“I used to have an uncle called Derek.” Amazing, heartwarming, action-packed story.

R.I.P. Uncle Derek, thanks for contributing to the internet posthumously.

Stuart, you can't distinguish between Steven Seagal movies, but judging by his acting, neither can he.

I work for a merch wholesaler, and we ended up with A LOT of leftover merch from the Shaolin Wheel of Life tour. I think we still have the tour books and the plastic prayer bead wristbands.

Since this video touches on VHS tapes that weren't properly rewound, I think it's a good time to remind people to always rewind youtube videos to beginning when you are done watching them. Have you ever clicked on youtube video and it took a long time for it to start up? That was because some asshole who watched that video before you didn't bother to rewind, so youtube servers had to waste time doing it automatically. So always be kind and rewind, it's not hard to do!

Now we just need the Ashens - Brutalmoose VHS Extravaganza crossover and i can die happy.

Also, I miss VHS cover art. So amateurish, yet so unique and anarchic.

I bet when Uncle Derek wrote Grumi on that VCR he never suspected that 20 years later people around the world would be desperately trying to guess what movie it was.

"They look kind of stinky" is such a wonderful way to describe a film

Re: The Crow Something very smiliar may have literally _just_ happened on the set of Alec Baldwin's current film (Rust)!

The uncle Derek story had me sitting on the edge of my seat, a white knuckle ride the whole time, if you want a entertaining time and something the whole family will enjoy, watch it.

My guess for the mystery VHS set is Ghostbusters I/II, because Stuart would probably hold that back to do a video with Gannon.

From what I remember about Brandon Lee's death, it wasn't cloth stuck in the gun but part of a dummy round. The pistol had been fired earlier in the day with a dummy round -- effectively a full bullet without the usual powder to push it out of the gun -- and the tip of it had separated and stuck in the barrel. When a blank round -- a bullet without the part that separates and flies towards the target -- was later loaded and fired at Lee, the propellant launched the stuck piece of dummy round right at him, killing him. The Brandon Lee incident has popped back up in the news lately due to the whole Alec Baldwin gun incident. I guess even now there are still fatalities entirely down to someone getting lax with safety precautions.

The Lethal Weapon 1 and Lethal Weapon 2 VHS set, I had that one as a kid and it seems to suit your Uncle Derek's taste.

“Is this the one about a stolen nuclear bomb?” Well, it’s Tom Clancy, so probably.

I love the perceived premise I have of cliffhanger from the very little that was featured here. "Come on, John Cliffhanger, we need you back to climb one more cliff, you're the best in the business." And then he gets shipped off to the rockies where he gets revenge on the cliff that took his partner.

The Crow is my favourite film of all time. I love comics and horror and romance and that film just epitomised all of those things for me. Brandon was indeed fantastic as Eric Draven, so tragic that he died so young, and in such a horrible and unnecessary way.

Ah yes, Recky is one of my favorite films! I love the scene at the end where he has a decisive win against Mercury Creed and yells out "Aiden!" at the end!

From what I can recall VHS labels were never known for being particularly interesting. That was more of the cover's work. I guess the only reason the Daredevil one had a more elaborate label is because that movie came out relatively late into the format's lifespan, and people were getting used to CDs/DVDs with nice prints on them.

Your Uncle seems like a guy I would hang out with and have a beer. Even in his current condition.

"I was given the VHS tapes to deal with". The mind boggles.

weird coincidence to be talking about Brandon Lee's death today. It just happened again to someone else.

Dr. Ashen's Uncle Derek : _"....I left all of my treasured VHS tapes for my dear nephew Stuart"_ Cheapshow's Uncle Derek : _" _*_Bone Hoover_*_ "_

“They look kinda of stinky” title for the third Ashens movie

Schwarzenegger - Nothing like it has ever been on Earth before.

Wow that timing was impeccable given what happened with Alec Baldwin today

“Does it add an ambience, or does it just remove visual fidelity?” - a question I have asked every single time I go to get rid of a box of VHS tapes.

