm not in here, I'm in here, I'm not in there because I'm not in here, I'm not in here because I'm not in here, and that's where I was working for a while. But I have to tell you I have a little bit of a grudge on blockbuster, of course. It like the mall of movies, you know, and I walked in and it was like no porn section, the horror section sucked. It was like, yeah, I was like this was as cool as I thought it was going to be. You know, wasn't the movie Mecca? It was not, but I still had to work there. When I moved there in Florida, I was like, well, fuck it, let's get a blockbuster, yeah.

Armando: 3:06

I mean there were worse ways to turn a buck, for sure, especially as you were a young person at that time. I mean blockbusters, I think, started or it opened in 80s. I want to say it opened in Texas, like I feel like it was like a Dallas or like a Fort.

Vito: 3:20

Worth yeah, there's that documentary that talks about the making, like the whole beginning of it.

Armando: 3:25

And that's always a trip to that that they had the last blockbuster in Portland, right or just outside in there it's in Bend, oregon, and Chris Deviskey and I have been there before.

Vito: 3:36

That's right.

Armando: 3:37

How was it?

Vito: 3:40

It's like it's a little shitty strip mall type thing Like it doesn't have like that cool, you know.

Armando: 3:45

But how long ago was that that you went?

Vito: 3:48

I think 2019 or 2018. It was right before the pandemic.

Armando: 3:53

We went oh, I bet the pandemic closed that shit down. No, it's still open, Is it Now?

Vito: 3:57

I don't know if this is all the same stuff, but back in the day, the only reason this one stayed open is because Russell Crowe is paying for it. Shut up and there is actually when you go in there is like like a lot of celebrity autographs, but in the middle of the blockbuster there's a lot of like Russell Crowe artifacts.

Armando: 4:14

That's reason enough to close.

Vito: 4:15

Now, I'm just kidding. There's like his trunks from like Cinderella may added Like there's like all this Russell Crowe stuff in there.

Armando: 4:22

Wow, that's random. I mean that does. I guess that's not much different than like Tarantino with his Art House theaters here in LA, I guess.

Vito: 4:30

But yeah, I mean it's kind of cool to keep it open.

Armando: 4:35

At least the Art House theaters have like an analog function, an in-person function, and you know that you can't really replicate, but that's so interesting.

Vito: 4:47

I just think they should still have VHSs if they're going to stay open Like the DVD thing doesn't really work. That whole thing about blockbuster is the VHS. So I think I wish it was all VHSs they had in there. That had been a lot cooler. But it's mostly DVDs. When you go in You're like that's true, yeah.

Armando: 5:05

There's something less like, there's something more mass made about the DVDs. And I think for me I remember when I worked there, when I first started, there were still tapes but there were few and far between and then by the time I was done there it was all DVDs and we had gotten rid of tapes. But I remember, I remember the Titanic, double the box of tape. And that was before even there were DVDs, so it was always a tape and I remember Scarface had that too, the two tapes and the one case the two tapes.

Vito: 5:37

Yeah.

Armando: 5:38

Remember the driver's ed tapes they had? Oh no, oh my God, so okay. Well, you know, it was crazy because I got. I first got hired by a blockbuster here or not here, but in up north, in Central Cali, bovis, and then when I moved to LA, which was like in 2001 or so, maybe it was 2000,. 2001, I was able to transfer somehow to a couple stores here in Long Beach and I remember when I got here that blew me away. They, it was like yeah, you know, we have these video cassettes and they're like driver's ed and and like if you ever get a ticket that you need to do traffic school for blockbuster used to have traffic school videos that counted. They were like the legit videos, you know.

Armando: 6:24

There was like a set of five or six of them, you know, and it was a lot of bulky tapes, that yeah, and they had to be rented out and dropped back on and we used to tell these motherfuckers, do not, if you put this through the tape rent return slot, you will be fine. The cost of it, because it was like a stack of four or five tapes in individual boxes, all taped together, you know like, or taped together with like a double-sided tape to hold these four together, you know, and tapes, for fuck's sake tapes, you know VHS tapes, and people would break them apart or they'd open them up and just try and they'd break the the clamshells, shoving it through. And it's like you, idiot.

Vito: 7:05

Oh man.

Armando: 7:07

Then they'd get and I used to love doing I will admit everyone's gonna people. Hopefully people won't think it's obnoxious but like I, because I used to love, you know, getting to charge off asshole customers that I knew had been like an asshole to me or an asshole to my friend or something, and you had their credit card and on Monday morning you'd be like fuck you, I'm going to charge you. Oh, you owe $50 in late fees, sir. Oh, I'm sorry.

Vito: 7:30

You know, and we would always get angry. Yeah, I have a. I have a confession to make that that only Joe and a couple other people know. But so, yeah, I was there in 99 as well, when VHS was going away and DVDs came in. Well, dvds were like I was like mind blowing to me, right. So I was like this is fucking amazing. So I just got a DVD player and I was poor, you know, and I couldn't afford to buy all these movies and I had so many VHSs. I'm like fuck, you know. So my roommate at the time would come in and rent movies and we just started getting DVDs. It was just a classic like 2001 and Ailey and the clock or four, and just like awesome movies. So I'd go in there and I would like point to my room and I'm like, grab that, grab those movies. So he would come in and rent some VHSs and I would just toss the DVDs in the bag too.

Armando: 8:19

I don't know where they went, like I don't know what happened but yeah, could you do that inventory once a month, did you?

Opening/Ad: 8:26

have to do that.

Armando: 8:27

Oh yeah, I fucking. That's why I hated it.

Vito: 8:29

I thought I was going to hang out watch movies, like in clerks, you know, and I didn't know it was like some corporation, like working at Best Buy or something. I was like fuck.

Armando: 8:35

Oh my God, yeah, it was super fucking corporate yeah it was man, it was not cool. Yeah, that shit was a nightmare. And I remember like you stepped to count the candy, the candies and shit. You know you used to count like the. I remember being like, okay, do you want me to count the popcorn kernels and the tub too? Like what the fuck? It was so tedious and and they were stuff that like well, yeah, of course that got stolen. You know like little shit, I know.

Vito: 9:04

You know, I don't know, but oh, you did like two in the morning and all that. I was like that a fucking wreck. Lucky, yeah, right, right. So I you know, but you mentioned to me you're like, what movies stood out like while you worked there, because those were like walls of movies you had to stare at all the time and sometimes there was like one wall like painted a box cover. That was just like you know a hundred of one type, you know.

Armando: 9:30

I feel like for me it was more of what studios at that time I was. You know, obviously I had a little time to think about it and I was thinking like how to even like add even another sort of filter on it. And I remember when I worked there during those years, it was the years of Miramax. It was, miramax was the like, the art house was the. You know, miramax was the A24. Yeah, of its time, at least in the early 2000s, which is when I worked there, and and so I remember a lot of like Harvey Weinstein inspired or Harvey Weinstein concocted movie covers, you know, which that the movies that from when I worked at the stick out the most to me would be Chicago is one. Chicago was from 2002 and it was sort of the return of the musical.

