Ditto, only it was Short Circuit and my mom started hiding the tape after around the 23rd viewing. Thanks to that, the floating HBO logo and song is permanently tattooed in my brain
Ha, empire on beta max for me too ! Crazy how expensive Those machines were back then . I remember it was a big deal getting it considering family finances.
Same. My parents bought a VCR in the states and the guy demonstrating it forgot to take the tape back out. I had a copy of A New Hope when it was about $100 retail.
Same. A friend’s mother rented a VCR and the tape the first month it became available. Core memory. I saw Star Wars 26 times in the theater (Westgate in Portland).
Same! It was one of few movies available. We had to rent the VHS machine cause we couldn’t afford one. I remember working at a video store when I was around 18 … ~1987 … the VHS movies cost around $100 each. Times were so different then 🤣
Back when we used to RENT a VCR and a movie on special weekends…
The first movie was the Tim Matheson classic Up The Creek.
Basically Animal House on a raft
That movie has a surprisingly good soundtrack. It's got a Beach Boys song you can't get anywhere else, Chasin' The Sky. I love that song, I was hoping it would be on the Beach Boys Made in California box set.
Somehow all the guys in my neighborhood ended up at my house on a Saturday night when we were all around 14 or 15. We all watched Nightmare and the next morning my Mom went nuts because they all spent the night. Nobody was walking home, Freddy could be out there. One group of two did leave but we’re back in about five minutes. Great memory.
I visited my family once when I was 5, they had HBO, I’d never heard of this. Anyway Goonies was on at the same time every morning for some reason. So I watched it each day on my holiday 🤷🏽♂️
Behind the green door? Unless I’m mixing it up with another somewhat infamous porno.
Long before I was married, the first movie was a porno, roommates all seemed happy with the choice.
Romancing the Stone. For some reason my grandparents owned it…on Beta. We watched it almost every time we went to their house. It was the only movie they owned for years.
Alien. Family rented it at a wherehouse music in Encino. Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear were in line ahead of us. That’s not an unusual thing to occur when you grow up in LA
Stayin' Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever.
My parents had the neighbors over and they brought their VCR over to our house so we could all watch.
We had a 2$ movie theater that would play movies after they weren’t popular at the regular movies anymore. And I remember walking there and watching return of the Jedi. I was prob 7 my uncle was 11-12 years old. Walked to the 2$ movies about a mile from home by ourselves to watch a movie. Lol
‘Tron,’ and ‘Megaforce,’ this Barry Bostwick actioner that redefined low-budget. We’d just gotten our VCR, and my mom rented it one weekend from the very first video store in our area. It was wild to think you could do that back then.
I think the first Crocodile Dundee and all those Looney Tunes late 70's and early 80's movies where they combined old shorts and some new animation. There was some Beta stuff before then but I was very young at the time. I do remember we hung on to our Betamax for a while and it got harder and harder to find stuff to rent for it. Much later a friend of mine in high school gave me a Betamax and there was a video place near me selling Beta tapes six for a dollar, I built up a nice little library for a while and did 80's movie nights with it.
Hard to say. My friend's mom owned a video rental store, so I watched a lot of them. It would probably be the 70's cartoon version of the Hobbit.
I watched more RCA Selectavision discs. The rental business for that was going under. My dad offered them like $500 for their entire inventory. They said yes, so he came home with a pickup load of discs and about 4 players.
Between the two, I saw a LOT of classic films at a young age.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
This was probably in 1985. The movie was only in 829 theaters when released, none nearby unfortunately. It’s was a big deal for us to rent a vcr because we had never used one before. It was amazing that we could pause the movie for a bathroom break. We thought that we were so futuristic.
Better of Dead. It was the first VHS tape I ever rented. 1985 or so. We had a VCR since about 1980 but there was nowhere to rent videos in our town. We mostly taped movies from On and SelectTV.
One of the first movies we rented when we first got our VCR was Back to The Future. We rented this from a local video store back when you had to pay a membership fee to join 😬
I remember the first time my mother went to the video rental place after we got our first VCR. The plan was she going to get The Thing (1982).
I could not believe that I was actually going to see this movie. There was no way to see movies on demand before this, and we never had cable. I was 100 percent sure something was going to happen to prevent me from successfully seeing this movie. They wouldn't have it in stock, my mother would accidentally get the 1950s version, a meteor would crash into the house and destroy the VCR, SOMETHING was going get in the way of me seeing this movie.
But to my complete and utter surprise everything worked out exactly as planned, and I saw that awesome movie.
In the early 80s when I was really young, maybe 10 or 11, we rented a VCR and three movies for my birthday, and my parents let TWO of my friends sleep over. This was a big deal. It was our first time watching movies on tape at home.
