Be Kind Rewind review

Be Kind Rewind is Micehl Gondry's fourth movie in five years(after directing hits like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Dave Chapelle's Block Party), and the director has developed a following for his wide use of "whimsy." That word right there confuses me, and I'll get into that in a second.

The movie revolves around three people in a VHS store that happens to be the birthplace of a famous(or so the owner of the store contends) jazz musition "Fats" McGee or some ther stereotypical jazz name. One of the guys, the out-of-work conspiracy theorist Jerry(Jack Black) gets magnatized in a freak powerplant accident, and proceeds to erase all the tapes. The store is condemned and about to be demolished, so the mild mannered clerk Mike(Mos Def) must re-make all the tapes AND collect enough money so the building will survive.

Now, back to "whimsy". That's most most people are calling the humor in this movie. I call it completely out of place and useless wierdness. A lot of made-up words, completely nonsensical situations, and unbeleivably random acts litter this movie that I can only call "quaint," and that isn't a good thing. Let me give some examples:

The townspeople actually enjoy the fake 20-minute tapes.

Jerry and Mike grab some random girl who, for some reason, agrees to join them and asks virtually no questions.

Words like "Sweded"(what they call their process of movie-making) are invented with rationale like "Like Sweden, because it's such a big process it has to be named after a country."

The scene where Jerry gets magnetized is completely absurd. The way he gets un-magnetized is even more absurd. Then, with about 30 minutes left, the film goes way out on left field and pulls a 180. All of a sudden they're sued for copyright infringement(in a "whimsical" manner, of course) and...well, I guess I can't spoil it for you.

None of this feels in place. It's lacking in any real humor. The only times I laughed was at the sheer unbeleivability. For a film to go out of it's way to attempt a real-life setting and create a useful message, it goes even farther out of the way to make sure you say, "Wait, why are they saying/doing this again? It makes no sense whatsoever!" I thought, "Man, this would be great if this was a dream, but it isn't."

All in all, though, the characters were colorful enough and the plot was a great idea. It did bring me back to a time when I would rent cheapo VHS tapes. Those were the good 'ole times. Too bad this movie didn't do anything other than a few "cute" or "whimsical" moments and initiate some nastalgia. A great idea that never comes to full fruition.

It's horribly disjointed, but ay least it didn't stoop to lows like most comedies do nowadays. It tried something new, but didn't make it.

54/100