Armando: 10:30

The musical had been gone for like nobody. Nobody paid to make a musical in like 20 years, 25 years.

Vito: 10:38

You know it's not a serious blow up.

Armando: 10:40

Right. And I remember, I remember being like, well, this is actually. I remember seeing that and at that time thinking like, oh, I can I get it, I get the Oscar buzz, I understand, and for me it was the by far and away best movie for that year. And then I remember sort of I had always been aware of the Oscars, but that was sort of a big one I remember from that particular time period. And then the other one, which I think was also a Miramax one that I really loved, was a movie called Quills you ever see.

Vito: 11:11

Quills. I never saw it. I know exactly what it is.

Armando: 11:14

Oh man, this movie is wild, it's not. It's not as out there as, say, possession, you know right, which is like it's hard. It's kind of my standard now. It's kind of like how wild is it? Is it Possession? Is it like a narrative I can follow?

Vito: 11:34

the story.

Armando: 11:34

Exactly Follow the story, but Quills was from 2000, maybe 2001. And it's, it's. It's about the Marquis de Sade. So you know, give you time to. If you don't know who that is, google, just Google, not why you're at work. Don't Google Marquis de Sade casually. No, and it was with Kate Winslet and Joaquin Phoenix, who I forgot was in that I had to look that one up again. And and Jeffrey Rush plays the Marquis de Sade and he's, he's in, he's, he's imprisoned in a Catholic. It's a period piece, obviously. He's imprisoned in a Catholic, like insane asylum or like a sanitarium, you know. And Kate Winslet is the buxom laundry maid that goes around, you know, in like 18, in like 18th century France, with her top half off and her hair in a. You know, like in. She's like a laundry maid, you know. But she's like supple and and dewy and like like really horny, I feel like.

Vito: 12:43

Oh, I love it.

Armando: 12:44

Gets her horny? I think no, she. It's just like a real sexual picture. You know it's a very, very sexual picture and and.

Vito: 12:52

I remember seeing the box cover all the time right, yeah, yeah. That shot right here in the, let's say, jeffrey. Rush, jeffrey Rush, like, like, almost like a vampire behind that embrace he has her in, yeah, yeah, and she looks.

Armando: 13:08

I don't know any other way to describe the besides the word supple. She looks like, you know, DTXDTF, and that's the story. You know she's, she's like this forbidden Thirsty. Yeah, she's like the forbidden, you know, and I don't want to keep one. Yeah, I mean, you know we killed a movie here.

Vito: 13:27

I mean 20 years to watch it.

Armando: 13:29

Exactly she, you know, I know right. So she kind of represents innocence, I want to say, because she is slain. You know, at the end nobody actually, and all the men want to sleep with her. Jeffrey Rush, obviously, but he's the Marquis de Sade, so he's, he wants to sleep with everybody. And Joaquin Phoenix plays like a priest, I think, or he plays like a young, you know priest in training, I don't know, and he wants to sleep with her. And and then all of the insane people who she does their laundry, like these, you know, she literally scrubs shit out of their you know their sheets and stuff, and they, and there's always beheadings, they keep beheading people, like people keep getting their head chopped off and it's very sensual to like it's it's all a movie.

Armando: 14:19

It's a lot of movie. I would say it's a lot of bank for your buck if you have a chance to see it. And oh and quills refers to the feathered quills that they use to use to write. And that's the whole. Oh, OK, got it. Yeah, so that's the whole motif is that the she smuggles the mark. So the Marquis de Sade is in an insane asylum and there's, there's all this lore and gossip that, oh, you know his writings drove a housewife to kill herself, you know, mad with desire and all this stuff, and so he's supposed to be prohibited from from writing any of his madness, his rantings, his ravings. And she's constantly Kate Winslet, she's constantly smuggling him in his quills and his parchment. You know it's very dramatic and 18th century, you know it's. It's it's like dangerous liaisons. That was the movie.

Armando: 15:14

I would say it reminds me of a production design. Wise it's. It's very good, it's a good movie.

Vito: 15:21

You know, because I keep thinking about the layout of Blockbuster. You know when you do have these walls and then when the big movie comes out, there's like 50 copies of one section right, so I remember out of it.

Armando: 15:33

I want a rain check.

Vito: 15:35

Oh, and I hated when there was a good movie and there was only like two or three copies of it. And then when they get some garbage movie and it's like a 50 copy section. And I remember when I first walked into like any Adam Seller movie has just covered the walls, you know. But when I walked into Blockbuster my first day of work, one side of the wall was covered with one movie and the other end of the wall was covered with another side of the movie and I was like fuck, here we go. This is not going to be. If we had an American pie, oh God, that white box cover. So it was like this white sheet.

Vito: 16:08

You know you look over, you see that you're like, oh God. You know everyone's always renting it and you judge people that come to the counter with these movies.

Opening/Ad: 16:17

You know this is like the beginning of me being like a crazy cinephile, you know.

Vito: 16:21

So I was always judging people like oh God, you're renting fucking patch. Adams or, like you know, whatever crap. So one side was American pie and the other side was Wild Wild West.

Armando: 16:32

Oh my God, I can see it already.

Vito: 16:36

It's just garbage. Movie heaven here. You know, I love it yeah.

Armando: 16:39

And I feel like I saw Jim Carrey very often on that wall. Yeah, large repetition, you know, yeah.

Vito: 16:47

Austin Powers another one, yeah, oh that's right.

Armando: 16:50

You mentioned that one, austin Powers, when that second one came out.

Vito: 16:53

I think it was the second one. When that came out, we us, when I was working there, when he came on video Beyonce, that was the one with Heather Graham.

Armando: 17:00

Oh, that's right. Yeah, that second one.

Vito: 17:01

Yeah, the second one was huge and I remember when I worked at Blockbuster they had. The news came in and our boss was dressed up like Austin Powers. I was so embarrassed I was like just don't be on the news. That sounds like I avoided the cameras the whole time.

Armando: 17:17

That sounds like Empire Records. It kind of sounds like Rex Manning. Hey, and there were movies like I will say, there was a woman. I mean, obviously I have no idea what happened to any of these people, but there was a young woman, Her name was Tara. When I worked up in in in Clovis, in Fresno, Clovis area, and I'll never forget, because I mean I was not like, well, obviously this was like 20, 20 years ago, you know so.

