"There are moments of charm and clear originality, but some of the forced drama and its “we-can-do-it” cliché story take away some of the fun."
What would you do if someone accidentally erased every VHS tape from your video store? Well, you can amateurishly re-shoot every film with the help of your friends and pray for the customers not to notice. Does it sound like a crazy idea? Not for the gang of Be Kind Rewind. They had to do it to save their own peculiar video store.
There are moments of charm and clear originality (especially the way they are re-shooting the movies), but some of the forced drama and its "we-can-do-it" cliché story takes away some of the fun. Despite those flaws, Be Kind Rewind is an entertaining movie experience.
Brief Intro Story:
Things are not going well for Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) who has to come up with big bucks to remodel his old video store or it will be demolished-he loves the building because he claims that famous Jazz player Fats Waller was there. Young Mike (Mos Def) helps Mr. Fletcher with the business, but also likes to hang out with his dysfunctional friend Jerry (Jack Black). All three of them honor the memory of Waller.
Mr. Fletcher goes away for few days-basically to learn new things about his rental business-and leaves Mike in charge of the store. One night Jerry decides to sabotage a local power plant, but he gets electrocuted and his brain becomes magnetized. Because of his new magnetic nature, he unintentionally erases all the tapes from the video store. Later that day, a regular customer and a friend of the owner Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), demands the movie Ghostbusters. Mike tells her that her video will be ready for tonight. Lost and desperate, Mike looks for a VHS version everywhere in town with no luck. Then Jerry comes up with the idea to re-shoot the film with their old VHS camcorder and use home-made special effects. Both friends agree and they begin shooting their version of Ghostbusters. Will they continue working on more "remakes"?
Review:
One of the best attributes of Be Kind Rewind is their passion-especially from Jerry-to re-create these films, so they can save the old store from demolition. At first, they did it because they had no choice (the tapes went blank, no thanks to Jerry and his magnetized head), but eventually, the whole enterprise turns into a micro/local movie industry with its own uniqueness. These remakes of the classics are amateurishly done and extremely low budget-using simple tools that can be found in a basement-but they are highly entertaining because our protagonists do it with enthusiasm, honesty and most importantly, innocence (something that Ed Wood would do). Director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) has created a film that not only looks good (cinematography) but also makes us care for these characters and their eagerness to succeed.
Why is the movie getting a 7 and not a 10 Mr. Salazar? It is a fair question indeed. Despite all these excellent attributes, Be Kind Rewind has the same old "work together and save the neighborhood" cliché moments, mostly at the very end-tiresome and Hollywood-like. Why not remove some of that cliché and see more of the remakes? The Ghostbusters is the most entertaining-with some of the funniest "special effects" I have seen in a while-but I wanted to see more. The shooting of the remakes is what makes the movie work, not the forced drama that turns even tedious.
In the acting department, most of the stars do a good job with their roles, especially Danny Glover and Mos Def. Both are very charismatic on film, but Jack Black seems to be on cruise control here. He is virtually the same character from other films like School of Rock or Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny. Is he suitable for the role? Definitely, because he always plays the off-key character, but again, seeing him doing the same thing in every film, he becomes a bit boring after a while.
The Verdict:
Be Kind of Rewind is funny due to its originality, slapstick humor and the passion we feel from the protagonists-until its satisfying end. But Director Michel Gondry should have stayed with that remaking theme and not add cliché moments to it. Also some of the unnecessary drama could have been removed by the editing department (the movie is 101 minutes long!). Despite all that, if you've seen Ghostbusters, Robocop or Driving Miss Daisy, then by all means, go see it because you'll have fun looking at the spoofs-but it's a shame that we cannot fast forward or "rewind" the best parts to see them again.
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