Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Enjoyed this one. I'm not much of a Jack Black fan but even he was tolerable this time out. Mos Def and Danny Glover are really likable, and the amusing conceit of Fat's Waller's birthplace about to be demolished (it isn't really his birthplace!) centres an engaging plot.Ol Jack, having a paranoid conspiracy mentality, tries to sabotage an electric company power relay, with the result he's magnetised and accidentally wipes all the video tapes (remember them?) in Glover's video store. So Jack and Mos set about making their own versions of the films they wiped, hilariously passing them off as Swedish versions! This is a heart-warming film which is pretty funny to boot. It's also (ironically) pretty original, and we even get a cameo from Sigourney Weaver, who's film Ghostbusters kickstarts it all.So, yep, I liked it. Much rather watch this than Hangover and American Pie sequels any day. Why can't Hollywood do more films like this?

I enjoyed this movie, especially the first half. It got a bit cheesy towards the end, but mostly it was good fun. One thing that really bothers me is why they didn't do a spoof of Lethal Weapon? They had Danny Glover in the movie, yet they didn't take advantage of that? I also half expected Sigourney Weaver to make some reference to Ghostbusters (for obvious reasons) when she was making her copyright infringement speech. Another missed opportunity..... I actually think the ideas these two came up with to make spoof copies of the movies, was a very good one, and I too would pay to see that. It's a shame someone wouldn't take the initiative on that and do spoofs of Ghostbusters, Rush Hour etc..... Other than the missed opportunities, it was a good laugh and I would recommend it.

Directed by Michael Gondry, "Be Kind Rewind" stars Danny Glover as the owner of a run-down video shop. As he is temporarily leaving town, Glover entrusts his business to two clueless assistants (Jack Black, Mos Def). Bad move. The duo unwittingly erase all the videos in Glover's store and, in an attempt to make up for their mistake, decide to shoot their own low-rent versions of popular hits. These low-budget hatchet jobs prove a great success with customers, but will the scheme prove profitable enough to save Glover's store from bankruptcy?Modelled on the works of Frank Capra, Gondry's "Rewind" says one thing but does the other. It positions the world of VHS, BETAMAX and cosy cinema on one hand, and big business, intellectual property laws, copyrights and DVDs on the other. Glover's shop itself represents a dilapidated past which we fear is disappearing into a haze of radioactivity, static and time, but which Gondry hopes will be preserved by the communal, cut-copy-pasting of generation 21C. We own film history, Godry says, and we can be entrusted to guard and nurture it.But the postmodern hatchet jobs of Mos Def and Jack Black aren't the saviours of cinema, but its replacement. Today, the subject/object dichotomy of cinema has long given way to the participatory media of the internet generation, in which bodies, profiles and the audience itself become the new canvas, in which content and context give way to thin surfaces, references, pastiche and homages, in which cinematic signs refer only to other cinematic sign, and in which the author and previous concepts of ownership have been bulldozed. Gondry then falsely offers big studios, who increasingly seek to commodify and privatise all aspects of "experience", be they analogue or digital, as that which stands in the way of this blissful future."Be Kind Rewind" would introduce the term "sweding" into popular culture. It's a fictional word used to describe works self-consciously or playfully derived from other texts (think most Youtube videos). "Rewind's" aesthetic is itself comprised of a series of little segments, each a reference to a previous film. This echoes Gondry's work on "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and Gondry's own pre-cinema career, in which he cut his teeth making short advertisements, commercials and music videos for corporate brands. His is the schizoid aesthetic of Generation Youtube.Fittingly, "Rewind" homages Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life", a film about a guy who embraces the concept of "community" when he realises that, without him, the small town of Bedford Falls would be sucked into the abyss of urbanisation. In "Rewind", Glover's store is offered as the last bulwark against gentrification, and several symbolic shots frame the building as a peripheral urban space on the verge of being eclipsed or engulfed by "the global". The film then offers an interesting subplot in which Glover propagates a very specific myth: his shop, he says, was the birthplace of Fats Waller, the man he claims invented jazz. This is not true, but that's Gondry's point. The myths, the stories we tell, and indeed the act of "sweding" itself, become means of collectively fighting for urban identity and preserving cultural memory.Themes of identity and memory were of course at the heart of Gondry's previous film, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". In that film, characters had their memories wiped and then inserted prosthetic memories as a means of forgetting painful pasts. In "Rewind", we see the opposite, the inhabitants of a small urban space wishing to resist both memory wipes - gentrification involves literal physical erasure - and the implementation of "new memories". In this regard they cling to Glover's myths, and thereby foster a sense of shared identity. Both films are about nebulous questions of memory and forgetting, but "Sunshine" shows how technologies pull people further apart, whilst "Rewind" shows how the possibility of erasure and cultural-wiping can bring people closer, together and create bonds where previously there existed only separation. In this regard, "Rewind's" endlessly fascinating, but also a pipe-dream. Digital technologies don't democratise production, capitalism tends to homogenise, endlessly bulldozes or repackages past "cultures" into kitsch, and as we see in the film, issues of "culture", "identity" and "memory" never rise above the level of nostalgia for a specific DVD collection.As a comedy, "Be Kind Rewind" is weak. Gondry's low-budget segments can't compete with the more raw, energetic fare found on the internet, Jack Black's comedic talents aren't used properly, and the film's broader tale is overly familiar. Like Gondry's "Dave Chappelle's Block Party", the film celebrates community and is irrepressibly optimistic.7.9/10 – See John Sayles' "Sunshine State" and "Limbo", two similarly themed films. Worth two viewings.