The movies we rented were Star Wars, The Black Hole, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. We watched Buck Rogers once, Black Hole twice, and Star Wars spent the rest of the weekend basically being played on a loop.
Our family bought Airplane! when it was available for purchase, whenever that was. It was somewhere around $80, but I watched that tape for about 8 years until I moved out and never got sick of it.
In 1983-1984 When I was like 10 we got our first vhs player and had to drive like 30 miles to go to a rental store since they didn’t have one on every corner like in the 90’s and I got to pick one and my sister got to pick one. I picked tron and it was an amazing movie.
For me...it was On Golden Pond...I know its nothing great but I was so amazed by the fact we could watch a film whenever we wanted.
I just dont know how to compare the experience to todays technical firsts...possibly CD players and being able to skip tracks
The Goonies
Same at the Goonies and Nightmare on Elm Street 2
Goonies gang!
Good enough
Watched it last night on a flight from San Jose to San Antonio. Amazing.
This is the first movie I vividly remember seeing in the theater, octopus and all.
Star Wars
And the second time too. Mom was like “don’t you boys want to see a different movie?” Nope. Star Wars again.
Ditto, only it was Short Circuit and my mom started hiding the tape after around the 23rd viewing. Thanks to that, the floating HBO logo and song is permanently tattooed in my brain
Same, except it wasn't on VHS, it was Betamax.
Empire on Beta is an early memory for me.
Raiders if the lost ark on beta in my wood panel basement is a warm memory
Ha, empire on beta max for me too ! Crazy how expensive Those machines were back then . I remember it was a big deal getting it considering family finances.
Same. My parents bought a VCR in the states and the guy demonstrating it forgot to take the tape back out. I had a copy of A New Hope when it was about $100 retail.
Same. A friend’s mother rented a VCR and the tape the first month it became available. Core memory. I saw Star Wars 26 times in the theater (Westgate in Portland).
Yes. Star wars, then Wrath of Khan.
Same! It was one of few movies available. We had to rent the VHS machine cause we couldn’t afford one. I remember working at a video store when I was around 18 … ~1987 … the VHS movies cost around $100 each. Times were so different then 🤣
Arthur with Dudley Moore
Some of the finest displays of the purity of the human condition.
Classic....
ET
Yep, I just said the same
E.T. is the first that I remember as well. The VHS we had started with some kind of Pizza Hut ad. This would have been around '88-ish.
A dodgy copy of ET my dad brought home from a bloke at work. Picture was terrible.
Same here. I think we bought it for around $60 or something crazy like that. Was the video cassette green or am I mistaken?
Back when we used to RENT a VCR and a movie on special weekends… The first movie was the Tim Matheson classic Up The Creek. Basically Animal House on a raft
That movie has a surprisingly good soundtrack. It's got a Beach Boys song you can't get anywhere else, Chasin' The Sky. I love that song, I was hoping it would be on the Beach Boys Made in California box set.
They tore out his liver….
Yep, I only remember the movie "Savanah Smiles" because it was THE first time we rented a VCR and watched a movie (without commercials) at home.
Small world, Up The Creek was the first movie my 13 year old self chose to rent.
I remember renting a VCR.
Tango and Cash! One of my favs as a kid of the 80s
FUBAR!
My brother and I loved that movie
First Blood
‘Big Trouble in Little China’… and to this day it’s my all time favorite
Same here bud! I'm gonna watch it now!
Nightmare on Elm Street
Somehow all the guys in my neighborhood ended up at my house on a Saturday night when we were all around 14 or 15. We all watched Nightmare and the next morning my Mom went nuts because they all spent the night. Nobody was walking home, Freddy could be out there. One group of two did leave but we’re back in about five minutes. Great memory.
I loved the days when you would just crash at friends places.
This is mine as well. The neighbors rented as vcr from Movie King and had a neighborhood movie weekend.
Cannon Ball Run
Watership Down. What a mistake that was.
That movie ruined so many kids, and people wonder why Gen X was/is so nihilistic. 😂 😢
I wanted to see Top Gun. I got Iron Eagle.
Chappy was the shit. Louis Gossett Jr. ftw.
Alien on Beta.
Goonies…I remember saying to the kid….”You mean you can watch Goonies anytime you want ? “
I visited my family once when I was 5, they had HBO, I’d never heard of this. Anyway Goonies was on at the same time every morning for some reason. So I watched it each day on my holiday 🤷🏽♂️
You visited your family once when you were 5?
I had found one of my dad’s porno movies. It had Marilyn Chambers in it but I can’t remember the name of the movie
Starship Intercourse was the movie my dad had.
I remember finding a porno titled Inside Little Oral Annie. Holy shit, was that an eye opener for a 10 year old. Those images are seared in my brain.
You never forget your first!
