I happened to "come of movie watching age" during the era of VHS tapes, so this wonderful documentary had some poignant nostalgia for me. What I really liked, however, was that "Rewind This!" was able to do two things at once:1. First and foremost, it played on all the nostalgia from people like myself. For those who experienced it, it truly was a magical time. Not technologically-quality speaking, of course, but just the whole concept of time-shifting viewing. I spent hours recording shows and watching them at my leisure, as well as made countless trips to the local video store to rent tape after tape (being careful, of course, to Be Kind & Rewind!). This documentary feeds into that, as it gathers together a group of people who had similar experiences and just lets them tell their stories. There's something fun in hearing that others had the exact same experience with VHS and video stores as myself. "Right in the childhood", as the phrase now goes!2. Even if a youngster were to stumble across "Rewind This!" (one who doesn't have those life experiences), I think he/she could still enjoy the doc. The reason being, it is also part history lesson. It talks about topics like VHS vs Betamax, the business model of the mom-and-pop video store, the confusing war on aspect ratios, and just the overall significance that home record-able media brought to technology as a whole. For those who've only watched films on discs or through streaming, and have an interest in history, it would be fascinating to see the past timeline of such movie-watching experiences.Overall, "Rewind This!" captured my full attention and held it all the way through. The filmmakers do a great job of covering many different areas without going too over-the-top, while also providing some history/background so the whole thing wasn't just interviews of VHS enthusiasts and collectors. If you are at all interested in this general topic, you'll find something to like here.

Even though I'm not a collector and I don't have a particular affection for the VHS format, I have witnessed the emergence of the videocassette, the video stores and the amazing novelty of watching films at our homes, something which seemed impossible in the times of Super 8 cameras. The protagonists of the documentary Rewind This! are authentic connoisseurs, collectors and many times key figures in this technological revolution, and we can enjoy their anecdotes thanks to director Josh Johnson, who traveled around the world (well, United States, Canada and Japan) recollecting testimony from "normal" famous people, such as Atom Egoyan, Cassandra Peterson and Mamoru Oshii, as well as from authentic psychotronic celebrities, such as Frank Henenlotter, Roy Frumkes and the late Mike Vraney. We can also witness pleasant interviews to people like Lloyd Kaufman, Charles Band and David Schmoeller. But the most sincere and emotive words come from the fans who don't only share their memories, but also illustrate the genuine importance of the VHS format as a cultural archive in danger of extinction due to the natural deterioration of the magnetic tape. For better or for worse, during the boom of the home video, thousands of films were exclusively edited on VHS, and not all of them had enough popularity in order to resurrect on DVD years later. This means that a significant part of "B" cinema will get lost forever in a few years from now, because so far, there isn't anybody like Martin Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola taking care of their preservation, like they are currently doing with the old films shot on celluloid. On the other hand, some people will say that films such as Ninja the Protector or Santa with Muscles don't deserve to be preserved, and that in fact, it would be better for humanity if they end up becoming semi-magnetic jelly... but those are obviously not the people this documentary was made for. So, I found Rewind This! a very entertaining documentary, and I recommend it not only to those who share the memories of that era, but also to modern lovers of cinema convinced that "cinematographic art" possesses enough categories in order to admit those modest films which defined a time, even though its popularity has dissipated through the years.

Josh Johnson's "Rewind This!" is a look at the rise of home video and the effect that it had on entertainment. As a member of the first generation that never knew a world without video cassettes, I could relate to some of the stuff that the interviewees say. I of course started out by watching Bugs Bunny cartoons on the newly released videos, and I always liked watching them over and over again.Part of the pleasure in the documentary is watching the scenes from some of the movies that the featured video stores carry, such as disemboweled bodies. Sometimes my friends and I would watch scenes in slasher flicks over and over again (namely the tent scene in "Jason Goes to Hell"). Thanks to Movie Madness, I've seen some pretty obscure flicks."Rewind This!" prompts me to ask another question: why aren't certain movies available for home viewing? My mom often tells me about "The Gravy Train" (about some friends who hatch a robbery scheme to get rich) and Michael Apted's "Stardust" (about the rise and fall of a rock star; not to be confused with a 2007 movie with the same title). She saw both movies in the theater when they got released, but neither ever got released on VHS, and neither has gotten released on DVD. One would think that since the studios could make money by releasing them, so that would be enough of a motivation. Meanwhile, they release every stupid Tom Cruise movie.Anyway, it's fun to watch the documentary and learn all this stuff about the medium. Truly fun stuff.

