Movie Rental Staples of the 1990s That You Can’t Find on Any Streaming Service

There was a certain magic that came about when you marched into a Blockbuster on a Friday night to figure out if you wanted a new release or one of the many rental staples you wore out. You’d march around the store, taking in the aisles, like the brightly lit family section, and you might end up in some strange directions. Occasionally, you could rely on the staff picks, which were often about as useful as going off the cover art for some titles.

The 1990s were the decade when the video store blossomed. Indie films took off, often running counter to blockbusters that dominated sales. As the physical video store waned, so did the constant consumption of some of the rental staples we’re covering today. For many titles, if you don’t have a VCR and a copy on tape, you’re out of luck. Today, we’re looking at those forgotten film icons of the 1990s, and you’ll likely be a bit bummed you can’t catch these on streaming.

Pump Up the Volume

It’s wild to think of a time before podcasts, before the spread of opinions from voices big and small alike. There was always pirate radio, making use of illegal FM or AM radio transmitters. The start of the 1990s saw the release of Pump Up the Volume, a time capsule that captured the exact frequency of angst for the Gen X teens that propped up the film. The film starred Christian Slater as a painfully shy student by day and a crude, pontificating shock jock at night, all from the safety of his parents’ basement.

This became a rental staple fairly quickly, becoming a high school sleepover staple for teens. For some viewers, Pump Up the Volume wasn’t just a film, but a rite of passage with an incredible soundtrack with bands like Sonic Youth, Pixies, and Soundgarden, among others.

That famous soundtrack is part of why finding the film on streaming is so difficult these days. Streaming media wasn’t even thought of when the film was released, so we can forgive the studio for not thinking ahead for 36 years. The music is an integral part of the film, so it can’t be easily replaced. This anti-establishment film is still beloved, but it is a bit harder to find now.

Dogma

1999 saw Kevin Smith release Dogma, a biting, ambitious religious satire. The plot follows two castaway angels, played by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who discover a loophole in Catholic dogma that allows them to re-enter heaven. There’s only one catch: if they enter heaven, it erases all of creation in the process.

The cast is a fever dream of who’s who from the 1990s, featuring the talents of Linda Fiorentino, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Jason Lee, Alanis Morissette, and more. It was a film that was tailored for late-night viewings and unending quotes. You’d expect a film like this to remain more than just a rental staple, regularly entering streaming charts for services like Prime Video and Netflix. You’d be sadly mistaken, however, as a rights snarl has kept it from easy access for years now.

Despite the somewhat touchy religious content, Dogma is mostly held up by the film rights being purchased by disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein. Since the rights belong to an individual, rather than a company, they can’t be licensed without directly contacting Weinstein. Smith has expressed zero interest in helping Weinstein out, so it looks rather grim if you want to watch this on streaming anytime soon.

Kids

Larry Clark’s 1995 release, Kids, is one of the most controversial films of the 1990s. It was written by Harmony Corrine and is a drug-fueled day in the lives of a group of teens wandering around New York City. The performances are raw, as most of the cast were total unknowns despite later fame for the likes of Chloe Sevigny and Rosario Dawson. Watching it feels like voyeurism, as it lacks most of the conventions of any Hollywood film.

It became a rental staple thanks to word of mouth. Teenagers would smuggle the VHS home, fascinated by the controversial content. These days, the film is treated as one of the great works in American film for the 1990s. It is a stark, non-judgmental look at substance abuse and how kids navigate growing into adults.

It earned a rare NC-17 rating, a kiss of death for most distributors. Needless to say, in the modern era of streaming, such a controversial film is going to run against the safer, corporate-friendly programming curated for most services. The physical DVDs are also long out of print. If you want to watch it, you’ll be paying a pretty penny, sadly.

Drop Dead Gorgeous

Mockumentaries are better known thanks to shows like The Office. There are a few, rarer examples of these in cinema, like 1999’s Drop Dead Gorgeous. A sharp, pitch-black satire, it follows a small-town beauty pageant in Minnesota that quickly unravels. The film stars Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, and Kirstie Alley, among others, and their attempts to secure the crown for themselves.

The film tanked at the box office, but word of mouth quickly made it a rental staple. Home video often served as a second wind for many films, offering a new lease on life and making them financially viable in the first place. Drop Dead Gorgeous was a cult classic and is a personal favorite. It’s an endlessly quotable film.

Despite this vocal cult following, the film remains missing from streaming apps. Distribution rights are a mess, a natural byproduct of the mergers and acquisitions from the 2000s. As such, the movie remains in a legal gray zone where no single app is willing to pony up the cash to license it for digital distribution. It appeared briefly for its anniversary a few years ago, but vanished when the special short-term license expired. You might happen upon the DVD on the cheap, though, so this isn’t quite as lost as others if you want to watch it now.

Super Mario Bros.

Our last rental staple is a controversial one, but hear me out. If you can get past the trappings of the popular Nintendo game, 1993’s Super Mario Bros. is an unintentionally fantastic camp film to watch. It looks nothing like the cheerful, colorful setting of the Nintendo game, instead depicting a brutal, grimy, cyberpunk wasteland ruled by corporate powers spearheaded by Dennis Hopper giving it his all.

Production was a mess, with lead actors Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo allegedly drinking on set to move past the chaotic structure of filming. The final film is bizarre, with a disjointed plot. If you can get past that and appreciate things like production design, it’s such a bizarre, dark piece that rightfully shouldn’t exist.

Nintendo disavowed the film, banishing any further adaptations of their films for 30 years until Illumination took another swing at it. As such, catching this cult classic is going to be a bit more difficult than you might initially think, at least on streaming services. If you don’t mind physical media, the film did receive a 4K restoration on Blu-Ray for its 30th anniversary. I can’t think of a more or less deserving film for getting such treatment. It’s worth the price of entry to see just how out there the movie is, though.

Conclusion

There is a sadness at looking back to watch films like these. We’re often told that streaming services are a wealth of options, a never-ending library of content for our perusal. However, there was something lost when we went from video rental places like Blockbuster to Netflix. At least VHS tapes didn’t have to worry about licensing agreements expiring.

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