Film review: “Be Kind Rewind”

by Luke Mosher

French director Michel Gondry, best known for 2004’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” decided to do a comedy with Jack Black, Mos Def, and Danny Glover. The final project is of mixed quality, suffering from a lousy script while benefiting from an excellent director and cast.

The film is about a video rental store owner (Glover) who sets out to research the competition in an effort to improve his failing business, leaving his adopted son Mike (Mos Def) in charge of the store. Mike’s friend Jerry (Jack Black) becomes magnetized while trying to sabotage a nearby power plant and accidentally erases the store’s entire video library. Unable to find replacements for the destroyed tapes, Jerry and Mike decide to re-film the movies they erased. These home-movie style remakes become extremely popular, and the town begins to rally around the store to keep it from being demolished.

The acting is solid. Jack Black is perfect as a lovable moron, while Mos Def plays the more responsible straight man. Danny Glover is convincing as the sad store owner who can’t seem to catch up with modern times.

Unfortunately, the plot resembles the same generic structure that plagues most modern comedies: a group of friends must prevent some outside force from destroying their beloved [fraternity, baseball field, book store]. They come together against all odds to beat the big bad guys and restore things to the quaint good old days.

There’s usually 1) a romantic subplot, 2) a montage after things start to go well, 3) a moment where hope seems lost and the cause is threatened by a serious setback, and then 4) the inevitable “we can do this” speech given by the leader to urge his fellows on to victory. At its most basic level, “Be Kind Rewind” follows this structure. Gondry manages, however, to avoid most comedy clichés and take the movie a step up from the bland comedy its standard structure encourages – but only a step.

I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself. It was fun watching Gondry bend the rules. There was a romantic subplot involving Mos Def for example, but it only lasted two minutes and was actually funny because of its unabashed honesty and self-awareness. There are “bad guys,” but no unnecessary scenes that try to make us hate them. When the characters find out that their video store is going to be torn down, they’re disappointed but they accept it with a realistic attitude. The movie has many cliché moments, but they’re tackled differently than we’re used to, which makes the movie good, even if it’s unoriginal.

The best parts of the film are when Jack Black and Mos Def remake the movies they’ve erased. Michel Gondry, who is a longtime music video director, makes each movie its own little skit, boiling movies to their key scenes and showing what they would have looked like if the director had three people, no budget, and a wild imagination. Gondry’s incredibly creative imagination shines in these scenes, but don’t expect the film they’re in to escape the modern, cliché comedy mold.