Armando: 17:48

I was not like as versed as I was. I'll never forget I was. She was like you know, tara, like the like the, the plantation in Gone with the Wind. I was just like you know, like, like, just like, what are you? Huh, I'll remember that. And I remember getting to know John Waters. That was when I'd never known who, I'd never heard of John Waters before working at Blockbuster. And I remember Tara was like, oh my God, she sent me home with like polyester and living yeah.

Armando: 18:19

She was like oh, you have to get hip to this, that and the other. So it was always cool, like getting to meet somebody that like to share it, pass it on to you, you know and all, and be like, oh, if you like this, then to me that was really the experience of that was to me, the most enjoyable part. I feel like we're working at Blockbuster. It wasn't? You know, all the fucking paperwork and the balancing of the drawer and all this like right you know, or or the crazy, like there would be fight sometimes over movies.

Vito: 18:49

But you know California, though, so you really have more of like movie people around you. When I was doing it in Florida was a whole other game. In fact, the only real story I have of working at Blockbuster was one day I was there and there was this older woman who was renting a movie and there was a wrestling movie we were watching. Anytime I could find like some stupid. I think I put on like body slam or something. Anyway, I put on like a like an 80s wrestling movie, like yes, something goofy.

Vito: 19:15

And I'm watching this old lady sitting there watching it with me and she starts talking about wrestling to me and I'm like, okay, you know, I was laughing about it. And then she's like, well, my son's a wrestler. And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool, that's cool. And then she said it again. I was like, well, who's your son? And she's like Hulk Hogan and I was like, oh really, I was like I didn't really believe her or anything. And then, uh, uh, then she leaves and you got to think at the time I'm like in my early twenties I never met a celebrity before. So even just saying that was like get the fuck out of here, you know, tell me it really was the next day, actually I say about a week later.

Vito: 19:46

I walk into work and they're like here's a package for you in the back, and uh, she came back into there and brought me an autograph photo of Hulk two of them and uh, and it was like to veto from the Hulkster and I was like God damn, I was like I still have it I was like I was gonna say you still have it.

Armando: 20:01

Yeah, hell, yeah, hell, yeah. So that was like something more valuable about that. Like, in my opinion, the value of having that is that you've got it from that, from his mom at block. Yeah, you know what I mean, cause you know it was so cool.

Vito: 20:16

I was like how's?

Armando: 20:17

it, the fact that I was like the even believer.

Vito: 20:19

She was laughing at me. I didn't believe her and it was Exactly.

Armando: 20:22

I would have been like uh-huh Right, lady Sure, I never met anyone before.

Vito: 20:26

I didn't know anything. You know it was like and where was this.

Armando: 20:29

This was in Tampa. This was Tampa, florida.

Vito: 20:31

Cause Tampa? Which I found out later? Cause this is where I first got into movie making. You know, from like stunts or whatever. He's got into it pretty hard when I was living in Florida and I found out later that it was like it's like the Mecca for wrestling. So the very first short film I ever directed I was um, uh, we were, we were at some like wrestling school because they had a cool backdrop. All of a sudden this car pulls up and macho man gets out and I was like he comes over and he's like what's up, brother?

Vito: 20:56

And I was like holy fuck. I was like what's up dude? Cool as shit. He was sitting there talking to all of us watching us film and then they got in their car and then took off and I was like God damn, macho man showed up. But yeah, you always saw wrestlers hanging out. So my brother, joe, always ran the Hogan and just out the bars and stuff. You run into these guys and it was kind of wild.

Armando: 21:16

That's fucking wild yeah.

Vito: 21:18

Because Tampa was next to this small town called Gibsonton and it's the circus capital of the world. Do you ever hear of lobster boy and all those people? No, oh, just Google lobster boy after that?

Opening/Ad: 21:30

What do you think I'm doing?

Vito: 21:31

He's kind of a cult legend, yeah, and there's, yeah, there's an each Hollywood story on his dad that, oh, it's crazy, crazy stuff.

Opening/Ad: 21:37

But it's a huge circus town.

Vito: 21:39

Yeah, it's like a circus family where there's a murder and like they're kind of like they were disformed at birth so they have like these lobster hands and it's just a crazy circus family with like wild background. But Tampa was just this weird place because wrestling has like a circus thing going with it a little bit, so this they all kind of I saw. What I kind of liked about Tampa was like I love, like you know, the whole circus mentality, so that was the area. So when I work at blockbuster there would be the weirdest people would show up once in a while like a bearded lady one time, right then a movie. I was like this is fucking awesome. You know I love circus freaks.

Armando: 22:16

Now, that's just like public school. Get it, cut that out. Don't leave it, leaving it.

Vito: 22:27

Oh Jesus, that's funny.

Opening/Ad: 22:29

But yeah, it's just a weird.

Vito: 22:30

it's such a cool little area for that, but that was by only like celebrity. When I move out here you see a left and right, but at the time it was like call Coke and small man I met all yeah, I know Anything cool ever happened at your place, so you're a blockbuster.

Armando: 22:46

Not any celebs at all, because I don't know anything. I think God. No, not while I was there. Fuck man, I almost forgot that did happen, though, but not while, thank God, I wasn't there. It happened like on a night, at least once. I remember a different night when I think God was. You did get robbed there.

Armando: 23:05

Yeah, I remember one here in Long Beach that I worked at did, and then the one of the ones up in Fresno that I had worked at, same thing, though Like I had, I wasn't working and fortunately I wasn't like a manager at either of them when they, when that happened, like I, didn't become like a supervisor until I got down here at a Long Beach and, oh my God, I you know what I will say, you know what I can't believe. I forgot that for me, the most crazy thing, I would say, was the arrival of Netflix you know it was oh yeah.

Vito: 23:40

Well, blockbuster had the same thing too going for a while. Remember that.

Armando: 23:43

And that's the thing is. I feel like it was such a weird. It was like watching a slow death you know, it was like watching a slow car and it's like, yeah, it's just, it's just like watching water dry, in other words, like it's inevitable, it's going to happen.

Armando: 24:02

You know, it's just watching something so obvious. When they said you can rent as many DVDs as you want and for as long as you want, I think what people who worked at Blockbuster, myself included, didn't really like understand or fathom was that, if I remember correctly, it was something like 40, maybe 45 percent of Blockbuster's revenue Someone told me one time was late fees was, you know, the casual late fee, not even like the big amounts that would get charged off Sometimes that people that we did the company would just never get to sometimes successfully charge someone screen. How easy it is to give a card that expires, you know, or right, right, it all comes down to the credit card and being able to charge it off. But I mean, aside from that, like just the casual $10 here, $5 there, $20, you know, I feel like when I was there, a late fee it was just such an accepted, it was just like, oh yeah, how many would I owe in late fees?