First watched Zulu on TV as a young child and it scared me half to death. As an adult what scares me is that it actually happened though not necessarily as depicted in the film. As a movie it was fairly respectful of the Zulu and portrayed them as a civilised nation responding to an aggressive invader. Cain's character begins as a huge snob who is then humbled by the brave but common soldiers around him. The silence at the end of the battle as they survey the carnage. You can almost hear them thinking "Did we really do that?" My nephew at that point asked me if Rourkes Drift really happened. He then said "But that's horrible." Yes, that's war for you. Avoid if possible.

"They fired a prop gun..." *Insert CJ saying "Ah shit here we go again"* Edit: While we're mentioning film related things we like, Ashens streams on Twitch Wednesdays and Sundays with quizzes, old games, and sometimes on Sundays shitty old VHS covers

I believe the reason they are not fully rewound is that they are ready to watch after the adverts and trailers. I used to do this to tapes that had them.

"I'll give you a very strong hint: It's a film and its sequel!" Well. That limits it to about a Million movies...

Is the double pack The Nutty Professor and The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps perchance? Also Gromi… could be Wallace and Gromit perhaps?

My guess for the mystery movie and it’s sequel is Mannequin and Mannequin 2: On the Move because I bet uncle Derrick fancied Kim Cattrall

"They fired like a prop gun..." Eeeeeeek.

33:20 there are a grand total of six volumes of Akira. You absolutely should read them, they are incredible and 100% worth it. Yes, the film does try and condense it all, and loses some of the character and impact from the books, but I think you went a little harsh on it - I think the film is brilliant in its own right, if you can get your head around it.

I'll never get rid of my WWF tapes, even PPVs I recorded live as a kid. So many memories.

uncle Derek needs to buy those tape cleaners to avoid the molds, RIP uncle Derek.

Gods! This took me back to my Carboot Sale days of looking for dodgy 80s horror VHS tapes...usually hidden amongst a ton of Mills & Boon books

"The Sum of All Fears" is probably much better than that utter tosh classic, "The Fear of All Sums", about a student who has a truly bizarre and abject phobia of math class.

Akira was the first mainstream anime hit in America too. So much so, in fact, that to this day there's still a bit of a stereotype to the Japanese about how much Americans love Akira

Nice timing on the Brandon Lee death story right there.

Mad Max 2 is probably the best Mad Max movie. 1 is the origin, but Mad Max 2 just perfected the formula.

Honestly what I find really super interesting is how different UK vhs boxes are from the US. Video rental stores had this kind of boxes but the ones you bought at the store were the clamshell style here or the soft cover. I have a ton of vhs from my childhood and none have this kind of cover 😂

Mc Vicar, once worked in Mcdonald's for 23 years, to pay for his sins for selling fast food lukewarm to customers. He decides to become a vicar, but soon falls into a situation hotter then anything he served in hospitality. 😂 That's what came to my mind when I saw the title of the VHS tape.

When you said "Jackie Chan broke every..." I was expecting "bone in his body"

There was a recent rerelease of the Akira manga with extra concept art and stuff. It's definitely worth reading the whole thing in my opinion

I really miss VHS cases. There’s something about the way the plastic shines that’s unusually pleasing. DVD and Blu-ray cases just don’t look the same, the plastic on the VHS is slightly opaque, maybe that’s what it is? Also I can imagine Ashens regarding a dusty box of VHS tapes on a shelf as if it were the Ark of the Covenant! Hmmmm, free content, result!

Haven’t watched Zulu? I almost dropped my cuppa.

Might as well watch some Ashens on a Friday night…. What wizardry is this? A new episode? Ye Gods!

Is this british Redlettermedia now? If so sign me up

Ashens calls them "rewound," I suspected some of them are "unwatched."