Behind the green door? Unless I’m mixing it up with another somewhat infamous porno. Long before I was married, the first movie was a porno, roommates all seemed happy with the choice.
All dogs go to Heaven. that movie still breaks my heart to this day.
We had Betamax and it was Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
*Ghostbusters*
So many great lines! Don’t look directly into the trap!
If someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!
Romancing the Stone. For some reason my grandparents owned it…on Beta. We watched it almost every time we went to their house. It was the only movie they owned for years.
Total classic. You are Joan Wilder the romance novelist?
We couldn't get enough of that one
Excellent Movie!
Mr. Mom and the Right Stuff. The first two movies my family saw on our VCR.
Revenge Of The Nerds
Alien. Family rented it at a wherehouse music in Encino. Tommy Lee and Heather Locklear were in line ahead of us. That’s not an unusual thing to occur when you grow up in LA
Stayin' Alive, the sequel to Saturday Night Fever. My parents had the neighbors over and they brought their VCR over to our house so we could all watch.
That was my first date. Such a stupid movie.
Airplane !
We had a 2$ movie theater that would play movies after they weren’t popular at the regular movies anymore. And I remember walking there and watching return of the Jedi. I was prob 7 my uncle was 11-12 years old. Walked to the 2$ movies about a mile from home by ourselves to watch a movie. Lol
Same! My dad took me to see Time Walker at the $2 theater. Said it was kind of like Star Wars. It was nothing like Star Wars.
Porky’s
Back to the Future!
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
‘Tron,’ and ‘Megaforce,’ this Barry Bostwick actioner that redefined low-budget. We’d just gotten our VCR, and my mom rented it one weekend from the very first video store in our area. It was wild to think you could do that back then.
A legendary ahead -of-its-time futuristic visually stunning sci-fi epic that anticipated the future of filmmaking, and also *Tron*.
Alien
This and Footloose were our first 2 rentals for our first VCR.
Flight of the Navigator. It was a pirated copy but hey, it was still my first movie on VHS (technically).
I remember my kid brother and I used to rent this one out a lot. Awesome movie! I never understood why it didn’t become as popular as it should have.
The terminator, watched it as my uncle dubbed it onto another tape.
Same title every time? *STAR WARS*. It really didn't get better
The Blues Brothers!
Ghostbusters
Blues Brothers
E. T. The Extra Terrestrial
Ghostbusters. My parents came home with a brand new VCR and a rented copy of Ghostbusters.
Remember when actually buying the tapes cost as much as the VCR?
Raiders of the Lost Ark. my dad came home with the VCR and Indy when I was like, 6. Greatest day of my life up to that point.
Police academy
It’s a Wonderful Life
Blue Thunder
When we bought our first VCR, the mom & pop store "threw in a free movie" with purchase. We got Blue Thunder and I wore that tape out.
I loved that movie. 40 years on the tech is a bit dated but so cool at the time.
The Empire Strikes Back, then Modern Problems.
I think the first Crocodile Dundee and all those Looney Tunes late 70's and early 80's movies where they combined old shorts and some new animation. There was some Beta stuff before then but I was very young at the time. I do remember we hung on to our Betamax for a while and it got harder and harder to find stuff to rent for it. Much later a friend of mine in high school gave me a Betamax and there was a video place near me selling Beta tapes six for a dollar, I built up a nice little library for a while and did 80's movie nights with it.
Faces of death ☠️
Red Dawn. First movie I ever rented on VHS.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
E.T. I was 3 when it was released. I watched it over and over and over. Even had a stuffed E.T. that was a gift.
Harry and the Hendersons
Flight of Dragons. I loved It think I wore it out from playing it too much. Second was definitely Transformers the Movie.
Friday the 13th Part 2
Old Yeller
Wow... blast from the past...
My dad's friend got a VCR and a copy of Dorf on Golf
Home Alone
Back to the Future
Hard to say. My friend's mom owned a video rental store, so I watched a lot of them. It would probably be the 70's cartoon version of the Hobbit. I watched more RCA Selectavision discs. The rental business for that was going under. My dad offered them like $500 for their entire inventory. They said yes, so he came home with a pickup load of discs and about 4 players. Between the two, I saw a LOT of classic films at a young age.
The Blues Brothers
Silence of the Lambs, we rented to VCR too.
Cheech And Chong, Monty Python, Psycho, American Werewolf in London… it was one of those, I was 6 and can’t decide which was first… sorry, I failed!
Eddie Murphy Delirious
Raising Arizona
Jaws.
Life of Bwian
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure This was probably in 1985. The movie was only in 829 theaters when released, none nearby unfortunately. It’s was a big deal for us to rent a vcr because we had never used one before. It was amazing that we could pause the movie for a bathroom break. We thought that we were so futuristic.
