We Are Open Again After An Emilio Estevez Crisis..

It has been a while since we have had any communications here at the Abandoned Video Shop, but we had a major problem. One of our walls started to bow ( the shop is seriously showing its age ) sending our complete Emilio Estevez collection crashing down. Sadly Old Reg was having a snidey fag and was buried beneath thousands of copies of Maximum Overdrive, Wisdom, Men At Work and Young Guns II. I told him smoking could harm his health, but he never listened.We were naturally very concerned, being trapped under that many bad films can cause all sorts of damage and Old Reg is, as his name gives away, old. Me and the two Saturday help twins Leslie and Lesley shovelled away The Breakfast Club and St Elmo's Fire by the score and all the time we could hear Old Reg's groans. Much like the groans he let out when he watched Wisdom.
  It took many hours but we finally pulled him out battered and bloody.
"Emilio Estevez came to me dressed as a bleedin' angel," Old Reg said as we dragged him out feet first. "He saved me bleedin' life."
We didn't really have the heart to tell Old Reg he had just been in an Emilio Estevez landslide. So we let him go on thinking he has a saviour who was in Repo Man.
The Owner.

Stitches Ruins National Video Month

Well National VHS and Beta Video Month was a disaster at The Abandoned Video Shop. Just as we though we had solved the problem of the thousands of Bula Quo! copies that were dumped on us. A similar thing happened with a film called Stitches. Twelve thousand were left at our door, totally blocking us off from the outside world. The Quo thing was bad, but Stitches was worse. We watched a copy and to say we were not impressed is an understatement. Ross Noble, you know that lethargic comedian off Have I Got News For You, plays a seedy, down at heel children's entertainer / clown Stitches. Well he hates kids, a fresh take on things there, and goes to a birthday party full of little brats and ends up dying in a very nasty manner. So years later Stitches comes back from the dead to cause murder and mayhem at the same kids sixteenth birthday party. I'm bored writing about it, but you can imagine how dull and gory it all is. Ross Nobel's performance is a master class in apathetic disinterest. And his delivery of the films, flat on their face, zingers is a wonder to behold.
We put up a big sign saying Take these videos please. But more kept turning up. We could now build a three bedroom house with the copies of Stitches we have.Please no more. We need help!
The Owner

Bula Quo! Problems Mar The National VHS and Beta Video Month

Who would have thought the twenty seven thousand copies of Bula Quo! left mysteriously ( although Old Reg called it maliciously after watching the film ) on our doorstep should cause such problems on the first Saturday of National VHS and Beta Video month. Our plan was to give the first twenty seven people through the door of The Abandoned Video Shop a thousand copies each. Well you have never seen such rude and ungrateful people at being given a thousand videos in your life.
"A thousand?" The first customer said. "What am I going to do with a thousand of these bloody things?"
"Give them as presents," I suggested.
"I don't hate anyone that much," he replied and wandered off.
"Perhaps we should bleedin' well give them one copy each," Old Reg said and I nodded seeing the logic there.
Well you have never seen such rude and ungrateful people at being given a free video in all your life. And a copy of Bula Quo! hurts when it is thrown at your head believe me, it hurts nearly as much as watching it.
So after a quite busy first Saturday of the National VHS and Beta Video Month, we now have twenty six thousand nine hundred and eighty five copies of Bula Quo! still up for grabs. So it looks like you won't have to rush if you want one.
The Owner.

The Opening of National VHS and Beta Video Month!

I left the booking of the stars, who are coming to The Abandoned Video Shop, to sign their videos, this month to Old Reg. Well it was his idea. As he put it: " You get a lotta these idiot geeks in if you've got old stars coming."

So I was very excited to see the list of  stars Old Reg had coming for National VHS and Beta Video Month.

"Wow," I exclaimed on scanning the list. "Sly Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Arnie, Kurt Russell,Rita from Coronation Street."

"Yep,"Old Reg smiled proudly. "And they all look like them as well."

"Look like them?" I asked. "What do you mean look like them?"

"Lookalikes," he said still smiling proudly.

"The real people are not coming?"

"Course not," Old Reg said shaking his head. "As if you can get Rita from Coronation Street just like that."

Oh well, so if you want to see some top rate lookalikes why not pop into the Abandoned Video Shop this month.

Oh yes, before I forget, just because it is National VHS and Beta Video Month, that doesn't mean we are a dumping ground. Last night someone left twenty seven thousand copies of Bula Quo on our doorstep. So, under the principle that if fly tippers give you lemons, make lemonade. We will give the first twenty seven people through the door tomorrow a thousand copies of Bula Quo each. That is on a first come first serve basis.

