Be Kind Rewind

The latest film from Michael Gondry Be Kind Rewind is in every way a fantasy film. Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) owns an old video rental store in a rundown neighborhood in Passaic, New Jersey. Here he and his adopted(?) son Mike (Mos Def) rent VHS video tapes to a group of local peoples. The city wants to move Fletcher out and build a new development that will help revitalize the town. Adding his own brand to constant irritation is Jerry (Jack Black).

Fletcher goes on a spy mission to find out why his competitors are much better at running their stores than he is and leaves Mike in charge. A attempted sabotage mission leaves Jerry magnetized and he erases all the information on the video tapes. In order to appease regular customer and friend to Mr. Fletcher, Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), Jerry and Mike use an old video camera to film a 20 minute version of the original movie in hopes of fooling her.

The comic mismatch of do it yourself film-making makes an impression on a number of the local residents who begin requesting short remakes of classic films. Soon the store starts making a decent amount of money by filming short "sweded" films and renting them to the customers. All this is a hair brained scheme to save the store and building. Of course the remakes bring in a nasty lawyer who raises hell about copyright violation.

I say it is a fantasy because of course it exists in a quasi reality in which we could not only find a store that still rents video tapes but also that it would actually take a spy mission to figure out that other stores are more successful because they moved to DVDs. The film seems to want to appeal to those of the world who are genuine fans of movies and who as kids or adults at times have picked up a camera and "remade" their favorite scenes and movies.

In that regard some of the movie works. Especially when they are showing bits of the recast movies. Their low rent quality and limited use of actors and their recreation of the most memorable scenes of many classic movies creates a decent amount of humorous charm. But ultimately when not focusing on the actual film-making the story is weak and reliant mostly on the wacky antics of Jack Black (who annoys me more than he makes me laugh).

It feels a bit like a better movie about obsession with film is possible and so its attempts at trying are certainly acknowledged. Mos Def is passable as the likable Mike and is actually a decent actor (I remember him fondly from the little scene or appreciated 16 Blocks). Jack Black is as always Jack Black (that is to say a slightly less annoying Robin Williams, but only slightly). In the end the remakes are the real stars and apparently you can see them online without the movie which is probably the better way to go.