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"The Last Blockbuster," not good.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 9:56 am
Posted on 4/5/21 at 9:56 am
Has anyone watched "The Last Blockbuster," a documentary focusing on the video rental chain's dying days and the last store standing in Bend, Oregon? It's currently streaming on Netflix and it's not very good.
The lady in charge of the store, Sandi Harding, seems nice enough but is hardly interesting enough to warrant a 90-minute documentary. The film is poorly made, to boot. The "celebrity" talking heads have little of substance to offer, and to make matters worse, the director saw a need to include his off-camera instructions to his subjects in the film. You actually hear him feeding lines to the interviewees. There is an entire, minutes-long segment focused on the check-out process that plays like a training video. Doug Benson cements his status as the least-funny famous comedian working in a painful bit that sees him browse around the store.
The film's climax sees Benson text fellow un-funny comic Kumail Nanjiani to inform him that his movie, "The Big Sick," is on the shelves at the store. Riveting. There's a montage set to Smash Mouth's "All-Star" following Ms. Harding around a Target store as she shops for new releases and junk food. By this point, you can physically feel the movie struggling to get to it's hour-and-a-half in length. Avoid this film unless you'd like a crash course on how not to film a good documentary.
The lady in charge of the store, Sandi Harding, seems nice enough but is hardly interesting enough to warrant a 90-minute documentary. The film is poorly made, to boot. The "celebrity" talking heads have little of substance to offer, and to make matters worse, the director saw a need to include his off-camera instructions to his subjects in the film. You actually hear him feeding lines to the interviewees. There is an entire, minutes-long segment focused on the check-out process that plays like a training video. Doug Benson cements his status as the least-funny famous comedian working in a painful bit that sees him browse around the store.
The film's climax sees Benson text fellow un-funny comic Kumail Nanjiani to inform him that his movie, "The Big Sick," is on the shelves at the store. Riveting. There's a montage set to Smash Mouth's "All-Star" following Ms. Harding around a Target store as she shops for new releases and junk food. By this point, you can physically feel the movie struggling to get to it's hour-and-a-half in length. Avoid this film unless you'd like a crash course on how not to film a good documentary.
This post was edited on 4/5/21 at 9:57 am
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:01 am to Hoodie
I thought it was pretty good. Not gonna win a bunch of awards, but a decent 90 minutes. I bet sandy could crush a can with one of those huge knockers.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:04 am to Hoodie
It was a laid back, lower budget documentary that didn't take a lot of work/investigation. It was more just hanging out with Sandi and her employees. Take it for what it is.
I watched it. It wasn't that bad.
I watched it. It wasn't that bad.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:06 am to Hoodie
It certainly didnt need to be 90 minutes.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:08 am to Hoodie
I agree, thought it was about 20 minutes too long. The interesting stuff was how Blockbuster failed, but they didn’t spend enough time on it. It turned into an hour and a half of random celebrities saying how much they liked Blockbuster when they were kids.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:10 am to brew400
quote:
I bet sandy could crush a can with one of those huge knockers.
They were incredibly distracting, weren't they?
...You know you're in trouble when Kevin Smith is the best thing about a movie. Did you know he used to work in a video rental store?!
This post was edited on 4/5/21 at 10:12 am
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:13 am to Hoodie
quote:Yes. Here's the TD thread on it.
Has anyone watched "The Last Blockbuster," a documentary focusing on the video rental chain's dying days and the last store standing in Bend, Oregon?
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:14 am to Stonehog
quote:
I agree, thought it was about 20 minutes too long. The interesting stuff was how Blockbuster failed, but they didn’t spend enough time on it. It turned into an hour and a half of random celebrities saying how much they liked Blockbuster when they were kids.
Is it just me, or did that seem like kind of an affectation for the sake of the documentary? Is anyone really nostalgic for Blockbuster?
Between the late fees, rewind fees, and the overall corporate vibe of the place, I doubt anyone really misses the store. Sure, they rented a lot of movies from Blockbuster. But it was the movie watching experience, more so, that they are nostalgic for.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:17 am to UndercoverBryologist
I wholeheartedly agree. If video rental stores were punk rock, Blockbuster was Blink 182 or Green Day, not Ramones or the Sex Pistols.
By the end of the documentary I thought, "Renting movies from Blockbuster was kinda cool, but nothing to wax poetic about for nearly an hour-and-a-half."