The Owner

 

 

 

Wake In Fright : Don't Watch Just Before You Go To Bed

Our mysterious supplier, at The Abandoned Video Shop, Mr. Apollyon recently brought in a new batch of videos for National VHS and Beta Video Month.And I can't tell you how excited we are by it.

"Watch this one," he said handing me a video. "It's good."

If Mr. Apollyon says it's good, then it is.

"Wake In Fright?" I said looking at the vivid orange cover. "Don't think I've heard of it."

"It's an old 70's film. It was lost," Mr. Apollyon smiled. " And now it's found."

With that profound sentence still hanging in the air he left.

"This rings a bleedin' bell," Old Reg said reading the back cover as we sat to watch it. "But I think it was called somethin' else."

Wake In Fright is more than good, it is an unnerving classic. Gary Bond plays John Grant a school teacher in the Australian Outback, who sets off for Christmas in Sydney. But makes the big mistake of staying over night in the mining town of  Bundanyabba. John reluctantly gets sucked into the dark world of the Yabba, as the locals call it. Firstly by gruff, hard drinking and unnerving  local law Jock Crawford ( excellently played by Chips Rafferty. Who Old Reg said was a mate of his way back.) After losing all his money gambling John is stuck in the Yabba and ends up spiralling down in the company of Doc Tydon ( a fantastically  creepy Donald Pleasence ). His days become booze fuelled and manic, and you do feel the heat, the flies, and decidedly hung over watching Wake In Fright. The mad thing is, John is not dragged down by cruelty, but by kindness. He is welcomed everywhere with smiles and copious amounts of booze. Try one of those film drinking games with Wake In Fright and you might not survive. At the dark heart of the film is a savage, nasty night time kangaroo hunt, that in any other film would seem vicious and unnecessary, but here it fits perfectly as we all spiral down together.

Wake In Fright deserves to sit with other rediscovered classics like The Wicker Man. The only thing, don't make the mistake I did and watch it just before you go to bed. If you do, a fitful night of disturbing dreams await.

The Owner.

National Video Day Is Here!

We have been a little quiet at The Abandoned Video Shop lately because we have had a little referb. But we are back open this Saturday because, as you no doubt know, it is National VHS and Beta Video Month in May. Yes, following National Record Shop Day, or whatever that thing is called. The more successful video equivalent is here. Just as the vinyl records are taking off with faded hipsters and bandwagon jumpers. Then why not video? Now I mean all you lot who think the muffled sound of vinyl is great, then why not go back to the raw edge of video ( VHS or Beta )? Why do you need the crystal clear, crisp edges of  Blu Ray when you can have the savage reds and blurred faces of video. It is how films are meant to look. Yep, so ditch the new technology and celebrate with us. When you buy that old LP for fifty times the price you got rid of it for in the 1990's, so why not pick up all your old videos? Come on it's not that different and you know it.

So keep tuned in as we will be announcing some big stars who will be signing their videos at the Abandoned Video Shop in the month to come, as National Video Month will make the Cannes Film Festival look like a Knobbly Knees Competition at Pontins.

The Owner.

Invasion of the Musical Rats Part One

We have had a bit of bother here at the Abandoned Video Shop. We have been infested with 1980's Musical rats. I know that sounds a bit odd, but things can get a bit odd around here. You see we have quite a few of rooms  and over the years we have closed a lot of them up. Especially as demand for VHS faded. Although it has never faded from our hearts, has it? Anyway, me and old Reg would gather up all our surplus copies of a film, that is any over fifty and just dump them in a room and, well, seal her off for good. Much like the Ancient Egyptians did, only they did it with bodies and riches not old VHS tapes that no one really wants. One such room contained all our no longer needed copies of Footloose and Dirty Dancing. We closed it up and thought no more about it until last  week; when Leslie, one of our Saturday help twins, came up to us and said she could hear musical  squeaking coming from a room. Me and Old Reg went to listen and sure enough Leslie was right.

"It Sounds like Let's Hear It for the bleedin' Boy," Old Reg said, with his ear pressed firmly to the door.

"We've got 80's musical rats," I said as the squeaks changed to The Time of My Life."

"They've eaten all the bleedin' copies," Old Reg said.

Now, I'm not sure if you know this, but VHS tape not only records, but embodies the film itself. So if you eat it, the film becomes part of you forever. Now don't try this at home, because every film can have its hidden hazards. Besides tape doesn't taste that great, believe me. But this is something that doesn't bother rats.

"What that noise?" Leslie said.

It was a collective, unnerving scraping sound.

"They're dancin' like Kevin bleedin' Bacon," Old Reg said a look of concern crossing his craggy face.

"What does that mean?" Leslie asked.

"It means we've got trouble," I replied.

The Owner

TO BE CONTINUED...