Goonies, but it was recorded from TV and you had to switch tapes at about the pirate ship.
My family was pretty poor growing up, but we had cable. Back in the day there would occasionally be free weekends of Disney Channel, HBO and the like. Whenever there was one of those free weekends, my parents would buy a super long blank VHS tape and record hours of random movies. So for years every movie that I watched had an 800 number that would pop up every few minutes asking you to call and subscribe.
The more things change, the more they stay the same i guess. Sounds like just anout every streaming service out there today.
Every few months, when the topic of obscure childhood bs comes up in conversation, my husband will always ask about my "made up dinosaur rock band show" from when I was a child.
I've asked so many people in my life, from different areas around the US, varying ages, etc, and only on the internet do I have proof that Denver the Last Dinosaur wasnt a fever dream. 😂
Thank you for my quarterly validation.
HE'S MY FRIEND AND A WHOLE LOT MORE
...wait what
DEN-VER! The last diiinosaur
My brain did the same thing. What the hell else is stored down in there??
He's my friend and a whole lot more! Ew.
Police Academy 1-7 but mostly 4.
Dont sleep on Police Academy 3: Citizens on Patrol
Edit: C.O.P was 4. I feel shame
I had the same thing with video games. My dad got a free promotional copy of Morrowind from Fry's. I didn't have a computer/ laptop, but every summer, my dad would let me use his on our road trips. That game made me want to learn so much about anthropology, biology, history, mythology, etc... I played for hundreds of hours and never even came close to finishing.
Morrowind is one of my favorites of all time. I was into nag champa incense at the time, and so that smell will always remind me of Morrowind. Singing about the ambiance of Morrowind was kinda incense-y anyway, so it was the perfect combo
never even came close to finishing.
It is an Elder Scrolls game, you don't finish those, the existence of the main quest is merely a theoretical thing from myth and legend.
The Craft. I'm pretty sure Fairuza Balk is responsible for awakening my goth fetish.
Have you seen Return to Oz? It's a hell of a ride. Disney wants everyone to forget this exists.
Short Circuit and Flight of the Navigator. Had them both on one tape and I'd sit down and watch it all in one sitting.
And it was recorded off the tv so you had to fast forward through commercials about clap-on clap-off lights
I would tell people about Death Race 2000 and they'd look at me like I was crazy.
And I'm actively trying to go back to that. I ripped all of our old DVDs and Blurays and cancelled most of our streaming services. I told my kids that we can buy pretty much anything they want (so they don't miss out), provided it's not an exclusive.
The net result is that my kids really like Clue (1985) and Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008).
my kids really like Clue (1985)
One of the best movies ever so that speaks pretty well to their tastes.
Surf ninjas. It was the best kind of b movie fever dream.
I had an aunt with the Disney channel and HBO that recorded almost everything. It was like a home video store at her house, probably hundreds of tapes that she let friends and family borrow. She have me a spare copy of the Disney animated Robin Hood with all the animals and I must have watched it a hundred times.
I mean... Streaming Frozen nearly continuously was 100% a thing just a few years ago.
Milo and Otis, Toys, and The Goonies. Watched those 3 movies a thousand times.
Three Ninjas. We all wanted to be Colt when we played ninjas later
Sharkboy and Lavagirl
I really liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. My parents got it for me on VHS at some point and I watched it so much it literally wore out the tape. Then my parents got it for me on DVD.
Can't even watch it on streaming because they only ever have the subtitled version, and the dub is vastly superior for the dialogue. The subs cut so much flavor and poetry out of the dialogue that it becomes super boring and just the basic gist of what's going on.
Before that, the "obscure" VHS my parents had that I watched a lot was Monty Python's Holy Grail. We spent years trying to understand what the "witch" says when she is found guilty and only knew for certain what it was years later when they released a special edition DVD and we watched it with the subtitles on. "It's a fair cop."
I liked the VHS tape that had the naked women recorded onto it.
For me it was Cocktail. I was a latch key kid, and sometimes you just got bored and hunted around your parents shit.
Turns out 11 year old me was REALLY interested in watching a shirtless Tom Cruise throw around bottles of alcohol in a tropical paradise.
Big Trouble in Little China.
We considered it to be on the same level as Ghostbusters. The ending showed a monster as a stowaway on the old Porkchop Express. We all couldn't wait for the inevitable sequel where Jack Burton got into some Big Trouble somewhere else. Only found out as an adult much later that it was a really unsuccessful movie and there was no way they'd make a sequel.
It's all in the reflexes!
Ok but the Indian in the cupboard came with a key for the plastic VHS case, and a couple of toys from the movie. So my love was justified.
Worst child actor ever though
An American Tale. Watched it a ton in St Vincent, then I moved to America as a child so there was a close feeling to it. (Just to be clear, I was born in Brooklyn, NY, but my family moved out of the states to St Vincent within 2 years. So my earliest memories are not from the US, despite being born here).
I haven't watched Ice Age in twenty years but if you put it on the TV I bet I could quote every line from it. My mom loved that movie when we saw it in theater so we got it on DVD, then we must have watched it a hundred times after that. It was her favorite movie by far.
We also watched a good bit of Madagascar when that one came out but Ice Age was the enduring classic.
Did this with spiderwick and bridge to tarabithia but I wouldn't call these particularly obscue.
Also did this with a movie that I can only describe as space jumanji as well
And for those of us who predate VHS it was books! I was hooked on the Lord of the Rings!
And nobody would get your references
You can still get that, just follow obscures enough hobbies and reference memes from it.
Something something i use arch google en passant robot girlyman clem
I watched Ghost with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore so many times at a bit too young.
Also, The Jungle Book starring Sabu. A black and white live action film apparently from 1942.
My parents made me a VHS tape with like 9 movies on it and I would watch it constantly. I was a sickly child, so I was stuck in bed a lot. That tape was great.
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