Monday, June 23, 2008

Add This to Your Queue: Be Kind Rewind




Recently, I caught Michel Gondry's latest starring Mos Def and Jack Black. Be Kind Rewind finds Mos Def, as Mike, working in a small, dying video store owned by Elroy (Danny Glover). When Elroy leaves town for the weekend on a quest to find ways to improve the video store business and keep his store open, Mike is left in charge. Enter the wacky Jack Black as Jerry, who becomes magnetized (as one only can in a Michel Gondry film) and accidentally demagnetizes/erases all the videos in the store. Mike and Jerry decide, in an effort to cover their asses until Elroy returns, to film their own versions of the videos and rent them to the customers. The film is it's best when Jerry and Mike are "Sweeding" (their term for their remakes) new classics like Ghostbusters and Rush Hour 2, but the film is really about community and friendship and all that warm, fuzzy stuff. While not anywhere near as good as Being John Malcovich or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or even The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind is worth checking out for the Ghostbusters homage alone.

4 comments:

Falwless said...

I had seen previews for this a long time ago and thought that the execution of the premise was either going to fail miserably or succeed swimmingly. It's a great idea. I'll have to see if I can catch it.

I saw The Great Debaters this weekend. Was wonderful.

paperback reader said...

I am intrigued, but the mighty mighty Mos Def has been disappointing in most movies.

Red said...

Fal: I was surprised how much I liked The Great Debaters. Speaking of debate, I just watched Resolved on HBO. Watch it immediately. One of the best documentaries I've seen in awhile.

Pistols: This was my favorite Mos Def performance.

Garney said...

I thought the movie was too uneven... like Gondry couldn't decide if he was making a screwball comedy or a sentimental piece and just kinda made two movies at the same time.

There are some terrific moments, but the sum of the parts isn't that impressive.