Slappy And The Stinkers
TriStar Pictures (1998)
I found this movie on the VHS wall at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater and couldn't resist the temptation seeing what would happen when Henry Wu and Balki Bartokomous mix it up with a sea lion and a bunch of kids who look as if they've been chasing Pixy Stix with Mountain Dew all day long. If that wasn't intriguing enough, the rental stickers on the tape sealed the deal.
I've found quite a few tapes with stickers from places like Blockbuster Video, Hollywood Video and West Coast Video, but this was the first time I ever found a movie that was once on the video rental shelves of a Phar-Mor drugstore. We never had a Phar-Mor in my hometown so I didn't rent movies there, but my family and I shopped there when we went to the Schuylkill Mall.
The chain went out of business in 2022 and was at the center of a financial scandal when founder and original Colorado Rockies team owner Mickey Monus embezzled $10 million dollars from the company. He was convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, tax evasion, obstruction of justice, and 96 counts of interstate transportation of stolen property, and was even charged with jury tampering during his first trial. and he served ten years in federal prison. Hell, for all I know, this movie may have purchased for the store with stolen money.
