You should have been there when i worked at Blockbuster.  We still had fullscreen DVDs back then and so many people would say that fullscreen was better than widescreen because it showed more of the picture on their TVs.  Im pretty sure everyones heard that one at least twice...

I have this whole thing about Hollywood video, where the level of bullshitness of any particular Hollywood Video store is directly correlated to its proximity to Hollywood.

As a store gets closer to Hollywood, the level of its bullshitness increases until it reaches its peak immediately outside of Hollywood (Burbank, for instance), before dropping off completely as soon as it arrives in the city limits of Hollywood proper.

It's not interesting, it's just something my mind came up with a long time ago and has stuck with me.

I worked at Blockbuster and used to love it. I mean, yeah, stupid customers suck and all that, but I had so much fun doing it. Especially when you get to fuck with those very same stupid customers.

I was into crappy B-movies even then, and the store I first worked at had "Gator Bait: Special Edition". Some shitty 70's sexploitation flick. The front of the box touted that this special extended version of the film featured "the uncut and unrated prison rape scene!" As a result, every time someone brought a special edition version up to my register I'd say "Oh, man, you're gonna love this version of E.T.:The Extra Terrestrial! It's got the fully restored prison rape sequence!"

Well, I don't know about anyone else but I can't wait for Transmorphers 3 later in the year....

I miss the video shops; browsing the isles for 5 worthwhile weekly rentals for the evening movie marathon with mates and the arguing over which to pick was the catharsis of many excellent evenings. By the third film of the night people would start crashing, there would make top-up trips to 7-11 for more fizzy drink, and we'd have called the poor bastards at the late night pizza place for yet another delivery. We don't have that shared experience anymore; people bring drives full of films, and the serendipitous moment of finding something new (that nobodies seen) is lost.

Without Blockbuster I would never have experienced Akira, or countless other films that shaped my views and tastes. Thanks to the restrictions of a physical environment and library, many of the films i grew to love were seen during those late night marathons. They probably would never have made into my Quickflix (pretend I said Netflix), Rotten Tomato-vetted queue.

Yes there were dicks who worked there, much like a real bookshop, and despite that the electronic experience pales.

<Edited for spelling. Because I am retarded.>