Still Breathing: Video City and The Fly Story

Last Sunday I stepped into the "still breathing" Video City rental store in the nearby mall. I was quite reminded that it was still there, thriving with its regulars and with curious folks like me, who wonder what else could it still offer despite the availability and accessibility of DVD copies and downloads. The store was surprisingly crowded for a Sunday night. Customers had a certain beaming look and higher level of familiarity with the attendants, which instantly make them the "regulars" I was referring to. There were also some individuals and kids passing by taking advantage of the marked down prices of neatly packed VCDs and DVDs. The store is surprisingly still alive.

As I was breezing through their racks, I was looking specifically for older titles to relive my laser disc days. I specifically missed those 80's and 90's movies that really took a large chunk of my childhood and pre-adolescent life. I remember watching Just One of the Boys, Married to the Mob, Ferris Beuller, Say Anything, The Way We Were, The Big Chill, Terms of endearment. I miss the era when Winona was still known as Dinky, Falcor was still flying high and when John Cusack was the Shia Le Bouf we know now. Just like what Barbara Streisand sings "Memories, in the corners of my mind.." Stop. It took me less than 5 minutes to know that the selections were pretty much devastating. The tapes were unorganized and the titles just seemed to be there without any proper cataloging or reason at all. It's as if it just took up space, not to mention poor mainstream titles, which plots never made it to the basic level of human cerebrum. It was hopeless. I was about to give up when I saw familiar cover that tickled my past.

THE POD! The pod was all I can say, as I grabbed the aging DVD. It is...it's "THE FLY!" As if I was in a trance, I grabbed another CD which it turned out was Inventing the Abbotts and paid the rental feel at the counter. I reached for a hundred bucks when the attendant said that it was only for 32 bucks, for both titles. I fished some coins and gave it to them.

The 1986 remake of the Fly starring Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, the Big Chill) really introduced me to the brilliance and gorry side to horror movies. The Fly together with Candyman and Nightmare on Elm Street and The IT, really scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. I was scared, I know, but I think I've enjoyed the sensation too much that I can still remember clearly.



What I liked about the Fly is the human hunger for inventing and recognition that science does go wrong and sometimes the effect is irreversible. It is human arrogance to the extreme! In this movie, a certain passion gone haywire was best displayed, and who could ever forget the consequences of metamorphosis of Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum). Now that I'm seeing it as an adult, I do understand some uncut scenes where he developed a sex maniac behavior. Literally, I was sent out of the room when I was a kid a couple of times watching this movie. Now I know why, and my parents exaggerated as usual. It wasn't that hardcore. But the hardcore part are the metamorphosis of the physical aspects, the gestures and personality. Flies are disgusting, dark and dirty, imagine its gene meshed with humans. Also, the graphics part are mild compared to now, but I cannot in the life of me, stand the nails popping out with the squish sound. ON a lighter note, I cracked so hard when Seth Blunder spewed fly-vomit while talking to the distressed Geena Davis. Awkwardness to the extreme.

I felt my childhood came back to life as I watched this again, fully understanding it as an adult. Before I was only in it for the graphics and showmanship. Now I understand it better. One can never be too arrogant and knowledgeable in this life. Like a fly, it's bound to be disgusting. And, never get too drunk and too emotional when doing experiments. It's bound to end it stupidity.


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