I've always had a fondness for home media, the variety of formats that once existed, the obscure oddities one can find on VHS, and venturing through video stores and flea markets to make new discoveries. Because of this, I'm part of the obvious audience for Rewind This!, a delightful homage to the brilliant and once-ubiquitous home media that was VHS, and how its impact on the movie industry and the public is still prevalent today.Here's a film that will leave the devoted fans of VHS (like me) just wanting more. For the reason that I'm a huge supporter of the VHS-resurgence movement and continue to buy and collect the media, I'm going to try to make this review not sound like simple- minded fandom constructed into an essay. The film makes a bold attempt at trying to tackle everything VHS, from its meteoric rise, its unfathomable effect on the film industry as a whole, its fan, and its differences from its contemporaries. The documentary allows several people to make statements, some directors, some preservationists, some distributors (including the late Mike Vraney of Something Weird Video) but many the fans and supporters of the medium who rekindle their love for its simplicity and its immensity.VHS, to me, is such a unique way to watch film, mainly because of the primitiveness and sensitiveness of the device. With tape, there were many more issues that could arouse, with the worse case scenario it getting stuck in your player. But then there are the imperfections of the picture, such as the glitches, the occasional sloppiness of its appearance, the degradation of the tape when certain scenes are played too much, etc. Then there is the box art, which is a work of art in itself. A section of the film devotes itself to showing how unique and inventive the artwork to the VHS covers were, with them often being handpainted and meticulously put together rather than the depressing, effortless, digitized movie-covers/posters we're so used to today.Furthermore, the film shows how daring and unique home video really was at the time of its inception. Had it not been for an optimistic soul like Andre Ray, who worked for a video engineering company in the seventies, perhaps home video wouldn't have come around so quickly. Ray, who helped manufacturer videotapes at the time, wondered if you could put a full length movie on a certain size tape. When he discovered it was possible, he contacted several movie studios, hoping to get them to buy into the idea of consumers having their films to cherish and watch at their leisure. Few bought in, but one of them happened to be Fox (pre-Star Wars fame), who allowed them to put several of their classic titles on tape at roughly $80 - $90 a pop.Ray didn't even foresee the explosion of the rental industry, which simply came along because numerous people wanted a try-it-before-you-buy-it kind of system, simplifying the process of discovering a film for consumers even more. Oddly enough, that became the defining industry set forth by the home video boom. Nobody could foresee the industry taking off let the industry where people wander around a store swarmed with movies picking out whichever ones they wanted for a Friday night viewing.The film does a good job at articulating a question I had for a while and that is why were so many film distribution companies around during the inception of VHS that have since went on to disappear or go defunct in recent times. This is because of experimentation. When rental stores started popping up, they needed films to line their shelves. And thus, numerous distributors began popping up, inquiring quirky, often weird, experimental slashers or just asinine little gems to produce and help keep stores lined with inventory. Eventually, the studios took over and it became the big five or six companies calling all the shots.One subject that could've been explored much more in depth was the idea of cheap VHS bootlegging, which was done through magazine, handmade flyers, and communication via mail. People would make list of films they had that were either banned, rare, or out of print and would transfer them to blank tapes then smuggle them through the mail. However, due to some strict federal regulations, often times people would tape part of a TV show to play before the actual film to fool potential inspectors. Vraney talks about his experience as a bootlegger, as well as several others, but the revealing and now extinct process is a bit shortchanged and given maybe three to four minutes of attention.Rewind This! beautifully articulates obsession, impact, and legacy, and never drags or becomes boring, mainly because its subjects have so much insight and observations to offer. It's a must see for the obvious fans of the medium, but due to its commentary on an industry most all of us indulge in, it should almost be mandatory viewing.Directed by: Josh Johnson.