When a magnetized man (Jack Black) accidentally erases all the tapes at a Passaic, New Jersey video store, he and the store clerk (Mos Def) try to reshoot some of the same movies by themselves, and find that the customers like their versions better.

CRITIQUE

Be Kind Rewind is an amiable tale that I really wanted to like better; Jack Black and Mos Def are appealing actors, and the idea of them recreating famous movies on a shoestring seems like it is ripe for yielding laughs.  But the result is largely underwhelming; the plot drags, particularly early, and worse the filming sequences are only occasionally funny.   The movie finally hits a sweet tone near the end, but ultimately there just aren’t a lot of laughs here, and the result is just sort of mediocre, though it probably works better on a TV screen than it would have in the movies.

The writer-director here is Michel Gondry, who is best-known for directing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  But that film was written by Charlie Kaufman, and Gondry just isn’t as solid a writer; his script moves in fits and starts, and just never mines all that much out of the premise.  The movie is also hamstrung by the fact that it doesn’t make much sense, even on a comic level; their recreations of the movies really look awful, and it isn’t even minimally credible that their customers become huge fans of their “sweded” (as they call their truncated films) versions of these films.

Gondry also doesn’t direct things here well; a lot of scenes lack energy or go nowhere, and sometimes even resemble the cheesy films within the film.  Helping are Jack Black and Mos Def, who bring a lot of life as the main characters here, even without much to work with.  Young actress Melonie Diaz also brings an appealing, offbeat feel to her scenes.

The last quarter of the movie almost feels like a different film at times, and it sort of works better, with the community coming together.  But too many elements of this are clichéd (particularly the whole save-the-video-store-from-the-developers subplot), while the material really needed to be more laugh-out-loud funny.  The result isn’t awful, but it could have been a lot better.

THE VIDEO

Be Kind Rewind is presented in widescreen (2.35:1) or in full screen (1.33:1).  The look of the film is never all that sharp, though the transfer captures what was probably sloppy filmmaking in the first place.

THE AUDIO

Be Kind Rewind is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Surround and 2.0 Stereo Surround.  Dialogue, music and sound effects come through clear.  There are English and Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

Passaic Mosaic is a 10-minute behind-the-scenes piece that includes some interviews with residents of the Passaic community they filmed in.

There is also a Trailer for the film.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Jack Black fans might find things here to like, and this is different enough to almost be interesting, though it really should have been funnier.