Be Kind Rewind

 

 

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VHS is pretty much dead now, but it has one characteristic that "Be Kind Rewind" revolves around: expose it to magnetism, and it dies.

So you can probably guess what happens in Michel Gondry's fourth movie, and his first foray into all-out comedy. It has some plot holes and a rather bizarre premise, but there's a warm, funny little heart buried in the kooky antics and wild remakes of every movie from "Ghostbusters" to "Lord of the Rings."

Be Kind Rewind is an ancient video store, and supposedly the birthplace of unknown jazz legend Fats Waller. It's also due to be razed for a new block of condos -- so store owner Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) goes on a scouting trip for a week, leaving his conscientious clerk Mike (Mos Def) in charge.

Unfortunately local weirdo Jerry (Jack Black) tries to destroy a local power plant, because he believes it's controlling his brain. Instead he gets fried, and his body becomes a walking electromagnet -- which they only discover after he's wandered through the store, erasing all the old tapes. Even worse, a regular customer (Mia Farrow) wants "Ghostbusters" by that evening.

So Mike and Jerry hurriedly shoot their OWN version of the movie, with the help of Alma (Melonie Diaz) and soon they find that their "Sweded" movies have a growing fanbase, and they are statewide celebrities. But the demolition deadline is approaching, and Hollywood lawyers are threatening them for copyright infringement -- will the town's new devotion to these quirky "Sweding" moviemakers help them stay?

Michel Gondry's movies are always set in "real life," but with a few drops of the unreal -- memory erasure, waking surrealist dreams, that kind of thing. And even though "Be Kind Rewind" is set in a grimy, shabby New Jersey town, it has the same delightfully unreal quality -- it's a genial buddy comedy where literally anything can happen.

I'll admit, there are some moments that don't entirely work. Note the awkward "this town is a swamp" exchange, and we're expected to allow the plot holes to slide (where did the infringement lawyers go?). And that whole magnetized body fluids thing was just gross.

But despite its flaws, it's somehow a very lovable movie. It's crammed with physical and verbal comedy ("Iloveyou Iloveyou we'relovers kissme!"), ranging from amateur train hijacks to an inept break-in at a DVD rental store. And a merely entertaining movie becomes sidesplitting when our heroes start shooting a ghastly no-budget "Ghostbusters" with fishing rods, tinsel, and bags of goo. This is followed by "Robocop," "2001," "Rush Hour 2," "Driving Miss Daisy" and several others -- all with no budget, borrowed costumes, cardboard sets, and a cast of rank amateurs.

Gondry is obviously having a roaring good time lampooning Hollywood blockbusters. But he also injects some deeper currents into what could have been a one-joke movie -- there's a bittersweet subplot about the possibility of losing the store that has brought a community together. Yeah, it's supposed to tug at the heartstrings, but it really does work -- particularly since the movie rental industry is going belly-up.

One particularly nice touch is that the movie ends -- and is punctuated by -- scenes of a very low-budget, old-looking biopic of Fats Waller. Initially it just seems like another conceit, but it turns out to be very important to the plot.

Black is a delight as the insane Jerry, brimming with manic energy -- in one scene, he encases himself in aluminum foil. Mos Def's Mike is more pleasant and low-key as the responsible boy-next-door type, and Danny Glover is outstanding as the paternal, gravel-voiced Mr. Fletcher. Diaz is also quite solid as a vague love interest/codirector/costar; and keep an eye out for Sigourney Weaver in a small cameo.

Michel Gondry's fourth full-length film is a big-hearted, mildly bittersweet little comedy, with the slightly unreal quality you expect from his films. I want the Sweded "Be Kind Rewind!"

A junkyard worker named Jerry (Jack Black) believes the microwaves from a power plant are affecting his health. But when his attempt to blow up the transformer backfires, he ends up magnetizing himself. This inadvertently erases all of the videotapes in a run-down video store called Be Kind Rewind where his best friend (Mos Def) works. To save the business, the pair decides to remake the films, and their 20-minute low-budget knockoffs become the hit of the neighbourhood.

The silly premise seems merely an excuse to create spoofs of popular movies such as one might see on MadTV, but the opportunity for true gut-busting comedy is wasted because we see only a smattering of shots from their efforts. Among the parodied films are Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, Robocop, Driving Miss Daisy, The Lion King, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Men in Black.

Yet, all of this is merely a prelude to the real story. When the building is threatened with demolition, the entire community rallies together to create their own documentary film about a legendary jazz musician supposedly born on the premises.

Written and directed by Michel Gondry, France's answer to the loopy Tim Burton, Be Kind Rewind is a whimsical and affectionate tribute to movies and offers some clever imagery. However, the film suffers from a slow introduction and lengthy tirades that seem ad-libbed. Further, the VHS theme is about ten years too late.

Although it tries to evoke the small-town values of Norman Rockwell, Be Kind Rewind paints a portrait of a nation that has fallen into decay. Set in the dumpy town of Passaic, New Jersey, which is full of people with 'nowhere to go', the residents are portrayed as dimwitted and down-trodden. (Jerry's belief that the power plant is melting his brain may be a much wider phenomenon than anyone realizes.)

Black is in his element, hamming his way through the slapstick humour with manic aplomb, while Def is adequate as the straight-man trying to keep his composure as the situation grows ever more desperate. The film also stars the delightful Melonie Diaz as the guys' love interest, Danny Glover as the store's weary owner, Mia Farrow as its most loyal customer, and Sigourney Weaver as an officious Hollywood lawyer who orders the fake films destroyed due to copyright infringement.

Much more than the generic comedy it might appear to be, Be Kind Rewind is a tender story about old-fashioned values such as honesty, friendship, and helping your fellow man. But it tries to be too much and, as a result, ends up disjointed and deficient in purpose. Rating: 5 out of 10.

This movie is the worst kind of bad in that it doesn't reach new levels of bad, but remains at that mediocre line of boring bad. This is a mediocre bad movie because it'll never be remembered as one of the worst movies every made, like the legendary bad movie, Ishtar. Or Zardoz, a revolver toting Sean Connery wearing a speedo and hip waders? Be Kind Rewind doesn't even reach cult bad like the Ed Wood movies. Jack Black is talented and its such a shame to see him in such a poorly executed movie. It full of sentimental dribble. Its only a shame the people that made this movie didn't take a lesson from the characters of script and just keep their 20 min joke to 20 mins instead of dragging it out for nearly 2 hrs.

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