The Warriors - one of the best films ever. Long pointless story, I was about 14 and telling my dad about a film called 'Sneakers' (great film) to which my dad mentioned a film called 'The Warriors'. Literally the weekend after during school holidays I was up late and a film came on. Afterwards, gutted that it had ended, I remembered the name. Told my dad he was like 'Yea that's the film I told you about'. Fantastic film, old and dated a bit now but an absolute classic.

I'm curious what Ashens thinks is a "good label". They all looked like that back in the day

Those generic VHS labels give me a huge Proustian rush in a way the bespoke ones never do. Call me mad, but I love them.

The Sum of All Fears is the one movie I have never successfully stayed awake during I own it on VHS and I have tried to watch it a few times lol

When I was growing up Zulu was one of my dad's fav movie and forced me to watch it every bloody week on a Sunday. I got so sick and tired watching it but watched it again for the first time in 20 years earlier this year and thought it was quite entertaining.

What is this obsession with labels. VHSs never had fancy labels. Just the title, key actors, director and that was pretty much it.

2 "Mystery tapes". They are "mystery" either for laughs, or because of something else... I think those were "Emmanuelle" and "Emmanuelle 2". A staple of sorts.

My local Blockbuster in the mid-late 90s (Yorkshire UK) was fairly big and i remember them having a rather substantial Anime/Manga VHS section, they had a big Wrestling section too.

Akira wasn't the first to make it into common video rental stores, I know because me and my brother used to rent anime, and some were very common and they predate Akira, one example are the Devilman movies. Ultimately the first anime to commonly find their way into common video rental stores in foreign countries were in the 1980's, Akira came later in the early 90's. Akira was of course a single movie. I didn't end up looking at Akira until much later, like in 2012. I also was confused by it, the visual detail in the movie was impressive, but I couldn't quite fathom how the story told in the movie is great, I got the feeling I was missing context or meaning, many things happened without any explanation, and strange deformed powers etc, I also got the feeling that they didn't have enough time to actually flesh out the story in that single movie, and the amount of story compression left it feeling a bit like random events occurring and you were unsure how it's all meant to fit together and what it's even meant to signify.

The Predator VHS has accidental behind-the-scenes shit (because of the pan & scan) that you won't see any more. I remember, as a kid, smiling as I watched Carl Weathers hide his arm down his trousers before being lifted by a wooden catapult.

I'm guessing at 'Romancing the Stone' and 'Jewel of the Nile' for the mysterious 21st tape.

Rest in Piece Uncle Derek, you had a good collection of VHS.

I was going to make a joke that Cube and Cube 2: Hypercube could be the mystery video, but after looing it up to see if it would be possible, I've just discovered they've made a Japanese adaptation of Cube, and it only came out yesterday! What a weird coincidence

The crow chose the worst time to make an appearance given the Baldwin incident

I watch The Crow every year on devil's night, love it. Halloween ain't til manana. :v Shitty and lax on-set armorers are so dangerous because a firearm loaded with blanks is capable of doing basically the exact same thing a live round would if something is stuck in the barrel. From what I understand a poor quality armorer loaded the revolver with regular rounds that had the powder removed but not the primer for a closeup. The hammer was dropped and the primer exploding had enough force to lodge the bullet in the barrel. It was loaded with blanks after (and never inspected somehow, again incompetence) and with the exploding blank with a bullet lodged in the barrel it basically became a regular gun. It sounds like the Alec Baldwin thing was EVEN MORE STUPID because they had live bullets on set for who the fuck knows what reason.

that Shaolin Wheel of Life really is spectacular, they showed in on Channel 4 some years ago

The Crow being one of these tapes shows that the universe has a sick sense of humor

The weirdest VHS I remember owning was a double feature of men in Black and bad boys

Prediction for the two-pack: Gremlins & Gremlins 2.

I had a Law and Economics course in college and the professor would always use Mad Max as his example of anarchy. I loved that course.

