Be Kind Rewind Review
It’s such a nice day out today. How about a movie review since a number of you have been asking my opinion on this movie?
From the first time I saw the trailer for Be Kind Remind, Michel Gondry’s new film, I was simply ecstatic and couldn’t wait to finally see it. The teaming up of Gondry with Jack Black seemed intriguing to say the least, but I knew it would be hit or miss on whether it would truly work. With Jack Black, he could either steal the show and be the reason the movie was great, or he can hijack the film and be the annoying kid that wants to be a part of everything that everyone is doing.
So which did he end up being? I think both honestly. I had no problem with Jack Black by the time the movie ended, and I laughed out loud quite a bit during most of the re-enactment scenes mainly because of Black, but there were plenty of scenes when Mos Def wasn’t given much room to talk, even though they were his main scenes.
So that’s my Jack Black take. Let’s move on to Gondry himself and this little gem of a movie. First thing’s first. It took me two viewings of the movie until I was content in saying I enjoyed the movie and thought it was a nice addition to Gondry’s films. The main reason for this is my fault mostly. I go into every Gondry film wondering what tricks or neat special effects Gondry is going to pull out of his hat, whether it be the world being erased literally like in Eternal Sunshine, or dream fights with people that have giant hands like in Science of Sleep. Be Kind Rewind has none of this. At first I was frustrated by this fact, then after a while just thinking of what Be Kind Rewind was about, and what it paid homage to, made me completely change my mind and love the fact that there were zero special effects.
Despite this fact, you find Gondry’s style almost more in Be Kind Rewind than you do in his previous films. Gondry is known for fabricating things in his movies from unusual or clever sources, and Be Kind Rewind, which is about two video store clerks who start “swedeing”, or re-filming, the movies that Jack Black has erased after he became magnetized from a failed plot to sabotage the nearby power plant, and as the remakes become more and more popular, they start filming all day long to meet people’s demands, and that’s where the film shines.
There was no doubt in my mind the re-enactments would be great since Gondry was involved, but it exceeded even my high expectations. Gondry managed to throw all kinds of tricks and bells and whistles into the film while still making it feel very real, using stuff that you would find around the house that the two could have very well come up with. My two favorites were using fishing poles tied to their backs with Chrismas streamers down the length of the pole to look like the plasma guns shooting from Ghostbusters, and a giant cylinder covered with toy cars hung above their real car, spinning, then the camera is flipped upside down so it looks like the two are driving on top of a tunnel full of cars like in Men in Black. It’s hard to explain these tricks without seeing them.
The plot wasn’t Gondry’s best, but it does it’s job as a feel good movie with Gondry’s style all over it. It’s basically a story of Mos Def’s uncle (I forget how they’re related honestly), who owns the video shop and is forced to come up with $60,000 for repairs to the building their shop is in or the city is demolishing it. Mos Def and Jack Black take over the store as he goes out of town to talk to business people, and then the swedeing starts because of Black’s erasing of the tapes. I don’t know if I should say much more, but basically the gang teams up with the neighborhood after a plot twist to film an original movie themselves, hoping to raise enough from the screenings of it to save the building.
Ultimately, I think Be Kind Rewind will end up being a rental for most of you. Only the big Gondry fans like myself will be too eager and curious not to go and see it whenever they have a chance. I recommend it in the end. It’s not Gondry’s best, but it’s a good “Gondry in the real world” film that proves you can still be incredibly creative without special effects, even when all you have are fishing poles and Christmas streamers.
