That Movie You Always Rented on VHS?

What was THAT movie you always rented back in the VHS days? Usually it was straight-to-video and you've rarely heard of it since. This is different from "Movies You Grew Up w/ on TV" which I have another thread for. I have a few but I'll start with:

Robot Jox
The Battle for Endor and Caravan of Courage
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Not straight to video, but I rented out Hocus Pocus a lot. And now have it on DVD, but it's of mediocre quality unfortunately.

The Iron Giant. I love that movie. Quite possibly the best cartoon I've ever seen - right ahead of Fox and the Hound and Peter Pan.

I didn't rent that many movies more than once, but Big Trouble In Little China was a favourite back in my teens. I must have rented that three or four times.

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I rarely rented films multiple times either. However, Top Gun, Robocop, Enter The Dragon, Dawn of The Dead, Death Race 2000 and Class Of '84 were all rented more than once.

The Empire Strikes Back, The Terminator, Conan The Barbarian, Predator, Commando, Raw Deal & Speed.

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Oh, and Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park is one of my top 10 of all time. I owned a copy and so did my brother. I remember one copy had a scene that the other didn't. When they're riding in the Jeep from the helipad to the Brachiosaurus in the beginning, Ellie reaches out and grabs the leaf that she's looking at when Dr. Grant turns her head to look at the first dinosaur. Don't know why it stuck with me.

By far the title I rented most often was Dick Letser's The Three Musketeers (1974) and its filmed-at-the-same-time sequel The Four Musketeers (1975). I must have rented them, especially the first installment, somewhere around fifteen times. Another rental I became sort of obsessed with for a while and must have gotten five or six times was High Risk (1981). Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and Young Frankenstein (1974) I got over and over again, too. There were certainly others, but in the first couple years when we had our first VCR (a BetaMax, BTW), those were some of the titles in heaviest rotation.



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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

We owned most of the movies on VHS that my family liked to watch but two movies I remeber picking up from Family Video often as a kid are:

Zorro (1975)

Land Before Time (1988)

Inside Ginger Lynn

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I never understood renting a VHS tape -- or even a DVD -- more than once. If I liked the movie that much, I'd buy it.

Or I'd copy it using another VCR and some special cords. ^_^

Back when VHS came out, it cost about $90 (to the public - a little cheaper for video stores) to buy because they were originally intended to be just rentals. It's only when they got massively-produced that the prices fell. I know it sounds stupid, but a lot of stupid things are true.

No, I've heard that. In fact, I heard a wealthy relative of mine was out buying VHS tapes at these insane prices back in the early days.

I once called Blockbusters when I was a kid back in the 1990's inquiring about a movie they didn't have. The lady told me I could buy it from them, though -- she'd have to order it -- but when I asked for the price, she said it would have been around $80. For a VHS. In the 1990's. I don't understand why, but needless to say, that phone call ended right there. Maybe she was lying to get a goofy kid off the phone, I dunno.

our VHS is still alive... those were the days

I think Clue was one of, if not THE first VHS tape released. I remember hearing it was the go-to tape for people with new VCRs and it cost $90. I don't know if that was on bonus material on Clue's DVD or somewhere else but I remember that exact number.

I lost a movie my parents had rented, this was probably pre 1990 and the video store charged my parents over 100 dollars to replace it, I don't remember the exact amount because I was really young, but I'm pretty sure I was in a lot of trouble.

No doubt. How could you "lose" it? You took it out of the house?

Once again, you are misinformed. Clue was released theatrically in 1985, many years after VCRs had become commercial, which began in the 1970s, and really exploded and became commonplace in the mainstream in the early 1980s. For trivia sake, the first title commercially produced for home distirbution on VCRs wasn't even in the United States, it was the South Korean movie The Young Teacher in 1976. I believe my family got our first VCR (again, a BetaMax) in late 1981 or early 1982. I'm relatively sure we didn't have to wait three years for titles to rent.

But you were very close with a movie released in 1985.


*1978 magazine advertisement

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I have no idea, again I was about 10 years old so not sure how it was lost.

I remember almost wearing out the Raiders of the Lost Ark tape from our local video store, but sometime in the early 90's McDonalds had a thing where you buy a happy meal and for like 3 dollars more you could get Raiders of the Lost Ark, very weird for a happy meal toy but that's how I got MY first VHS.