“Be Kind Rewind”
There are times I come out of a movie knowing exactly what I’m going to put in my review, good or bad. Then there are times I’m not sure what to say, because the movie felt like it could go either way on my “likeability scale.” Such is the case with “Be Kind Rewind.”
The movie is about a rinky-dink video rental store called “Be Kind Rewind.” The store is run by Elroy Fletcher (Danny Glover, “Lethal Weapon”), with help from Mike (Mos Def, “16 Blocks). Mike has a friend named Jerry (Jack Black, “School of Rock”), who is paranoid, and an inherent klutz. The store only rents out VHS tapes. Mr. Fletcher is receiving pressure from the city to move to the projects so they can tear down his store to build a new apartment building in its place – unless Mr. Fletcher can come up with the money to get his building up to code.
Mr. Fletcher leaves Mike in charge of the store as he goes on a trip. After a mishap with the local power plant, which according to Jerry controls his mind, Jerry becomes magnetized and erases all the tapes in the store.
Now Mike and Jerry embark on a journey to film each and every one of the ruined tapes on their own, becoming local celebrities in the process. The parts where Mike and Jerry are filming their own versions of movies like “Rush Hour 2” and “Ghostbusters” are really funny and clever. But where the movie falls short is when it enters into a kind of movie formula where cash is needed to save something, but just before the goal is achieved, forces outside of anyone’s control come to squash the plans. In “Be Kind Rewind,” the force is Sigourney Weaver – who coincidentally starred in “Ghostbusters” – as a federal agent in charge of keeping up the copyright laws.
“Be Kind Rewind” is directed by Michael Gondry of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” fame. “Eternal Sunshine” was a movie, like “Be Kind Rewind,” that seemed to exist in some alternate universe, a universe created solely by Mr. Gondry to be able to tell the story he needs to tell. But the difference between the two movies is that “Eternal Sunshine” never slips into a formulaic routine.
I really want to recommend this movie, but there’s part of me that doesn’t. The acting by the main stars is good, but not great. Black is never let go to do what he does best. He seems restrained by the material. The dialogue is hectic and at some points very hard to understand because people are continually talking over each other much like they do in real life. Maybe that’s the feel Gondry was going for, but it doesn’t seem to work here.
But I’m going to end on a positive note. The movie is clever in its depictions of the movies it’s trying to remake. You can’t ask for something much better than Black playing Jackie Chan, and Mos Def playing Chris Tucker from “Rush Hour 2” can you? Come to think of it, their version of it is infinitely better than the original.
Grade: B-