Armando: 25:07

People would come up and they would just assume and they'd be ready to pay whatever their late fee was plus whatever to rent the movies. And so when, when, when Netflix came, or when it kind of showed up one Christmas, you know, or whatever it was. It was like huh, yeah. I remember being like what do you mean? You can't send these DVDs by mail. And I remember being like getting using Netflix for the first time and I was like holy shit.

Armando: 25:32

You can like these DVDs, ain't shit, you know? Which I think goes back to what you were saying about. Like even the difference between obviously like their celluloid film, for example, and then there's digital. Similarly, I think, there's like VHS tapes and then there's DVDs with that. The DVDs can be sent by mail and on mass you know, very cheaply yeah. Yeah, they're not some. Sure, we don't want them scratched, you know, but they still play and they're not some precious commodity. And then, god you know, once Netflix was able to stream something, oh Lord.

Vito: 26:06

Lord Jesus help me.

Armando: 26:08

It was like you smell that. Yeah, that's your house on fire. You know you better fucking do something, because it would happen?

Vito: 26:15

Did something happen where Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy them and they didn't?

Armando: 26:19

Yeah, yeah, I think, and that's pretty well documented among God anybody with Google, you know. But anybody who's documented that, that demise of this company. There was an offer on the table from Ted Sarandos and the other guy. God, this had to be. I mean, it couldn't have been any later than 2002, maybe 2003, you know because, because Netflix, I want to say I mean I'm just guessing here, just based on my memory, because I remember the first thing that came was that, that infernal, godforsaken movie, past thing. You remember that?

Vito: 26:53

I don't know if you remember that that was the dumbest thing ever.

Armando: 26:55

So stupid. It was like one of those nails in the coffin or one of those pieces of writing on the wall. That was like God damn, you can't even like keep your late fees anymore, because that company straight up told everybody late fees, no, that's no, we're not doing that, no more. You want to hold on to this DVD for the entire month? Okay, yeah, when that happened it was like oh shit, you know, and Blockbuster, I feel like, was left totally flat footed. You know they couldn't. There's nothing.

Vito: 27:29

That's what they get.

Armando: 27:29

They had that monopoly for years on everybody and they could have bought that company in the crib, as they say, or you know or at the very least delayed it and maybe had some kind of better impact on the whole. Because then it's like to me it was inevitable like, oh man, just wait till they can stream it directly to our, our, whatever. You didn't have to have an iPhone or have like even a smart flip phone to tell like it's just getting better, like another, eventually even these DVDs aren't going to, won't even need those, and yeah, and I remember, remember it was like every.

Armando: 28:04

There was like that one, chris, again that one Black Friday, where, like all of a sudden, the DVD players that came out that one Black Friday or whatever that year I'm sure, was all of a sudden they had now had Netflix as a button on the remote and you could stream that shit directly. And that was the end. That the the the Netflix DVD itself thing, that DVD sent to your home by mail, was the first nail, and then the dirt on the coffin was the streaming Cause.

Opening/Ad: 28:34

Then it was like now we don't even need to go into fuck.

Armando: 28:37

What Black Western.

Vito: 28:38

I know, and the variety that you get to choose from is great nowadays. But the one thing I do feel that's gone, not just the nostalgia of it all is like so not all of us that aren't from New York or LA didn't get to have like that 42nd street memory thing where it's just like we get to go to the theater all the time, watch all these old movies. Like a lot of us it was those really the mom and pops, but it was going to the video store. Going to the video store, going through those movies. The selection of the movie was important. You only had two days to watch everything you rented. You have to get it back.

Vito: 29:09

I mean, I remember so many movies that I rented just at like those you know, in Delmont Pennsylvania. That's where I saw like 90% of the horror films that I know of have been because of that place. You know it's the blockbuster might have not have had that type of selection. It might definitely be the mainstream Hollywood version of the video store, but at least you got to go in and have an experience like if you don't have a good movie theater.

Armando: 29:35

Yeah, for sure, and I feel like, yeah, that it was. It was definitely like a ship sailing, two ships in the night or whatever. The best analogy is where, like, there was a moment in time where where they could have really at least had a more of a of an effect on their own fate. You know, like they blockbuster was just left to be absorbed by. A blockbuster was always these when I worked there was always owned by CBS.

Armando: 30:05

Oh okay, biocom, yeah, blockbuster, I remember we. I remember it was like we always got a lot more you know paramount stuff or like you know stuff from CBS or big brother going to kind of like CBS properties, because, yeah, blockbuster was owned by Biocom. I remember that Okay and you know I was going to say that I in just in thinking about it now after talking with you about it, I do. I think that I enjoyed the experience of working at blockbuster just a little bit more when it was in the smaller town in Central Cali. I feel like it was a little bit maybe that's two because I wasn't a supervisor like. I became a like eventually like a supervisor and like the assistant manager.

Armando: 30:50

Once you know, you work long enough down here in Long Beach, so maybe that was to an. Oh God, I had the worst I had. This weirdo Disney manager was weird. I got a. I had actually worked at Disneyland before. I had worked at Disneyland in between like transferring blockbuster driver. I remember how, where, how did I get? Well, I fit Disneyland in there some, and I hated working there. And I'll never forget there was I'm not going to say her name and you know, there's no way, she's the science I know. I don't know her last name, her name was April and she sucked so bad. She had moved here from you know wherever you know fly over country and and she was obsessed with Disney. She was so obsessed with Disney and she would go to Disneyland all of the time. And I remember I'll never forget, like when I first met her on her first day there, I had said something shitty I had. I had like disparaged Disney or something because I was like they sucked to work for them.

Armando: 31:47

But I, you know, I was like working in the park I had, you know, I was like a child, you know, and so of course I had a bunch of you know crappy things to say about working for Disney and specifically Disneyland. Oh, she never forgave me and she always had it out for me, this chick. She always like, gave me those shittiest schedules and gave me the worst people. You know where it was like, oh my god, I got to close at that person. That person's so stupid, or you know that's what happened to me.

Vito: 32:14

And then one day I remember early 20s I'm like it's a little prick, but like after a while they kept giving me a shitty schedule and they kept making me work. On Sundays I went to watch football all the time, they just fucking with me.

Opening/Ad: 32:24

So one day.

Vito: 32:25

I was on break and I was like fuck this place, I never coming back.

Opening/Ad: 32:28

And.

Vito: 32:28

I just fucking got my car. I took off my stupid ass blockbuster shirt and threw it on the parking lot. I took off.

Armando: 32:34

You went and watched football. You went home. That shit pissed me off.

Vito: 32:38

It's like oh god, that place.

Armando: 32:43

I love it. Oh, that's awesome, but like they were, that's what's tough, though.

Vito: 32:48

It's like a place that you know it's movies. It's like working anywhere. It's like working at a music store and not being around musicians. It's like you kind of want to. You don't have to be a want to be a movie maker or a writer or anything. You have like at least a cinephile that have that. Yeah, that sucks.