Being age 15, one can expect people my age to only be puberty stricken teenagers who love stupid movies like Transformers and the like. The truth of the matter is that I want to be a movie maker, and this was one of 3 movies that helped me get the push I needed.Be Kind, Rewind is the story of two men who accidentally erase all the video tapes in a dying video store. So to fix everything, they start to remake all of the movies they erased, starting with Ghostbusters. After the fact, their business becomes booming! The problem is that the copyright laws keep them from remaking movies with the original VHS tape provided by the studios. Will they save Be Kind, Rewind? Watch the movie to find out.First of all, this movie is advertised as a comedy, and it also stars Jack Black. So one would assume this movie will be laugh out loud hilarious! (See School of Rock, which is a favorite of mine.) However, this is anything but. It's still funny, but the novelty comes from seeing how they "Swede" movies, like Boogie Nights or 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, that's not to say that the movie isn't good. Facto of the matter, I feel like it is one of the best movies ever made! The comedy is subtle, with the interactions of the characters, as well as some of the things they say. The performances are actually well acted. Mos Def, who is from The Italian Job, turns in an innocent performance as Mike the Clerk. He stutters in a way, but it's the type of stuttering that you don't mind, and he has this way of acting that you can't help but smile and feel sad for him when he is sad. Jack Black plays Jerry, a lunatic who is a conspiracy theorist that thinks the government is trying to get him. Surprisingly, his performance is subtle, and you feel for him in the movie. He is kind of a method actor in a way in this movie, and he cares about the movies he makes, even if they are remakes. These performances are just to name a few.Then we have the knowledge of the director. The person who made the movie is Michel Gondry, who directed The Science of Sleep, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, both of which are great movies. Going into this movie, you might expect this movie to be a mind-bender much like those movies. If you are expecting that, then you will be disappointed unfortunately. I went into this movie just to see a comedy about people remaking Ghostbusters. Which brings me to the one thing that may divide people, which is...... The ending. This is one movie where I have to bring up the ending. The ending might be depressing for people who expect a comedy, but I see it like this: You have people who made a movie, and they are looking at what they worked so hard on. They created a work of art together. It's a piece of film they made, that made them laugh, cry, and angry. It shows that even the smallest bit of effort can make a big impact. This film is a film for people who love film, if that makes any sense. I give this a 10/10, it's a spectacular movie, not to be missed by anybody. Just, again, don't expect this to be the most laugh out loud movie ever made.