Movie Rentals

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

Prefer to patronize a Mom/Pop video rental store over a chain store like Hollywood Express. Recommendations?
Thank you!

Comments

[visage.livejournal.com]

Is City Video (in porter) a chain?

In any case, Hollywood Express is a pretty small chain.

[syntheticnature.livejournal.com]

I believe City Video has another store on Newbury St., making them the smallest possible chain.

don't be fooled by the name

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

hollywood express, despite the name, is not really a chain store. it's a local establishment that has 4 locations (much like anna's taqueria is a local business with a couple different locations).

also, they have the best. selection. ever. tons of niche-market stuff that chain stores would never stock. they even have a section just for silent films.

Re: don't be fooled by the name

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

Maybe I will be able to find this film called "La Jette" (please forgive my spelling)...the film that "12 Monkeys" was based on.
Thank you much.

Re: don't be fooled by the name

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

oh, cool. I hope you manage to find it. I rather liked 12 Monkeys.

Re: don't be fooled by the name

[frederic.livejournal.com]

I believe that they have it. It's a short film tacked on to something longer. I haven't seen it myself though but I kind of remember seeing it there (well, the one between Harvard and Porter) and putting it on my list of things to see.

They're very knowledgeable there (at least the Central Square and the Harvard/Porter ones) and have a great selection. It is a step above mom'n'pop, but it's as close as you're going to get. When I first got here in '93, there was only one store and now I guess that there are 4. Still the best video store for non-mainstream flicks around.

La Jette

[cybermonk.livejournal.com]

I know the Central Square branch has it (or had it for a time) since I rented it there. I think that one has more movies than the Davis Square one, but I could be wrong. The Central Square one seems to be just crammed full of movies, while the Porter Square one just seems to have the popular titles.

The good thing is, you can return your movies to any brnach, so if you do find it in Central, you can return it to Davis and save yourself the trip.

'oaker.

Re: La Jette

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I've seen it in the Porter Square branch, too.

Re: don't be fooled by the name

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

la jette is an awesome film. i haven't looked for it there, myself, but i'm sure they have it. ask them if you don't see it, they're good about ordering things they don't have, or transferring videos from one of their other locations.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Hollywood Express is a small, local chain and has a better selection of "non-mainstream" videos than most Mom/Pop places I've visited. I encourage giving them your business.

Don't confuse them with that other, typically boring chain, Hollywood Video.

[chuckm.livejournal.com]

Hollywood Express is NOT Hollywood Video.

I made the same mistake when i first moved here.

I like them lots.

There's also a good video store in the porter square mall. I forget its name.

The light dawns

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

Ah!

I'd always been confused when people referenced Hollywood Express as some kind of chain store. I'd never heard of Hollywood Video. Now it makes sense.

(And ditto on Hollywood Express being awesome. Though their Davis location is I think a little thin relative to, say, Porter -- but they do daily transfers between stores.)

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

Yes--I checked out their website and noticed that they only have a few stores in the Cambridge/Somerville area. My family used to have a small chain of three stores, so I'm biased when it comes to catering to smaller businesses.
As always, I value input from Davis Square LJ community members. Will go sign myself up later tonight.
Thanks everyone!

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

Get a Somerville Public Library card and you can search the networks of some forty-odd area libraries. In the past year, there's only been one movie I haven't been able to find.

[maclou.livejournal.com]

Yes I agree, somewhat the best thing of course is that it's free :-P another good thing is sometimes you can rent an entire season of a show all together, I like that. I do have a hard time finding DVDs though...

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

i need to find specific DVDs--not really for the movies, but for special features --- i'm studying post production sound and have been looking for special features of sound design, foley techniques, film scoring, etc. so if the library doesn't have a great selection of DVDs (while i totally support libraries), it wouldn't do much good.
incidently: if anybody knows of DVDs that include special features on post production sound, i'm all ears.
my list so far:
count of mote cristo
lion king: special edition
minority report
AI: artificial intelligence
miracle
slacker
monsters, inc

[twomonkeys.livejournal.com]

I've worked (and still work) at Hollywood Express for the past four years, in front and behind the curtain, and here's the skinny;

The Porter Square store (between harvard & porter but closer to porter) has the most titles (and continues to get more titles the others stores dont have), its the flagship store. The Central Square store has more of an arty/foreign bend, and its two floors. The Davis Square location is the newest store, and has more titles on dvd than the other four stores (like every single in-print Criterion Collection dvd and just about every Superbit title.) Dont let its size fool you; its two floors as well. The Twin City Plaza is the most mainstream, specializing in action/comedy, and has the largest selection of video games.

And just a plug; we're having the seasonal sidewalk sale this coming saturday (October 2nd) in front of the Davis Square store from 10am-5pm ish. Dvd's for $8 each or 3 for $20, vhs for $3 each or 4 for $10. No we're not going out of business, yes all the product works. They're just previously viewed titles that are extra copies that we pulled directly from our rental shelves so we can make room for more product.

[yangelina.livejournal.com]

dropped by the Davis square store last friday, and saw that they were playing "rushmore." that sold me. :)
i'll pass the word on the dvd sale--know some folks that would be interested in picking up some movies.
thanks again, everyone!