Video Ezy

Have been hiring DVDs from Video Ezy for a few years now. Generally they have all the new releases available, and if not you can request it! The service is a bit touch and go sometimes, depending on who serves you! They stock popcorn, Dorito chips, ice creams and cold beverages:) also they do weekly deals, new release deals etc, also stock blue ray and gaming.

Why does this video store have a better range of movies than every other store? Not that I’m complaining it’s too good, just that the others are all crap, so if I wanto to rent some good DVDs I’m forced to get in my car and drive here, inevitably walking past Ponsonby Central, SPQR etc, not good on a trackies and ugg boots day!
The selection of movies here is so much better in every section, new releases, comedy, film festival/​independant, and my personal fave, foreign language.
I just wish every other movie store would take note and purchase DVDs of interesting movies rather than the same old recycled Hollywood plot lines.

The thing about franchises is that they live or die on their staff, because that’s all they have that they can control. Video Ezy’s prices are set by the head office; their design and style are defined by the head office; to a large extent their stock is dictated by the head office. But it’s up to each individual branch who they hire, and this is where the Ponsonby branch has it over a lot of the others. The staff here are those typical film nerds you see in American college comedies, with the requisite cardigans and terrible beards. But that’s in no way an insult because along with the style comes an intensive knowledge and passion about movies; and seeing as they all work in a video store this is really useful. Ask them a question and they’ll not only have an answer, they’ll also have a couple of other suggestions. Also, they let them play their own music in the store, which means sometimes you get to hear really good music in the store.

This used to be my local video shop as my friend worked here and I lived down the road. The thing that is really great about this shop is that the people who work here are young and nice and have watched a whole bunch of movies. They don’t really care about looking nice or wearing clean matching uniforms or making the store look sharp and identical to every other video shop in the chain. They’re laid back, and if it’s not too busy you can end up having really lengthly conversations with them. Just beware of the judgement you’ll get if you get out a collection of lamo rom coms. It gets pretty busy on the weekend, especially Friday nights, and the store is usually in a mess so sometimes it can be hard to find stuff. But they have a really good collection and you can usually find the movie you can’t find anywhere else.

«Excuse me, Hannah? We’re calling to inform you that you have a number of outstanding fines.»
«What for?»
«Rubin and Ed, Dead Man, River’s Edge… are you a Crispin Glover fan? All five of these films have Crispin Glover in them.»
What an excruciatingly embarrassing conversation that was, until the guy on the other end admitted that he too is a massive Crispin fan. My level of fandom impressed him and he gave me a bit of wiggle room on my fine repayments. Cheers, Video Ezy Ponsonby.
That’s the thing with this store — it’s a video store run by movie buffs for movie buffs. It exists purely for the weirdos. Don’t underestimate this place and think it’s just another video store in a dying trade, Video Ezy Ponsonby stands out as having a good selection of festival and offbeat films next to its blockbusters.

Okay. I’m not supposed to write about chain stores because that’s boring obviously and they’re all the same as each other. But any person who has visited a bunch of Video Ezys and then hits up the Ponsonby road one and can’t tell the difference is a total amateur.
Ponsonby rd Video Ezy is like the god-​mode of Video Ezys. It’s a really great Video Ezy. They’ve just got a really great range of movies etc available. They have every Woody Allen movie. They have Truffaut’s complete Doinel series. They have the complete collection of Ken Burns Baseball documentaries. They have Matthew Barney’s Cremaster Cycle. And now they sell Jesters pies (how’s that for a ridiculous scheme?!). It’s the place to go if you’re hiring a dvd.