Armando: 33:03

At least exactly and like. The people that didn't survive were the ones that couldn't talk about the movies they saw and they gave you remember, they remember we got five free movie rentals a week. You know they didn't accumulate, which that was smart on them. You know it's like damn. You remember to tell your employees not that, like they're, five free rentals a week, don't accumulate. Or, in other words, if you only got right right can't rent seven next week.

Armando: 33:27

But you didn't. You remember to stiff your employees there, but you didn't think to buy Netflix when you had the chance.

Vito: 33:35

I know morons.

Armando: 33:36

So, yeah, I see. So it's like if you couldn't talk about your the movies that you watched, even if it was just to say, man, I didn't like that movie and here's why. Or like, oh, man, of all the movies I watched, this one was the best one and I feel like the. Yeah, it was really cool when there was people who, I remember, you know I would act annoyed when, like, somebody would call me when I wasn't there because somebody came by wanting to know what I thought of a certain movie. Or, like you know, a customer was like, well, you know, leave him this note and ask him, you know, what he thought of this movie and if this movie is any good. And yeah, it was cool.

Armando: 34:11

Like people would would come during they come during my shifts, you know, to see what I was, would have recommended, you know, or I put something aside for somebody that I thought you know what. You don't get this, get that. It was. You know, like the cheesy training videos, you know like, yeah, I worked at one here, belmont Shore in Long Beach and like an old bank.

Armando: 34:34

It was like an old firehouse or an old big, big, huge yeah.

Vito: 34:38

it was like yeah, I just was in some like shithole part of Tampa that we had our place, but I just, I don't know, I wish, I wish it definitely was more of. I mean, I was definitely like, within like the first couple of weeks I was definitely the horror movie guy when I was there, like people would come home. That's cool, that's a horror movie to watch. And I'd be honest, I was like nothing in this place is any good. You got to find a mom and pop place for good horror. That was the role it always was, you know.

Armando: 35:04

Oh yeah, the horror section was so tiny at any at any one point. It was safe.

Vito: 35:08

It was safe you could find those little, those little gems like oh, I couldn't believe this movie exists, you know, you can't find that blockbuster.

Armando: 35:16

Exactly, yes, very, very that. I think it was the stuff that, like Wes Craven, eventually, by the time I worked at Blockbuster it was like, yeah, ok, did Wes Craven do it? Sure, do that. Put it up there Right, Like it'd be Wishmasters and yeah, just real mainstream horror affair, yeah, which I think you know which yeah, watch what you want, it's all good. I mean, yeah, absolutely, but you're not going to find anything with like a point of view.

Vito: 35:42

I would say You're not going to find anything at least like original. When you're going out seeking a movie, Like sometimes you can see people like they're coming there to rent the movie to shut their family up. Some people are going to watch whatever reason, right. And then there's these people who are like those seekers who are trying to find that movie and I'm like don't come to Blockbuster if you're one of those, Because I was one of those guys. I'd go to whatever video store and like find something that like, oh, this is fucking, you know, and there's a few gems.

Armando: 36:07

Blockbuster killed them, killed the mom in pops, yeah.

Vito: 36:10

Definitely in the cities, you know. Luckily I was in, like you know, western PA, yeah, like ours were there until at least until I moved in 99.

Armando: 36:19

Why did? Why did movies cost so much? Why did like VHS tapes, specifically VHS tapes? Remember it was like yeah, they're like 100 something bucks. They were like, exactly, they were several hundred dollars.

Vito: 36:31

Because at the beginning remember, because I remember at the I was a couple years older than you I remember the very beginning of like the invention not the invention of VHS, but when it became like for the home, like rental, buy them and everything yeah, I was like, oh shit. And video stores came out. I couldn't believe it, and that's when I first heard of a movie costing like a hundred something dollars. But what happened was they were just doing that to control the money that was being made and all that stuff. But what happened was people were stealing movies from the video stores. And that's whenever I think it was Warner Brothers was the first people to do this, but they ended up just selling a movie outright to the public. I don't know if it was movie, it was but they started selling movies outright for like 20, $30 on VHS.

Armando: 37:10

And then that changed that whole thing and then Blockbuster started doing used that they're used to the use Yep, yep. Oh man, okay, I can't lie. I cannot lie. I did get me some good. What did we call it? It was shrunk shrinkage. I got me some, some, some stuff that fell off the back of the of the preview previously viewed truck.

Vito: 37:31

I was going to say you cannot work at Blockbuster video without you know, pad, Don't still the new shit. I mean, come on.

Armando: 37:37

Don't still the new shit, because that stuff is still in one part of the inventory.

Armando: 37:41

You don't want to mess with that, but any day now and I used to love that was I would love to see on the calendar, like when certain movies were going to be PPV, you know, previous the played video, and I would always be like, okay, like if there was a good, if it was a movie that I really liked, I would always set a good copy aside and wait till it went on PPV and be like okay, this is my copy, that's the one I'm buying at my discount, and also here's a few more that I'm stealing.

Vito: 38:11

And I bought anything. I bought one thing and took like 12 other things with me, whatever. That's just what happens when you're young.

Armando: 38:20

It's like always, always grabbing one of those on your break. You know like yeah, okay, yeah, I bought it. I sure I'll buy it later, you know, you just like do you remember the very first VHS tape you've ever watched? Ooh, the ever watched.

Vito: 38:35

Yeah, like you're at home and your mom or dad brought it home, or somebody's like hey, let's watch ET. Or like what was the first time?

Armando: 38:41

Honestly, I think it was the Twilight Zone.

Vito: 38:45

Oh, the movie or the show.

Armando: 38:46

Remember the Twilight. I distinctly remember watching the Twilight. Yeah, yeah, the movie that. Oh, last movie featuring Vic Moro.

Vito: 38:58

Oh, the great Vic Moro. Oh yeah, that's, that's all. That's pretty cool.

Armando: 39:02

I remember distinctly as a young kid, that being a movie we had, maybe even on beta you know, it was like I remember seeing that at home, though on on the machine they had, that we had.

Vito: 39:14

Yeah, I remember when my dad, we first got a VHS player and I'm, like you know, just staring at it or whatever. I'm all at numb, little like five year old idiot or whatever. My dad came back with his one friend from the video store and they got Billy Jack.

Armando: 39:28

Billy.

Vito: 39:29

Jack, the top law.

Armando: 39:31

No what was Billy.

Vito: 39:32

If you look at up Billy Jack, it's from the 70s. It's just. It's ridiculous. That was on tape. Yeah, my very first tape I ever watched in my life was Billy Jack Nice.

Vito: 39:42

And so your dad had like rented that or had yeah he came rented it and that was like the mid 80s and I remember I knew we just rented. And then I remember I think the very first VHS that I owned was Batman Tim Burton's Batman and then, like, once in a while, we would own them. But yeah, we really just rented and then taped off movies off HBO.