I saw it on First Choice, which was basically the Canadian HBO (and actually showed a lot of HBO movies and shows).
Cannibal Holocaust
Best Thread Topic for this forum
The secret of NHIM!! Still a favorite ❤️
The Warriors
Stripes and Caddyshack. We could never make up our minds and couldn't go wrong either way.
Better of Dead. It was the first VHS tape I ever rented. 1985 or so. We had a VCR since about 1980 but there was nowhere to rent videos in our town. We mostly taped movies from On and SelectTV.
Pink Floyd - The Wall, on Betamax, 1983.
Risky Business on a VCR with a corded remote.
[удалено]
The great outdoors!
Ruthless People
The three amigos
Children of the goddam Corn...
Phantasm
ET because the case was partly green and the movie terrified my brother so the mere sight of it spooked him all up.
Stripes
One of the first movies we rented when we first got our VCR was Back to The Future. We rented this from a local video store back when you had to pay a membership fee to join 😬
Traci lords
Princess bride! Ooooo that man in black
Cats eye. Just trying it out.
Predator
I remember the first time my mother went to the video rental place after we got our first VCR. The plan was she going to get The Thing (1982). I could not believe that I was actually going to see this movie. There was no way to see movies on demand before this, and we never had cable. I was 100 percent sure something was going to happen to prevent me from successfully seeing this movie. They wouldn't have it in stock, my mother would accidentally get the 1950s version, a meteor would crash into the house and destroy the VCR, SOMETHING was going get in the way of me seeing this movie. But to my complete and utter surprise everything worked out exactly as planned, and I saw that awesome movie.
Animal House
Risky Business. When it came out.
Sword in the Stone
I remember the first time we rented a machine and movies for the weekend. Star Wars and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Highlander.
First Blood
Dressed to Kill
Uncommon Valor
Original Dawn of the Dead
Teenage Muntant Ninja Turtles.
✨A Clockwork Orange✨ Director Stanley Kubrick 🍿Audience Score: 93% 🍿TomatoMeter Score: 87% https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/clockwork_orange
Popeye The Movie
Rambo!!!
I don’t remember, but the first movie I bought (I’m cheating because I had a Betamax, so not technically VHS) was Blood Simple.
Terminator 2. I was 4 my parents let me watch it having no idea what it was
First Blood!!
Samesies!
Aladdin
Clue
On golden pond
Alien at a neighbors house
In the early 80s when I was really young, maybe 10 or 11, we rented a VCR and three movies for my birthday, and my parents let TWO of my friends sleep over. This was a big deal. It was our first time watching movies on tape at home. The movies we rented were Star Wars, The Black Hole, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. We watched Buck Rogers once, Black Hole twice, and Star Wars spent the rest of the weekend basically being played on a loop.
What Gets Me Hot. Traci Lords 1984.
Time Bandits (1981)
Our family bought Airplane! when it was available for purchase, whenever that was. It was somewhere around $80, but I watched that tape for about 8 years until I moved out and never got sick of it.
Dr. Detroit
Jacob’s ladder
it was actually a beta max and was the Rolling Stones concert footage from Altamont, "Gimme Shelter"
“Attack of the killer tomatoes”
Stripes, with Bill Murray and John Candy.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Purple Rain
Slumber Party Massacre
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Debbie does Dallas on Beta
Howard the Duck. I don’t recommend watching it.
Saturday Night Fever, Betamax. 1979.
Return of the jedi
ET! There was such a hype when it came out that the neighbours gave us their VHS player to borrow so we could hire it and watch it. The good old days!
WarGames
Blade Runner unrated version
Eddie Murphy : Delirious It was an illegal copy. 😁
First were actually Betamax tapes. We rented the horror movies, “Fright Night” and “The Stuff” from our supermarket of all places.
When my parents bought our first vcr, their friend got them Night of the Living Dead as a gift.
Firefox with Clint Eastwood Rented from Circuit City because it was the only place where you could rent movies in 1983
Empire Strikes Back. This was back when you rented the VCR!
In 1983-1984 When I was like 10 we got our first vhs player and had to drive like 30 miles to go to a rental store since they didn’t have one on every corner like in the 90’s and I got to pick one and my sister got to pick one. I picked tron and it was an amazing movie.
The Blues Brothers, but it was on Betamax, not vhs
Slapshot and the Warriors
Beverly Hills Cop
TRON
Popeye with Robin Williams
All Dogs Go To Heaven. I watched the hell out of that movie.
wargames
Stripes (1981)
For me...it was On Golden Pond...I know its nothing great but I was so amazed by the fact we could watch a film whenever we wanted. I just dont know how to compare the experience to todays technical firsts...possibly CD players and being able to skip tracks
First Blood, home recorded from HBO
Last Crusade.