Saturday, August 14, 2010

The Video store for the Overthinker, by the Overthinker.

Tonight well renting a movie, I witnessed the customer in front of me inquire to the employee, whether they had Pan's Labyrinth on blue ray. Said employee tapped away at his computer and then asked his co-worker if Pan's Labyrinth is the same as The Labyrinth. What?!!!
Why are you working at a DVD store? Pan's Labyrinth is a brillant 2006 fanasty Spanish language movie by Guillermo del Toro, a man who untill recently was going to make the Hobbit, that gave many people nightmares from its creepy visuals and dark themes.

BOO! That's right try going to sleep now
 The Labyrinth is an equally brillant 1986 fanasty film by Jim Henson (yes the Muppets guy) which also gave people nightmares, but mainly due to David Bowie's ridiculously tight pants and the fact his character is called Jareth.

"Yeah, I think the lady at the store said these are called "Jeggings"?"

So both nightmare inducing fanasty films with Labyrinth in the title, but seperated by 2 decades and a language barrier.This shows poor movie knowledge by this said employee. I hate to think what will happen if a parent looking to entertain a party of children comes in and asks this employee for Monsters Inc.

Disney's Pixar has done it again with the delightful Monsters, Inc.--so sit back, bring the whole family and have a wonderful time.

This little incident reminded me of a little DVD store I frequented while spending time in Buenos Aires Argentina. This store required a lot of thinking to navigate, for example I took it for granted in a DVD store the would be split into categories such as horror, comedy, drama etc. Not in this store no siree bob. This store was split into lead actor/actress sections, this could lead to some very imbalanced sections. For example John Wayne was the leading man in 142 movies, Mark Hamil was the leading man in 3. This raises the question was it just easier to make Westerns than Sci-Fi films?

Even before his career Mark Hamil knew he should have made cowboy films

I mean I am all for changing things up, but didn't this filing lead to all sorts of confusion when the movie has two or more leading roles, I bet the Oceans 11 series caused them all sorts of dramas when they tired to shelve it. Should it go in the Brad Pitt section, or the George Clooney section, or the Matt Damon section, or the Julia Roberts section or the Bernie Mac section etc, it would take some pretty clever possibly, bending the laws of physics, placement to put it in all sections at once. I guess you could just put a copy in each actors section, but this causes a lot of redunacy.

Don Juan is still currently working on where to put Oceans 11 in his store.
This filing system is all well and good when the film you want to find has a famous person as the lead actor, you say why don't you just ask out the counter for films with lesser-known actors. We tried.
Turns out their computer system only let you search for films by last name of the lead actor?
I mean simple right, Indiana Jones - Ford, MiB - Smith, okay smart guy Neverending story - ?????                ( incidentally this was the movie, me and a similarly aged scottish and irish man wished to watch, to relive our childhood okay?)
We stood there for an eternity and could not come up with the kids name. This was kind of ironic, because if you haven't seen Neverending story the crux is that main kid, has to give the Empress a name otherwise the Nothing would consume them all, and he struggles for to do this for ages, but he eventually comes up with a name, although whether it was a good one or not is another question.

"Seriously?! Moonchild, you are calling me Moonchild, why not Rebecca, or Jane, or Emily?"

Barrett Oliver by the way, I know that now because I just googled neverending story, something seemingly impossible in this video store. We didn't come up with that name, which is almost as bad as Moonchild.

"HAHAH can you believe he called her Moonchild? hahah"

We eventually found it, by just wandering around the DVD Store for long enough. Which incidentally is my favourite way to go to a DVD store, I normally allow a good 30 mins to an hour for a trip to the DVD store by myself so that I am not rushed and can wander the aisles of the weekly rentals, and let the DVD's choose me. Sometimes you get dud's but most of the time you can find some really good movies you have never heard of, I recommend it to all of you try it at least once. I try to get 4-5 out at a time as insurance against dud's.

Apparently two of my favourite things Bon Jovi and Ice Hockey combined doesn't necessarily mean success

I find if you go to the DVD store with more than 1 other person you tend to be at the Video store for an hour anyway, while you debate the merits of Drama Vs Action (typically a female/male fight) and weed through all the movies that one person or another in the group has already seen. It normally ends when everyone just gives up, and grabs the new release (which by the time you have made the decision is already a weekly rental) that 1/2 the people have already seen, but you don't care you just want to get out of there.

"We have already been over this Judy, we are not getting Jaws out, Brett, Michael, Kelly and Tina have already seen it."

So there you have it a the video store a place often frequented by underthinkers, but a place where the overthinker can prosper.


  1. Yes DVD employees should have a decent understanding of the product they are selling. I heard of a mother who went into a DVD store asking to hire "that family friendly classic with the willy whale?" Needless to say the children were scarred when on the screen appeared a close up of male genitalia. Turns out the employee had issued the mother with 'Big Willy' the porno, and not 'Free Willy' the family classic. AWKWARD!!!!

  2. That is a good example of underthinking causing issues for people Chelsea.

  3. R u serious? It was F+*king MOONCHILD?!


    Want to keep Underthinking? Try one these.