Saturday, June 28, 2008

Movie Review: Be Kind, Rewind

Jobina and I forgot to book a babysitter so I went out and picked up some fast food from nearby Dairy Delight and we watched "Be Kind, Rewind" with Jack Black. I had seen the trailer for this quirky looking film and always wanted to see it. The premise of the movie is simple; in order to save a VHS rental store where all the tapes have been magnetically erased, the two desperate employees tape their own versions of the film over the originals - and people love them! Some of the remakes are extremely funny (ie/ Robocop and Ghostbusters) and you follow that unlikely transformation of the video store into a new video watching phenomenon. Do they save the store? I won't ruin it for you (if you haven't seen it) but Jobina and I liked the ending quite a bit.

The movie starts slow and you wonder if it will ever get going. The humor is . . . different but a refreshingly understated Jack Black working with a great cast of characters with a gritty and poor backdrop is magical. Not everyone will like this movie (especially if you have no "deeper" tastes in movies) but if you open your mind up to it there's lots to appreciate. As a former drama director and occasional amateur movie guy, I really wanted to believe that what they were doing was possible. And maybe it is. And even if not, it was touching and entertaining all at the same time. I rate it 4.1 ninja stars out of 5.

5 comments:

Jay Boaz said...

I watched this movie last week, and I wouldn't rate it as high as you did. I felt it was trying to be too many things (the scenario for how the tapes were erased, for example, was pretty goofy, which didn't fit in with the humour style in the rest of the movie) and didn't really achieve any of its goals (comedy, heart-tugger, etc) with the strength it could have.

Wasn't a bad movie per se, but I felt it was an underachiever.

Jay

Chad said...

I agree with jay, it seemed like it could be better. the whole ghostbusters part is absolutely hilarious though.

Mark said...

Well, as the French say (in English) to each his own. Yes, the movie moves through different styles of humor but personally I liked the choppiness which kept me guessing and on edge. It felt different then your average Hollywood movie, more like an art film. It didn't hurt that I had low expectations . . . and was pleasantly surprised.

Lindsay said...

I'm agreeing with you on this one. I don't think movie *quite* managed to live up to its vision - but I loved it. It reminded me why I love film.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review. I had planned on renting it some time.