Great video Stuart, as usual you have taken us back to a time of nostalgia with showing us the era of the VHS, Loved your commentary in the video and your late uncle had a great taste in movies so for that reason alone I am guessing the double VHS set was The Terminator & Terminator 2 Judgement Day, two great films and definately fits in with his taste.

ZULU is a great movie - not rewound maybe means great and watched to the end, whereas rewound means - "watched 20 minutes and it is crap so rewind and eject"

Ashens- "How will I search through all of those comments...Magic?" Me- "E's a wizard Barry!"

damn the timing of showing the crow with what just happened to alec baldwin

I’ve actually just started collecting VHS again so this video came out just at the right time for me 😁 amazing stuff

Like many others, I'd never even heard of 'The Warriors' until Rockstar made their 2005 video game based on it. I think this was at least partly responsible for starting the revival in interest. It's most definitely how I came to discover this brilliant cult classic. Anybody thinking about watching it should watch the original theatrical cut, though, not the 'Director's Cut' with all it's out-of-place comic book style segues. They look too modern and shiny to suit the grungy look of a 70's movie - and in my opinion, they add absolutely nothing to the experience.

Lovely! Is there going to be a Halloween Tat Special this year

'It's rare that you're going to watch a Jackie Chan film and be bored.' ...Rumble in Hong Kong. I rest my case.

I'd imagine the PS2 game Rockstar put out had something to do with The Warriors movie talk re-emerging.

Ah haaa, man, I saw ZULU back in 2016 and it became, then and there, my favorite war movie; I find it to be rather outrageously good.

Is it Home Alone 1+2? Your uncle's essentials collection would be complete.

I enjoyed Zulu, though it was a pain to stream it. Had to download one of those "free" TV watching apps, that I'd never heard of

The Battle of the Bulge features an intermission that just has a title screen and specially composed music for about ten minutes in the middle of the film.

Clearly the two movies Ashens left out were House and House 2: Second Story.

Ok, if I had to take a guess at the two-pack VHS, I'd imagine it's The Never Ending Story and it's Sequel. I'm only guessing this because we has those movies in a two-pack myself when I was growing up. XD

One thing about The Warriors that few people probably know. A PSP Game of The Warriors was released. If I can remember right, it was quite enjoyable.

For the 2-pack you left out, I'm torn between guessing "The Amityville Horror"/"Amityville II: The Possession" or "An American Tail"/"An American Tail: Fievel Goes West" for whatever reason. If I have to guess only one, I'm going with the Don Bluth cartoons since Amityville would actually be seasonally appropriate and you might actually make sure to mention them over some of the weaker films in the pile. So, yeah, I'm guessing it's "An American Tail" and "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West"

Is Ashens replacing Red Letter Media?

Pokémon 1 & 2... Literally the only two VHS's I own

Zulu is one of my mum's favourite films, I always catch her watching it whenever it's on TV, the same goes for Spartacus. I've never seen either film all the way through, but my mum bloody loves them.

I got Akira and Urotsukidoji both on vhs the same day, my dad brought them back for a car boot after seeing I liked Pokemon. That was an odd day for an 8 year old.

the brandon lee thing coming up now. it's rough

McVicar is a bloody fantastic film. Brilliant!

I remember when you showed a clip of "hey it's no bull. I wouldnt lie to ya about 3,000 centipedes". I'm still in disbelief to this day.

Zulu is fantastic, a friend of mine had a relative that was in the battle, one of the recovering guys who had to defend the house

Anyone else feel like it's ironic there was a Brandon Lee film in there after the whole news about Alec Baldwin, so tragic xx

Stuart, I gave away my old Star Wars trilogy on VHS when I was updating all my films to DVD. THEY WERE THE ORIGINAL THEATRICAL EDITS! What a damn fool I was! 🫤

That was interesting... I also own a couple of odd vhs tapes, one of them is a movie with meg ryan and alec baldwin, and it's HORRENDOUS XD

It's so bizarre, only today in work I was talking about The Warriors film whilst clinking a glass and creepily saying 'warriors, come out to play, warriors come out to playay'.