This was a documentary I found when searching for ones to watch while at work. I treat these like a podcast where if something interesting pops up, I'll watch the video. What was intriguing about this is that I grew up in the video store era where I would rent VHS films. My dad had a collection which sparked me to do the same as an adult. To the chagrin of my wife, Jaime.
Tony Newton is the guy who came up with this and he is also someone who tells his story. He's from the United Kingdom so he brings a unique perspective due to the 'Video Nasty' era. I get the idea that he would obtain bootlegs to see the films that were banned over there. The people featured here are from the United States, so I do think that gives a blend for perspective.
Ahead of seeing this I did see people having issues about this. I won't go into detail about what they said specifically, but I do agree. We have people just showing their collection and their prize pieces. Those are things that I do love. I have friends and acquaintances in the community that have large collections of movies and I love to see how they organize them. There is just something about seeing it. A problem I have though is that this runs too long. It goes on for almost two and half hours. I'll give credit to Newton to let everyone say their piece, but they are all very similar things, so it gets repetitive.
Something that made me chuckle is them being convinced that VHS will continue to live on. Now I know people who do collect these. That is something that I don't think will go away for a while. There are a limited number of these that will be in the 'wild' eventually. I do respect that independent filmmakers are putting their movies out on VHS. That is something I've considered purchasing if something is particularly good. The honest answer here is that this is a dead medium, for the most part. They aren't making new VCRs. Most TVs aren't compatible with them. I cannot even use my VCR or watch the limited tapes I still have. It does feel like people who want this to be true clinging to this idea.
I do still think that is made well enough. They reference SOV films, sometimes erroneously. There were films that were made popular due to that market and ones that are stuck in that medium that may never be seen again. The digital age of DVD, Blu-ray, 4K and streaming has truly killed this format, for the most part. I think there are interesting things here but there's a lot you must sit through to get to it.
My Rating: 6 out of 10.
