That's Rentertainment
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 10:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m.
Fri-Sat 10:00 a.m.-12:00 a.m.
Sun 12:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. - Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
18 Reviews for That's Rentertainment
this is the best video store i've ever been to, and i've been to a lot, all over the country. their foreign film selection is unsurpassed.
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So I caved and am jumping on the That's-Rentertainment-Is-Awesome bandwagon. Seeing as renting movies from the dorms/library is free, I thought actually paying to rent a movie was lame, but when I had the sudden urge to watch My Neighbor Totoro and was unable to find it within the limited selections of the university, I trekked over to try my luck at That's Rentertainment. Lo and behold, Totoro!! Not only that, they have Hiyao Myazaki's other films like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Castle in the Sky!! Just perusing through their shelves, I saw about a dozen other movies I wanted to watch as well (just in time for finals, w00t).
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This is my favorite movie rental place of all time. I moved away to Chicago, but I miss this place. Great selection, not impressive when you first walk in, but man you end up wanting to rent and watch a lot. They always had good music playing in it too. The other location was pretty cool too, but I always prefered the Champaign location, just for selection.
I love this place! I stumbled upon it early in my undergrad days when I had to find an obscure video for a class. They were the ONLY place in C-U that had it. I was amazed when I went in for the first time--I've never seen so many videos! They definitely have the best selection of "uncommon" films (all types of foreign films, independent, gay & lesbian, etc.) that I've ever come across--anywhere. The workers are friendly, too. I really miss this place.
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If you do not rack up obscene late charges, Rentertainment will be good to you. Even with a netflix account, I still found myself coming in. Why? Because not only do they have a really diverse collection, but the set-up is so convenient and exposes you to all sorts of films you might not have bothered to look up--particularly the lazy and film novice such as myself. Also, they have a pr0nz, including anime pr0nz to cater to the students of the schools of Engineering and Kineseology, which Blockbuster and Hollywood Video do not.
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I love That's Rentertainment. I go there often. I find many of the movies I am searching for...
...but do I find all of the movies I am searching for? No. Of course, when I do find the movie I am looking for I get it at Rentertainment, but the movies I can't find can often be found for free at Urbana Free LIbrary.
Also, while I have friends who work at Rentertainment, it has had its history of dickhead (cute people not excluded) employees. I'm glad that it is currently in a non-dickhead phase and hope it stays this way.
Still the best video rental joint I've ever frequented... like having Netflix -or rather Green Cine - just down the street. There was only one film I ever wanted to see that they didn't carry... and that's only because it wasn't distributed in the U.S.
They've done an excellent job of updating their inventory to DVD - most other indie video shops I've been to since are still stuck back in analogue mode.
They've got everything you can possibly imagine, excluding porn... although "Flesh Gordon and the Cosmic Cheerleaders" is kinda on the border. And they do have a wide selection of movies with naked David Bowie and Ewan McGregor. But if you want hardcore, I'm guessing you'd probably have to head up to Illini Video. Sorry.
The clincher:: Renter Blocks are the best thing ever to happen to video rental. Tell your mom you need it for your film studies class, shell out $100, and get 100 rentals that don't expire. Yes, even new releases. Plus, you can use them in lieu of late fees, if you're too lazy to walk three blocks to return your films in the rain/snow.
Damn... I miss That's Rentertainment.
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Best video rental place ever.
Period.
Just walk through it once and you'll understand.
Oh and check out the Best B-Movie list. That's an amusing drunken evening just waiting to happen.
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Why bother with Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, Family Video, Schnucks's Video Rental - etc?
Rentertainment offers the lowest movie rental price in town and if you're a lazy bastard and can't return movies on time, you won't rack up a ridiculous amount of late charges here.
Eclectic movie rentals include Hitchcock, Band films, Gay & Lesbian, Documentary, Film Noir, Classics, Musicals, Comedy, B films, Woody Allen, Anime, International, TV series, Horror, Cycling, Bollywood, Opera and too many more to name. You want it. They most likely have it.
Rentertainment used to stock VHS tapes - but since they are a dying breed, Geoff converted 99.8 % of his stock to DVDs. You can probably find leftovers still being given away in the store. DVDs are also for sale here.
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Good Stuff
1. Greatest selection EVER.
2. Very knowledgeable, helpful and ....ahem cute staff.
3. Check imdb/rottentom movie ratings/reviews before you rent. They have a computer hooked up to the internet in the store!!
4. Rental Block. If you are planning on staying on campus for a couple of months you just have to buy their $100 rental block which gets you 100 movies for 3 days each.
