VivaVHS

At the beginning of December I was alerted to a very interesting auction on the e of the bay. This particular auction was for a box of random VHS tapes, or as the seller so colourfully described as "LUCKY DIP A BOX OF MYSTERY VHS VIDEO TAPES, WHATS INSIDE THE BOX???".
When two words like 'mystery' and 'tapes' are thrown together into a sentence, well, you can imagine how fast my heart was pumping.
The little VHS fairy appeared on my right shoulder telling me that the box would be filled with nothing more than Jane Fonda workout tapes, and on the left shoulder the devil himself appeared and planted the seed in my brain that maybe the seller knew nothing about rare tapes, and maybe, just maybe the box had the potential to be a Video Nasties dream haul. My mind was made. I placed my bid.

I purchased the tapes two weeks before Christmas and asked my wife if she would wrap each tape up individually, that way I would have 25 mysteries as opposed to just one, she reluctantly agreed.
Unfortunately the tapes didn't arrive in time for the big day, or even in December at all, prompting me to leave the following feedback on the sellers page - "The biggest mystery was the delivery date."

On January 11th the tapes finally arrived, and I wasn't exactly in the greatest of moods when the doorbell rang either, so instead of getting excited I simply ripped the box apart. What fell out were nothing more than mainstream sell through releases and simply bad films in general. The fairy was right!

It's amusing to me that the rarest tape among this bunch is a pre-cert Shakin' Stevens video. Had it have been delivered on time, I might have found it all a little more worthwhile. Never again.

The original ebay link can be found here.

This is an original piece of art for the Albert Finney film 'Loophole' ('81).
It is approximately half quad size and produced on board. I do not know whether it was produced for a cinema poster or for video, nor do I know who the artist was.

Visually, the piece is quite appealing, however it has 2 major fold marks, which run down the centre horizontally and vertically and a piece of acetate overlay which is stuck to the artwork.

Even so, it is a one of a kind piece and would look beautiful displayed.

Please note that this is not mine (if only!), it comes from a friends personal collection and I thought i'd share. In my opinion this is far too lovely to be sitting inside some box. He's also currently listening to offers of over £80 for it.

Another simply stunning piece.

This piece was produced for the UK cinema quad of 'National Lampoon's Animal House' (78) - I do not know the artist.
It is the original artwork and an amazing piece, produced in several layers, all in superb condition. The top layer is an acetate, with an overlay of breaking glass from a picture frame. The second layer is the picture frame itself. The third layer is the picture within the frame, of the students in the fraternity.

The artwork is approximately quad size and produced on board.

Please note that this is not mine (if only!), it comes from a friends personal collection and I thought i'd share. In my opinion this is far too lovely to be sitting inside some box. He's also currently listening to offers of over £350 for it.

Another simply stunning piece.

This piece was produced by famed exploitation/horror/science fiction artist Tom Chantrell for the science fiction exploitation film 'Prisoners of the Lost Universe' ('83).
It was used for the US one sheet and also American video releases. This is the original artwork and is also signed by Chantrell himself.

The artwork is approximately one sheet size and produced on board. It comes with an acetate overlay (which is damaged) and lettering. The artwork itself though is still in lovely condition.

Please note that this is not mine (if only!), it comes from a friends personal collection and I thought i'd share. In my opinion this is far too lovely to be sitting inside some box. He's also currently listening to offers of over £400 for it.

Another simply stunning piece.

This piece was produced by artist Sam Peffer for the sexploitation film 'Emmanuele 3' ('77).
It was used for the UK cinema quad release and is the original artwork. It was also used as the basis for the Hokushin pre-cert carton release.

The artwork is approximately quad size and produced on board. It comes with an acetate overlay with lettering cleverly placed so as to hide the naked breasts of the ladies on the art. When lifted, the breasts can clearly be seen in all their glory as seen in the pics.

Please note that this is not mine (if only!), it comes from a friends personal collection and I thought i'd share. In my opinion this is far too lovely to be sitting inside some box. He's also currently listening to offers of over £400 for it.

Another simply stunning piece.

This piece was produced by famed exploitation/horror/science fiction artist Tom Chantrell for the Mary Millington classic 'Whats Up Superdoc!' ('78).
It was used for the UK cinema quad release and is the original artwork, signed by the late Tom Chantrell. It was also used as the basis for the Hokushin pre-cert carton release.

The artwork is approximately quad size and produced on board.

Please note that this is not mine (if only!), it comes from a friends personal collection and I thought i'd share. In my opinion this is far too lovely to be sitting inside some box. He's also currently listening to offers of over £500 for it.

A simply stunning piece.

With every top 10 list comes a bottom 10. I've seen some really awful movies this year but thankfully not many of them have been released in 2011, which made the task of finding 10 movies quite difficult for me. Most were decent, far from awful, but these few were truly terrible.
A few on the list are present because of expectation more than anything else, some directors should know better.

1 - Red Riding Hood
2 - The Resident
3 - Sucker Punch
4 - Unknown
5 - Hall Pass
6 - Shark Night
7 - Zookeeper
8 - Mars Needs Moms
9 - Horrible Bosses
10 - Your Highness

Honourable mentions;
We don't even need to speak about Yogi Bear (2010). 

This list is compiled of my favourite older movies seen for the first time in 2011.

In addition to the many new releases that I have caught this year, I have also seen well over 200 older movies for the first time. Some completely blew me away, others bored my eyes to the point of sleep. Thankfully these handpicked titles are the better ones.
I found it far too difficult to cut the list down to just 10, hopefully you can forgive me.

2 - Body Double (1984)
3 - Freebie and the Bean (1974)
4 - The Silent Partner (1978)
5 - Into the Night (1985)
6 - Charley Varrick (1973)
7 - Poor Pretty Eddie (1975)
8 - Venom (1981)
9 - Crusing (1980)
10 - Hardcore (1979)
11 - Last Embrace (1979)
12 - Of Unknown Origin (1983)
13 - Sorcerer (1977)
14 - Who Can Kill A Child? (1976)
15 - American Gigolo (1980)
16 - Thief (1981)
17 - 52 Pick-Up (1986)
18 - Rollercoaster (1977)
19 - Bells aka Murder by Phone (1982)
20 - The Hidden (1987)
21 - California Split (1974)
22 - The Night Before (1988)
23 - The Hot Rock (1972)
24 - Dressed to Kill (1980)
25 - Cobra (1986)

Honourable mentions;
Taffin (1988), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986), Quick Change (1990), The Club (1980), Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), Loverboy (1989), Youngblood (1986), Two Crippled Heroes (1980), Pulsebeat (1984), Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985), Trojan War (1997), North Shore (1987), Christmas Evil (1980), Dead Heat (1988) and Raw Force (1982). I could just go on and on...

As you can see, 2011 has been a very good year for older movies. 

Although there are tons of movies that still haven't made it to British screens, plus the possible list breakers that I have yet to see - Hugo, Snowtown, The Skin I Live In, Midnight In Paris, The Tree of Life, Melancholia and Take Shelter to name but a few, the following movies are the ones that have made the biggest impression on me throughout the year.

As we go to press, I have currently seen 124 new movies this year.

My Top 10:

1 - Drive
2 - Captain America
3 - Hanna
4 - Source Code
5 - Super 8
6 - Cell 211 (2009)
7 - Submarine (2010)
8 - Attack the Block
9 - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
10 - Moneyball

Honourable mentions;
Take Me Home Tonight, Warrior, The Guard, Cedar Rapids, 50/50 and Tangled (2010).