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Last Updated: Mar 28th, 2008 - 10:15:51 |
“Be Kind Rewind,” the new movie starring Mos Def, Danny Glover and Jack Black, revels in its silliness. Surely, no other flick has gathered in one production, such varied film classics as “Ghost Busters,” “Rush Hour” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”
Yet, it is precisely this improbable gathering that we witness after Mr. Fletcher, owner of a rundown video rental store in Passaic, N.J., takes a few days off and leaves his business in the hands of his assistant, Mike. When a freak accident leaves all the videos in the store blank, a panicked Mike joins with Jerry, the kooky owner a local car repair shop, to remake movies requested by customers.
Obviously, such an effort can only lead to some combination of chaos, despair and laughs, which is what we get from director and writer Michel Gondry. Four years ago, Gondry won an Oscar for his eerie script for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” In “Be Kind Rewind,” Gondry continues his offbeat ways but turns toward comedy.
I stress offbeat because the humor in “Be Kind Rewind” is not for everyone. The punch lines drag in places, as the story stops, rightfully so, to give some depth to its characters and texture to its environment. Also, With Jack Black playing the part of Jerry and Mos Def in the role of Mike, much of the comedy feels like an update of “The Three Stooges” or, for a younger generation, the cartoon “Ed, Edd and Eddie.”
Jerry believes that everyone in the neighborhood is being mind-controlled and possibly poisoned by the electric transformer station located adjacent to his repair shop and, based on his strange behavior, we start to believe that his mind has indeed been warped by the plant (or at least by all that water and air pollution in Northern New Jersey). Your sense of humor has to include being tickled by a grown man wearing a metal strainer on his head in an effort to ward off unwanted electrical brain control.
Finally, many of the movie references will only be obvious to movie fans familiar with fare from the 1980’s and 1990s. Without this knowledge of “Ghost Busters,” for example, I don’t know if I would have laughed at a doll, made of marshmallows, being set ablaze.
As Mike, Mos Def further consolidates his reputation as a versatile actor who hasn’t been pigeon-holed in the usual gangsta roles given to hip-hop artists, such as 50 Cent and DMX. Just as he played an oddball alien researcher in “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe,” he makes Mike into a character with an endearing amount of vulnerability and lots of idiosyncrasy. He and Jack Black, who is just plain crazy, make a zany pair.
There are some funny moments in “Be Kind Rewind” and many of these funny moments are cheesy as well. But this movie has a soft, endearing quality that makes us think about why we love movies and why we shouldn’t take them--or ourselves--so seriously.
This review also appeared on Tom Joyner's BlackAmericaWeb.com,/i>
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