Be Kind Rewind

I missed Be Kind Rewind when it was in theaters, but I wanted to see it because I love both Jack Black and Mos Def with a completely irrational love. Jack Black I've loved since early Tenacious D, and Mos Def was totally on point and hilarious as Ford Prefect in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I am less a fan of Michel Gondry. While I liked the creativity and the amazing acting of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I just felt so-so about The Science of Sleep, which got to be so whimsical it was slightly boring, and this is from the girl who has whimsical daydreams about Falcor the luck dragon from Neverending Story, and who also has a wild teenage crush on Gael Garcia Bernal.

Fortunately, I really enjoyed Be Kind Rewind. At first, I was a little confused, as it seemed as all the principal characters in the film were mentally impaired in some way. I mean that in the most serious way, at first I truly believed Mos Def and Jack Black were playing characters who were impaired. As the movie progressed, I realized that they were all just incredibly quirky, which I should have known at the outset, as I don't believe that there has ever been a character in any Michel Gondry work that wasn't quirky. Mos Def and Jack Black play a couple of guys that either frequent or work in a VHS rental store owned by Danny Glover, who takes a trip and leaves these the shop in the completely uncapable hands of Mos Def. Jack Black is awesomely hilarious as a demented buffoon who unwittingly erases every tape in the store because he somehow got "magnetized". So the dimwitted duo decide to "remake" the films, starring themselves and other colorful characters from the city. These remade films are by far the most hilarious parts of the film, leaving you always wanting more. However, it is at this point that the story starts to get a bit weak. The store is due to be demolished, the guys try to save it, there is a sappy happy ending. Pretty run of the mill stuff. There are also a few plotlines that never get fully explained or established, such as a romantic moment between Mos Def and lead chick, that happens for a moment and is never touched upon again, and the strange link between Mos Def and Danny Glover, (are they father and son? was he adopted? is he just a child that was left on Glover's doorstep?) and how Jack Black got "magnetized" in the first place.

In the end, Be Kind Rewind is a cute, whimsical film, just like Gondry's other films, and while it is his most mainstream, it suffers a bit for it's Disney-esque storyline. However, the acting of Jack Black and Mos Def is great, and I laughed out loud several times. Disappointingly, the DVD is pretty bare bones, with only a short documentary about the town the movie was filmed in, and trailers (which do not count as a special feature! Trailers should just be a given on a DVD!).