Monday, November 28, 2016

Home Alone: 1991 VHS Release

In 1990 the United States was held captive by a young boy named Kevin who was left Home Alone by his negligent parents. When I say this movie was huge, I mean it was huge! I remember Home Alone playing in theaters well after the 1990 holiday season on it's way to grossing over $280,000,000 in the US. I saw the movie in theaters and it really felt like I was part of a cultural event. You weren't cool on the playground unless you could recite at least one line from the movie. My go to was the following quote by big brother Buzz:
"I wouldn't let you sleep in my room if you were growing on my ass!"
Naturally when the VHS was released in 1991, I had to have it! Me, my brother and all our neighborhood friends watched the hell out of that video until we could recite the whole movie line by line! Yes it was annoying, but man we loved that movie!
I still have my original copy of Home Alone on VHS from '91 and drag it out every year after Thanksgiving to watch with my kids. I still catch myself blurting out lines during our watch parties, much to the annoyance of my kids.
There is just something about the old artwork of the VHS tape. From the side panels to the cover art, it just makes me happy. Yes you can find better quality on Blu-Ray, but it does not match the nostalgia of rewinding a tape and fixing the tracking on your VCR so you can watch a grainy picture on your television set. Yes, I can also watch this on demand, but does that come with AN AMZING HOME ALONE BATTLE PLAN POSTER?!!!!!
I was one of the lucky kids who got this free poster when my parents bought the VHS tape. Mine is long gone, but I still remember it hanging on our bedroom wall for years. 
We would look over the plan and use our imaginations to see what we could do to protect our house in case the Wet Bandits made a stop on our street. This thing was AWESOME!
Of course it wasn't an exact replica of Kevin's Battle Plan, but hey it was still a cool thing to have this on our wall for all our pals to see when they came over to play Ninja Turtles or some NES. It gave us bragging right for a short time and what a time it was...unless you were Harry or Marv, THEN IT SUCKED!

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