Armando: 40:05

Yeah.

Vito: 40:06

Remember that was what you did. You sat around and tape movies and my friend, jamie Miller, had the biggest HBO tape collection. Like just like movies off HBO, like hard bodies and blade runner. All those like you know, t and A flex and HBO and put on everything before skin have actually got out there Just like a beta collection of taped movies.

Armando: 40:26

It was awesome, you know remember you would put the tape on the oh my God. You put the little piece of tape on the little square in the back and that was how you could tape over. Yeah, you're not.

Vito: 40:37

So what me and my brothers used to do is we would like totally Frankenstein out was we go to the video store, we would rent a movie and then we would unscrew the whole VHS apart, take the tape out, put it in another VHS, take that out and put it in the movie we were stealing and then we returned the video to renting like ET or something. The next person that would get it would get like a porn.

Armando: 41:05

That's fucked up. I love it.

Vito: 41:07

It was bad. We were bad, you know, but I remember doing that. The first time we did it, we rented the movie Fire in the Sky.

Armando: 41:13

Remember that UFO movie.

Vito: 41:16

We rented Fire in the Sky. They were like I want to keep this so. I'm going to give somebody else this stupid tape. Whatever it was, I don't remember it. I just kind of did like a little surgery and swap tapes. That's just taking the sticker off and doing it that way, I literally unscrewed everything.

Armando: 41:30

How did you not break the cassette?

Vito: 41:33

It's almost exactly like a little audio tape. You unscrew it and you just lift it off and you just lay it in and just thread it through and it fits in.

Armando: 41:41

Yeah, Well, it had the same mechanism for recording over it as regular audio tape you put a little piece of tape on the little square in the back. Damn we're old.

Vito: 41:51

It still fascinates me how a VHS works. I get DVDs and Blu-rays and how all this digital stuff works, but a tape. I still can't see how that image came on there. Yeah.

Armando: 42:02

Remember the tracking near to fix the tracking on it. It was like the magnet in it.

Vito: 42:07

It's and that's when people would come to Blockbuster to get pissed off that they'd run a movie that's from like 10 years old and then watched 10,000 times and they're like the tracking's all messed up on this video and I'm like now the only thing.

Armando: 42:23

People still even use anything related to VHS players. Now the more people use the VHS head cleaners for poppers than they do Really.

Vito: 42:32

I still have a VHS player. I still have VHSs, by the way.

Armando: 42:35

And this isn't that kind of podcast, but you do know what that's for right.

Vito: 42:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah, poppers like yeah, yeah yeah.

Armando: 42:43

Okay, I just think it's hilarious now that, like people, more people use popper, use VHS head cleaner as poppers than they ever do anymore for cleaning their VHS player.

Vito: 42:55

Oh, man, that's awesome. More people use it for it's Amelnitre.

Armando: 43:00

I guess that's what they use to cleaner, and what's funny is I never remember using that at Blockbuster.

Opening/Ad: 43:06

I don't either.

Armando: 43:07

I do remember renting out VHS players, though.

Vito: 43:10

Do you remember those? Yes, I do, and I never understood that. I was like what the? Fuck, why don't you just buy a VHS?

Armando: 43:16

They were never expensive and they were like in these cases that had handle, that was like a handle lock on them. I know it was like, oh my God, for the price of renting this machine, plus all the movies, plus the late fees, you could have just bought yourself a new one. At least that's probably the time I started working there.

Vito: 43:33

Yeah, I never got the renting of a VHS player unless, like, something broke at your house, you're having a party and I mean no one understands how big movie nights were back then when it was a VHS player because, like, people would come over and renting this movie and everyone would come over and that would be a big night to VHS's or whatever, and especially the horror.

Armando: 43:57

I was going to say think for anybody that maybe they're too young or maybe just don't remember. Remember the first scream? Remember the movie scream? That was like what they get together for. At the end, when it's the two guys and the very first scream, it's like oh, they all got together watch a fucking movie. That was how it was, yeah.

Vito: 44:19

Yeah, exactly.

Armando: 44:20

That was where the weekend started. It was Friday night blockbuster, friday night the movie store.

Vito: 44:26

Yeah, and that's why I lived right next to a box office video and Delmont PA, and that was like they just had like the perfect movies for us. That's where my whole movie education came from, because they had everything from like Scorsese movies and then they had to slash your flicks, the craziest ones, and that's my mom and dad, both of them together. Those were the movies we watched and I mean, actually I'm kind of thankful we didn't have a blockbuster near us. I probably would have been watching all different movies.

Armando: 44:58

Oh man, yeah, it's crazy. I remember, especially once DVDs were the norm, it became even easier to really get through at least five movies in a week. I feel like with tapes it probably would have been hard. Just the rewinding. Oh man, they're rewinding.

Vito: 45:16

God.

Armando: 45:16

Remember all those there were like those machines that were just for the rewinding. Yeah, the fast rewinder yeah. Fast rewinders and I remember, like, why don't they just make all of the DVD? Why don't they just make all the tape players? These fast rewinders, you know, I know right. Oh my God, do you remember? Like, what was the craziest thing somebody put in the Dropbox? Mine would be a firework, of course, thank you.

Vito: 45:40

You had a firework. Oh, my God, yeah oh somebody put shit one time, of course.

Armando: 45:46

Yeah, you knew that was going to happen.

Vito: 45:47

Thank, God, I didn't have to clean that one.

Armando: 45:49

Yeah, and I feel like that's why I never became like a big, like my own store manager or like you know what I mean.

Vito: 45:56

Cause uh-uh, hell, no, not no man, yeah, you're on, clean up detail pretty much.

Armando: 46:01

I'm not cleaning up vomit or shit or no. Yeah, fuck that Blood. No, no, ma'am, get some of this.

Vito: 46:09

Yeah, I I.

Armando: 46:11

I'm just here to judge all your movie choices. I'm not.

Vito: 46:14

Yeah, I love judging people's movie choices. That was, but I don't know people understood in there In that line you were getting judged that you were renting, oh my.

Armando: 46:21

God, yeah, all the like. If it was like some kind of shit, you said, okay, this is just to shut your kids up, you know.

Vito: 46:28

Oh yeah, yeah, you could always tell the type of person that was you know that's awesome, that was in there. That's.

Armando: 46:35

I remember, um yeah, John Waters had a. It was called a dirty shame and on the cover it had Selma, Selma Blair. Oh yeah, I remember that Norma's tits, Remember, Yep.

Vito: 46:46

Yep.