5. On Campus, open till 11:59pm
6. Top Movie rental lists for each genre are put up all around the store.
7. Stuff on their website!! eg. http://www.rentertainm...
Minor issues:
1. Most of the time they will only have one copy of a old movie. And if someone misplaces that particular copy then it will take a couple of weeks/months for the replacement to come in (eg. "The Game" of Michael Douglas fame was missing for a few weeks).
2. 6pm/9pm return time !!
3. This place really spoils you. You will never be able to use netflicks or blockbuster again.
I really miss this place now that I've moved to CA... :'-( movie rental would never be the same.
Update: I just noticed that Apple has used the term "Thats Rentertainment" on their movie rental page !! http://www.apple.com/i...
Sue them?
$2 to rent any of the roughly 2387634987643bajillion random indie and mainstream movies/TV shows in the place?
Hell yes.
Suck it, Blockbuster - Rentertainment til I die.
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If there were a place like this in Chicago (please message me if there is) I might not use bittorrent!
Amazing stock of mainstream and art films (they were stocking anime on Laserdisc before it exploded), reasonable rates, nice staff... *sigh*. So jealous of y'all CU-ites.
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A venerable campus institution that has saved countless students from Blockbuster and general boredom. DVDs from just about every genre, hi-def disks, cheap rates, and a helpful staff. I'm willing to go here rather than the free library because they have the best hours and the most diverse selection.
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Hands down the best video store in Champaign. Maybe anywhere They have an amazing selection. They have things Netflix doesn't have. Amazing selection of things like foreign films, anime, television in addition to plenty of mainstream stuff. It's organized really well too. They have a specific section just for Hitchcock films.
Reasonable prices and late fees. Friendly, knowledgeable staff. I really don't know why anyone would go anywhere else when Rentertainment is an option.
Rentertainment was probably my favorite thing about Champaign. I miss it.
This place is wonderful. Go here.
I remember when this place opened - they rented CD's, which were still pretty expensive at the time. Oh man, how my friends and I loved that. I guess they were ordered to cease and desist by the recording industry. I'm really not sure why that wasn't ok. That was a golden age.
Anyway, for the last couple decades it's been DVDs and such, and it's great. There is no call to ever patronize a Lackluster Video. Rentertainment has what you want.
This location used to be a tiny little mom-n-pop grocery/convenience store. I'm probably the only person alive who remembers that. I think I shall start peppering my Yelp reviews with reviews of things that used to be there.
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So, story:
Freshman year of college I lived at LAR and one day decided to rent the Wizard of Oz (I also recently acquired Dark Side of the Moon) at the former Lincoln Ave location. Being the lazy and moody person I can be, that evening I decided to watch something more along the lines of Scooby Doo or Half Baked instead of my rental, saying "eh, I'll get to it eventually."
I didn't get to it eventually. And since it wasn't exactly on my walk to class (like, a 4 minute detour), I wasn't about to bring it along and make the stop. Dude, I didn't leave for class with that much time to spare (well, actually I regularly did leave for class that early but I'm totally paranoid of being late so I never thought I had the time).
2-3 weeks later, my guilty conscience drags me the 500 yards or whatever it is from my room to That's Rentertainment, never to set foot in that location again. Later that year it closed and I would go with my friends to the Champaign location, always renting in their name and ALWAYS making sure I was not the one responsible for returning the movie.
Throughout college, if I ever wanted to watch a movie alone I was pretty much screwed - it was Family Video or Blockbuster for me, neither of them with *nearly* the selection. (Until I discovered Netflix, of course).
Once I had a friend who had a friend who worked at this location, so I asked my friend to ask his friend to look me up and see if the records transferred and if, 3 years later, it still said I owed major late fees. The result was that I still rented under my friends names.
My one complaint: Some dipshit lost tape 5 of the Pride & Prejudice (A&E I think) mini-series. Of course, this lead me to discovering that That's Rentertainment had a DVD copy!
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Hands down the best video store in the area, if not downstate IL. You've got yr domestic films, yr imports, yr anime, yr documentaries, yr new releases, yr old crap, yr teevee - it's all here. My entire family can go down to Renter and we can pick up a classic film for the Film Buff Teenager, the latest Avatar disc for the 8 year-old, and some teevee show on DVD for the two of us (no cable = being late to the party).
Knowledgeable staff, if not super-duper friendly. It reminds me of the record stores I frequented in high school and eventually worked in during (and after) college. These kids know their stuff and are more than willing to share their knowledge, but timid folk may be a bit put off by the indier-than-thou thing at first. Trust me - you want to rent movies from these people.
Disclosure: my husband works for the owner at another business, and I used to work for him at that same business. Doesn't matter - I wouldn't go anywhere else for video rental in C-U.
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Awesome video rent center! Best anime section I've ever seen!
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