Reviewed by: John BeutlerDirected by: Dan Kinem and Levi Peretic
Well, I'll be damned!! I'm not alone, in this obsession!! This viewer was recently elated to discover not being so much the misfit, as had originally thought!! I can now proudly peruse through my precious (...ooooo!! My precious...my precious!!) and treasured collection of rare & artfully boxed VHS videotapes, hang my head high, and know that I belong to a much bigger 'brotherhood'...a subtly growing brotherhood, which has remained stubbornly steadfast, in embracing and preserving the long-thought-dead VHS format. Yes, folks...I can now openly sing the praises, and revel in my fellow collectors' collective appreciation and passion, after having recently partaken of the amusingly spotlighting documentary, "Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector"...
In examining the arguably warranted reasons for hanging onto these cherished relics...Is it merely because of certain out-of-print-and-now-ultra-rare-and-obscure film titles not yet released in a digital format (...just gotta quest myself a copy of the herein featured and suggested, ultra-rare and never-heard-of title, "Tales from the Quadead Zone", which several of the collectors in this documentary, pridefully gush over themselves, in possessing in their collections), and now worth tens, even hundreds of dollars?? Could it possibly be the exclusive-to-the-format, beautifully unique and artistically striking artwork on the video boxes, themselves (...my personal favorites, being amongst the exquisitely rendered, artfully original, old Wizard Video big-box tapes)?? Might it perhaps be the surprising durability of the format, itself (...especially those seemingly indestructable, clunky, back-breaking, 90-pound, top-loading machines), as opposed to the easily scratched and thusly, viewing-hampering digital format?? Or maybe it's for the outright nostalgic feel of the format (...those pops, scratches and dropouts surprisingly enhanced many genre movie titles, countless rented and played...almost giving the look and feel of grainy, well-worn 'grindhouse' prints), which many of us movie lovers/collectors remember oh so well. In general, it quite possibly comes right down to the fact that VHS was definitely the dawn of technologically collectable fantasy fulfillment, as far as regularly watching uncut and uninterrupted movies at home, in a format which afforded oneself the opportunity to building one's own personal movie collection. At any rate, no matter the reason, all such views and facets...and more are amusingly & candidly bantered about herein, by a colorfully enthusiastic, select group of characters, who appear most unswervingly dedicated to the cause of salvaging, embracing and proudly upholding the still-embraceable virtues of films rendered on the widely considered obsolete, albeit clearly still-to-some, quite alluring VHS tape format...a format not necessarily, exclusively and collect-ably embraced by merely the film content of the tape, itself...as this amusing documentive study reveals...