Armando: 46:47

And there that was on the cover that was blurred there was. There was like uh, r rated and unrated versions. There was a movie I'll never forget because it was so I thought it was so stupid. It was a movie by Jane Campion called In the Cut and it started oh I know, in the Cut, yeah it's, yeah it's, it's. That was probably Meg Ryan's last like big leading role, you know.

Vito: 47:11

Yeah, she disappeared after that.

Armando: 47:13

Yeah, exactly. Well, her face did no, no, yeah, and I remember that one being kind of like a mild hit with, like you know, the older set I think of these old now now.

Armando: 47:25

I am that, set that time being like here you go, lady, watch Unfaithful, it's got Diane Lane. You know there was like before, before 50 shades of gray. There was like, okay, what do I recommend to this person? What do I recommend to the husband? What can I recommend that to the husband that the wife will watch, and and you can always tell like which person in the couple wore the pants. And I have my favorite, my favorite customers that came back from my opinion were always the couples where the girl wore the pants, because there was all like there wasn't many, there wasn't many couples where the girl chose the movie. I know exactly what you're saying, though. Yep, Right.

Vito: 48:04

But when there was. Those are romantic comedy movies. The guy just looks dead in the eyes and just looking at you and you're like sorry, brother.

Armando: 48:12

Sorry, it's legally wand. Sorry, she wins, she wins. Sorry at the end. No, I don't know. You know, and I would try to recommend stuff out of the box for some of those people who were cool. That was that like would come in for your opinion. I'd be like, okay, you can handle this lady. You can see Dogville.

Vito: 48:31

Yeah, you know there was one time, I remember actually, and I was just talking about it, I was working and this guy walked in. He was like and my name's Vito on my name tag. So this guy was kind of a goomba. He comes in, you know, he's a Florida, so he comes in, he's like oh, Vito boo-bam, so we start talking about gangster movies.

Vito: 48:46

But he was very cool and he knew his shit and he knew he could tell right away that I knew my shit and I recommended him, I think like a John Sayles movie to watch or whatever.

Vito: 48:55

But he could tell I knew movies and he was like he's like oh yeah, well, you know, I'm kind of an actor too, or whatever, you know, and I'm like, oh, right on. So he's like you want to see something cool. I'm like, yeah, so we go over to Casino, the box cover to Casino, he turns it around Another double tape, yeah, another double tape. He turns it around and there's a picture of Sharon Stone at the crap table and he's standing right next door like cheering. So it's like, oh, that's you.

Armando: 49:19

It was him.

Vito: 49:20

That was pretty cool, that's dope.

Armando: 49:22

What were some good movie box covers that you remember too so while working at Blockbuster, like was a whole other story.

Vito: 49:29

So like before Blockbuster, you know I oh, there are so many movies I discovered because of cool box art.

Armando: 49:35

Only ones. How about this? How about this parameter? What was the coolest one that you saw? Now, this would have been we're talking VHS, and in that style. So pre 2000,.

Vito: 49:45

Maybe pre 2005, I don't know, or two you know, whatever they so now with a kid when I was younger, or just something that could have been obtained there at Blockbuster.

Armando: 49:53

How about that?

Vito: 49:54

Oh, ok, ok. So, oh, man, that's a tough one. I because when you look at video box covers I think about what I remember from the time I was there and when I was a kid. I remember walking into the video store, the mom and pops and seeing all these memorable box art and movies. I'll remember forever because of the box art, all kinds of them. So now I'm at Blockbuster and everything is so just corporate wash like the Walmart version. So these are the box covers. I kind of remember a movie's like Mystery Men and Mummy and Matrix, the sixth sense. They all were very like just a person on the cover and that's really it. Blade Runner.

Armando: 50:38

The one cover.

Vito: 50:39

that was nice. Blade Runner yeah, that was actually that cover.

Armando: 50:42

That cover was awesome, you know that cover was awesome.

Vito: 50:46

I remember I first bought the director's cut of Blade Runner while I was working at Blockbuster. I don't know why they had that as one of their throwaways, but hey, tampa, yeah right, but I bought that there, vhs of the director's cut of Blade Runner. But I remember the only box cover that was kind of cool of the new movies while I worked there. I don't like the movie, but the box cover. Remember the 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas yes, with Antonio Banderas.

Armando: 51:12

Yeah, that kind of stood out to me.

Vito: 51:15

I was like, oh, this could be kind of cool, and then it just wasn't it almost reminds me of signs.

Armando: 51:20

Remember signs with M Night Shyamalan signs with Phil Gibson and the Cymic props. Yeah, it's got that sort of like you know how, what a Chevron sort of symbol is yeah, yeah. It's like a pyramid, but really wide. Where? It's like a point of focus and there's stuff on either side of the off-centered focus point leading backwards. You know, yeah, there's something going on in the box cover.

Vito: 51:45

Yeah, yeah, another one. I just came across.

Armando: 51:48

I just came up on my screen that it was a Rocky Horror. Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Vito: 51:54

That's another great box art yeah.

Armando: 51:55

Right, like I'm just I'm thinking it's always going to be.

Vito: 51:59

You know what's?

Armando: 51:59

that about.

Vito: 52:00

Right, yeah, no, I mean Rocky Horror always had the book, the box art, but it's always going to be cult sci-fi horror adjacent, yeah, so it's always going to be in that world of the great box art.

Armando: 52:11

Well, any of the, the, the Friday movies, any, I mean almost.

Vito: 52:14

And that first Nightmare in Almond Street poster was fucking sick.

Armando: 52:18

Which, which was the one I think it was maybe part three where, like they were, there was a different character with their back to us.

Vito: 52:26

That was part three, yeah.

Armando: 52:27

Print blade of his hand.

Vito: 52:28

Yeah, that was part three. Yeah.

Armando: 52:30

Yeah. Oh man All of those are dope, all those box covers, and you know not to belabor it, but yeah, I would say the stuff by John Waters would get censored sometimes. That was always a trip to me. The ones that would get censored like Showgirls was one that was.

Vito: 52:47

It came out before I had worked at Blockbuster, but not very much further before, but and speaking of John Waters, though, I mean I first saw Pink Flamingos renting from a mom and pop video store. I never would have gotten that at Blockbuster video.

Armando: 53:00

Oh no, they didn't have Pink Flamingos. I remember, yeah, I remember.

Vito: 53:03

You had to go mom and pop for that one.

Armando: 53:06

But for some reason we had desperate living and polyester you know, at Blockbuster. Yeah, oh yeah.

Vito: 53:12

Okay, that's not bad.

Armando: 53:13

You had to have cool managers in the position to place the orders. That's really what it was.

Opening/Ad: 53:19

Oh, my God.

Armando: 53:21

I loved it when I finally got to have input. You know on what to order and you know they would tell you like, okay, here's what the top movies are that they recommend, but here's what we tend to rent more of, based on you know the category, yada, yada. And oh, there's a new Jennifer Aniston movie coming out. Okay, let's order. You know 200 of what's the one with along came, polly, along came.

