Robert H.
Yelp
Movies. The whole concept is changing every day. The idea of shot on film, edited as film, and shown on film has evolved, Now it's a Frankenstein mashup of synthetically constructed machinima, edited and color graded in a machine, published as 3d HD, 4K or 8K video, hijacked and torrented, watched on an antique CRT, now hazardous waste, playing off a MacBook, maybe Netflix account hijacked or served from the iTunes borg.
But Movie Madness remains the ultimate old school video rental store. They had a competition with Seattle's Scarecrow, for biggest and baddest, and won. (Some claim Scarecrow is bigger owing to its encyclopedic collection of how-to videos)
The owner's madness as a collector is epic. Not only the DVDs and VHS tapes, but a large collection of props from famous films. How about a Maltese Falcon, given to the actor who stared in the namesake film, or scary creature models from Alien, or the actual shower scene knife from Psycho, Yoda, maybe a chair from Casablanca. There is that and more!
That collector ethic for the epic, odd and obscure translates to the videos too. Netflix can never equal it, nor Pirate Bay.
The store is organized by new releases this week/month, last few months; separated by general release, foreign, special interest-documentaries and even erotic. Then there is the classics section organized by leading actor, actress, silent, musicals, film noir and the family friendly section. That's just the front room!
The middle room has a huge foreign section, worth the trip alone, drama, comedy, current actors and actresses, arts films, sections organized by directors, indy and Hollywood (seperately), and TV, organized as British, Westerns, Science Fiction, then by decade.
The back room is a treasure and true reflection of a collector's madness. There are horror films, divided by director, sci-fi, year, series, strange and weird. There are monster movies divided by type of monster, including leviathans and behemoths. Cult movies divided into more than a dozen categories, including the rare and odd Psychotronic releases. Anime and its sub categories - again worth the trip in itself. Bizarre, a closed room for NC-17 films, thrillers, erotic thrillers, spy films, fantasy, kung fu, disaster and music videos.
This is not a complete list by far.
One of the store's best features is the Employee Picks section. It rotates continuously. Remember Tarantino worked for years in a video store, developing his insane knowledge of obscure film. That is the idea here. Employees each pick 3-4 classics ranging from obscure, to ironic, to awesome. I have never been disappointed by an Employee Pick, I have one on rent now. The Employee Pick rentals are $1!
Their computer to search the collection and tell you where it is shelved is primitive. Hope that can improve. The staff at the window by the computer can tell you if an item you can't find is out on rent.
The store also rents a few extremely rare videos, some with special very large deposits, clearly marked. You will not find them anywhere else.
I know that social network sourcing is the future. But for now, Movie Madness is the most well organized video source to browse and find something you can take home from a brightly lit place for hours of enjoyment. It's also a mandatory spot to bring out of town tourists - it's a Portland legend.