And can someone please explain the scene where the dumpy-looking local fellow leaves the interior of his living room and is then shown emerging from what is clearly a public restroom?! What the hell was that?!
By the end of the documentary I thought, "Renting movies from Blockbuster was kinda cool, but nothing to wax poetic about for nearly an hour-and-a-half."
And can someone please explain the scene where the dumpy-looking local fellow leaves the interior of his living room and is then shown emerging from what is clearly a public restroom?! What the hell was that?!
This post was edited on 4/5/21 at 10:18 am
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:18 am to Hoodie
It could have been a really cool thirty minute story. It like almost everything streaming, they made it tens times longer than it should have been.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:22 am to Fewer Kilometers
Thanks for the link to the earlier thread, but that quickly turned into a bunch of folks reminiscing about their experiences at Blockbuster over the years.
I wanna discuss the nuts and bolts of the film itself.
I wanna discuss the nuts and bolts of the film itself.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:26 am to Hoodie
From the other thread:
quote:
Watched this last night.
Nice nostalgia, but Jesus, that was a cheap-arse documentary. Like one of those homemade docs that you find when you do a deep dive on Amazon Prime.
D to F list celebrities who have nothing to do with the topic. Kevin Smith, Paul Scheer, Jamie Kennedy... those guys have a direct link to Blockbuster. The rest were just filler. Doug Benson is your celeb anchor? Yikes.
I'd have preferred an in-depth look at the history of the mom and pops, Blockbuster, and the regional chains that Blockbuster put out of business (no mention of them).
Great nostalgia, but not a great doc.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:27 am to Hoodie
quote:
Thanks for the link to the earlier thread, but that quickly turned into a bunch of folks reminiscing about their experiences at Blockbuster over the years.
I wanna discuss the nuts and bolts of the film itself.
The nuts and bolts are this. There is an interesting story about the last couple of Blockbuster stores and why they lasted into the 2010s. Namely, in the case of Alaska, it was due to the lack of affordable broadband internet service up there, which made renting DVDs cheaper than streaming.
The store in Oregon is just a case of a woman who's a little bit too far away from retirement age to stop working, but doesn't have any other skillset (she seems adept at fixing old 1990s computers, for what it's worth). She's keeping the store alive to help makes ends meet.
These are nice personal stories that a more competent documentarian could have explored in more detail. But the makers of this documentary didn't feel too confident in what they had, and they needed to pad it out to 90 minutes to sell it to Netflix, so they padded it with a lot of interviews of nerdy celebrities who, despite what they are saying, clearly didn't enjoy the Blockbuster experience as much as they let on.
Edit: It's akin to the Roll Tide/War Eagle 30 for 30, the most empty, low calorie documentary ever produced in the 30 for 30 series.
This post was edited on 4/5/21 at 10:30 am
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:32 am to UndercoverBryologist
All the guests made me feel like I was watching a show on VH1
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:53 am to Hoodie
I enjoyed it as it brought back the nostalgia of being a kid in the video store. overall it was pretty average documentary
Posted on 4/5/21 at 10:57 am to UndercoverBryologist
quote:
Is anyone really nostalgic for Blockbuster?
I am. The physical store was sort of ingrained in my life as a kid and young adult.
As far as the documentary goes, it was ok. It did seem to be a chore to watch after a while. I enjoyed Netflix vs the World much more, and it touches on the downfall of Blockbuster in that.
This post was edited on 4/5/21 at 11:00 am
Posted on 4/5/21 at 11:08 am to UndercoverBryologist
quote:
Is anyone really nostalgic for Blockbuster?
People get nostalgic for K&B Drugs. It doesn't take much.
If your thing was getting a copy of the latest big movie, Blockbuster was the place. And for most kids and young parents, that's what they wanted.
Those of us that wanted a bigger and deeper selection of movies are more nostalgic for the mom & pops that had all kinds of weird stuff, not just what was currently popular. You can still walk through the larger libraries and get that feeling, walking through the shelves of physical media and finding stuff you've never heard of.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 11:16 am to Fewer Kilometers
My older brother dated a chick in high school who worked at our local video rental store. She brought home lots of free movie posters for us, as well as VHS tapes and Nintendo games that were pulled from circulation as time went on.
Posted on 4/5/21 at 11:18 am to Fewer Kilometers
I honestly thought it was filmed like a late 90s early 00s documentary. I enjoyed it. Her one super fan was cringe. And I felt sad for that one comedian.
This post was edited on 4/5/21 at 11:20 am
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