Vito: 53:48

Polly.

Armando: 53:48

Okay.

Opening/Ad: 53:49

That one.

Armando: 53:49

Ben Affleck. I used to have a big crush on oh my gosh, a big crush on Ben Affleck, because he was in all the movies that came out and I just like 90s and early 2000s, everything. Yeah, that was his, you know, because he had just won the Oscar with Ben Affleck, matt Damon, so they were giving him anything and everything to do, you know so which I remember that movie.

Vito: 54:10

I was still mad about that as Oscars because I wanted Bert Reynolds to win for Boogie Knights, but Robin Williams won. Oh yeah, which I love, robin Williams, but I really want to Bert to win.

Armando: 54:19

Yeah, oh, Bert Reynolds. I just watched an episode of the Golden Girls where the where Bert Reynolds makes a cameo and you can tell he just had his, like his facelift probably, or he just like, good, he looks better. And the whole story line is they're trying to. They're trying to get to the movie premiere where they're going to meet Mr Bert Reynolds, and she keeps saying Mr Bert Reynolds, blanche is trying to hook up. Yeah, they try. Blanche. Try to fuck him, Of course. Of course he had those things with Sofia, though.

Vito: 54:50

I love it. I love it.

Armando: 54:52

Oh man. Yeah, that was a good time, though, blackbuster.

Vito: 54:54

I loved working there and yeah, you know, I really do. I feel bad for kids now because that whole Netflix and chill. It's cool that these movies are so accessible now and we can. We can watch so many movies that we can never watch before, but yeah, it's just not the same thing is going through Netflix and chill.

Armando: 55:15

It was we made it a blockbuster night and that was the slogan was make it a blockbuster night and yeah and you were stuck watching movies that night, like that's just what you were going to do.

Vito: 55:25

That was the equivalent. You were going to waste it.

Armando: 55:27

And I feel like Netflix and chill is make it a blockbuster night for the socially awkward set. No it's for the for the, you know, yeah, I mean people I think don't don't meet up anymore, you know and so right. I mean, I remember there were people who would kind of want to say Cruz, because that's not quite the word, but people would like meet each other at the blockbuster.

Opening/Ad: 55:51

Yeah, no, you'd hang out.

Vito: 55:52

Yeah.

Armando: 55:53

You know, yeah, like people would, would hook up with other people and and maybe not just, I don't mean just like in the in the that sense, but right now, no, no, no no.

Armando: 56:01

Like, oh yeah, I met, we ran into each other one night looking at the same movie, a blockbuster, and started talking and you know, oh, this person had the only, the store's only copy of Casablanca or whatever. You know something seminal like that, and I had been waiting for it and they, they finally brought it back. And I remember that that happened one time I, somebody, was like chasing down this copy of a movie and when they finally got it back, it was like they connected with the person and they started dating. You know, oh, wow, cause they both liked the movie so much, you know.

Vito: 56:34

Oh, that's pretty cool.

Armando: 56:36

Yeah, you know, it's that that, that that don't happen anymore, and I don't know what the equivalent would be.

Vito: 56:41

Yeah, I don't know, maybe like a Tinder Netflix watch on the phone. I don't fucking know. It's like yeah.

Armando: 56:47

Well, cause I think it's like you got to. It's almost like, especially in that scenario, you're like kind of there for the same thing, you're. It's really cool when it's like oh yeah, this person likes the same kind of movie, or this person is always down to see anything by that one director or that one, yeah.

Vito: 57:05

The evolution of where it goes is going to be interesting. You know, I mean we're like a 120 movie years into film and you know the idea of renting movies and watching movies at home has like been around since the 80s. So I mean it's going to be interesting to see where it's at. But literally you're clicking on your phone and watching stuff. I don't know where else it could go from here, yeah, no idea, outbreak, that was another one.

Armando: 57:30

That was another one. Why she likes outbreak a lot yeah, remember the monkey on the cover.

Vito: 57:35

Yep, yep, yep. I just remembered the three faces Cuba Gooden Jr, dustin Hoffman, renee Russo yeah, that's right, yeah, old.

Armando: 57:43

Renee Old, Renee Russo man.

Vito: 57:45

She was everybody's.

Armando: 57:46

She was everyone's like Gal Friday and everything.

Vito: 57:50

Yeah, she was it for like a few years and then she disappeared and didn't see her forever, until she was in that Nightcrawler movie with Jake Gyllenhaal and yeah, that's what I saw for the first time in years.

Armando: 58:02

Man, that's awesome. So you know, I would say that the only other box cover that sticks out in my mind. Remember I told you after I listened to you that was a great Canary Row episode and the box cover is great. But remember I was saying that becomes her. Oh man, that's the best box cover.

Vito: 58:18

It is a cool box cover, yeah, yeah.

Armando: 58:20

The potion between her breasts. But that's what's so cool. You know, like Death Becomes her's an awesome box cover.

Vito: 58:26

Canary Rose great, there's a few. Like I said, when you go to those mom and pops you find all the great ones. But the big ones never really had that great of artwork and that's where they kind of dropped the ball in the home video market. They were so simple, like their artwork were like the B pictures were like fucking killing it, you know, because they knew they had to get you on the cell, just like the movie poster back in the Grindhouse day.

Armando: 58:49

Yeah, yeah, the, the movie poster and the box rental were sometimes enough to get somebody to say you know what? I have a free rental coming to me.

Vito: 59:00

I'll use it on this one, yeah, and movie making has changed dramatically for me over this time too, because when I first started it was all about you know the three B's, right, the boobs, blood and B's. Basically yeah, with some blood, and you can always make the video. Remember, straight to video. Let's go straight to video and you could just cover the basics and make it like you know, a good enough movie, but badass artwork. You were getting straight to video. Maybe not blockbuster, but that was like the Netflix back in Hollywood video Hollywood video, the second one right and that actually then in the 2000s that started changing.

Vito: 59:38

And now the whole like now, if you make a low budget horror film, it doesn't mean shit you. You've ever had a better chance making a Christian movie and selling it than a. Christian oh Lord those motherfuckers make a lot. Yeah, those motherfuckers make so much money.

Armando: 59:52

Those Christians, I'm telling you damn, then I'm Christian.

Vito: 59:55

Make it all. And what's that? What's that called Pureflex? Yeah yeah, those, those fuckers are banking.

Armando: 1:00:01

And I call them the new horror movies.

Vito: 1:00:03

Yeah, there's a new horror films. It's exploitation. I mean, that's the purest form of exploitation, right? Yes, the shit out of God and religion and he's just a playtation. Making you a lot of money. They're the new exploitation. They're the new grindhouse. Thank you, mel Gibson.

Opening/Ad: 1:00:45

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