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Man arrested for not returning Freddie Got Fingered on VHS in 2002

If that VHS copy of Battlefield Earth you rented from Blockbuster in 2004 is still sitting under the Barcalounger in your TV room, you might want to dig it out, dust it off and return it…. to somewhere. Why? Because James Meyers of North Carolina was just arrested for failing to return a VHS copy of Freddie Got Fingered that he rented 14 years ago.

In a video posted by Meyers, he relates the sordid tale of how cops pulled him over for a busted taillight as he took his kid to school and then sheepishly told him there was a warrant for his arrest for not returning what is arguably one of the worst movies of all time. But did it end there? No, of course not. Meyers dutifully went to the police station to clear up the matter – and was promptly cuffed and hauled before a magistrate.

Facing a maximum $200 fine, Meyers was in a tough spot since the video store he rented the tape from doesn’t even exist anymore, so he couldn’t exactly return it. So who else but Freddie himself – comedian Tom Green – to the rescue. Green offered to pay the tab for Meyers and once the dust settled, Meyers reportedly watched the now infamous movie again – probably on streaming – and said, yep, it’s still funny. Well, to him, at least.

Speaking of movies – it is Friday after all – we talked our way into an early screening of Batman vs. Superman and if you’ve been hoping this latest Zach Snyder outing would break his string of duds, we’re sorry to say that’s not the case. DT movie reviewer Rick Marshall gives the long-awaited superhero face-off a solid pan, saying the only bright spot in the nearly 2.5 hour film is… Wonder Woman!

Just as in Snyders first Superman outing Man of Steel, there’s a lot of collateral damage in Batman vs. Superman, and the theme of death seems to permeate the film. Despite a first-class cast, there’s just not much to like about the overly brooding superhero icons. Batman vs. Superman opens everywhere tonight.

If you’ve got $600 to blow, a hot rod computer, and you want to know what all the fuss over virtual reality is about, now you can find out. The long-awaited Oculus Rift is now available, with the first units now trickling out now and shipping beginning in earnest on Monday. Also on Monday, 30 VR games will be made available through Oculus Home, an online portal for headset owners. Oculus also has a tool to see if your PC has the horsepower to run the headset.

We’ve had a chance to poke around in VR worlds with the Rift; suffice to say it’s a lot of fun and with the equally exciting HTC Vive due out next month, we can safely say the era of Virtual Reality is here at last.

Bill Roberson
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I focus on producing Digital Trends' 'DT Daily' video news program along with photographing items we get in for review. I…
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