After a week of ice and midterms, Be Kind Rewind is the perfect feel-good movie. The charming story of a community coming together to make a movie cannot help but fill you with the warm and fuzzies.
Jack Black and Mos Def play Jerry and Mike, two guys who are barely getting by in Passiac, N.J. Jerry lives in a trailer in a junkyard, and Mike lives and works at Be Kind Rewind with his mentor Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover). It is a quaint little store that has refused to convert to DVD and knows all of its customers by name. Mr. Fletcher leaves Mike in charge, and Jerry inadvertently erases all of the tapes after magnetizing himself. The duo start making their own versions of the videos to keep their customers, and it snowballs into popularity. Eventually the FBI catches wind of the alleged piracy and all of the movies are destroyed again. The citizens then come together to make their own movie.
Black and Def make a fantastic comedic duo. Def is the down-to-earth character who sets up the pins that Black, with his craziness, knocks down. It really recalls a 1920s comedic team like Laurel and Hardy. It is really clear that, although these guys might sometimes get on each other's nerves, in the end they would do anything for each other.
Beyond his comedic ability, Def is a great dramatic actor. It is so easy to get accustomed to Black's physical comedy that when Def has to act, it comes off with grace and polish.
Black's acting is hit or miss as always. There is no doubt that he plays comedy with gusto. The problem is he sometimes does not know when to turn it off and show that underneath, his characters have emotion and depth. He only hints that his character is more than a crazy, bumbling fool.
Ironically, the film's major problems are its relationships. Jerry and Mike's is faultless, but the others just do not get enough screen time. The burgeoning love affairs are never fully explored between Mr. Fletcher and a customer and Mike and Alma, the woman they hire to be in their movies.
Unfortunately, more time for relationships means less time for the awesome homemade movies that Jerry and Mike make. Their homages to Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, and many others are the comedic stars of the movie. The films are made with normal household objects for special effects. A running gag is placing a cheese pizza behind a character to show that they are bleeding. Only the key scenes of the films are shot. So it is a perfect distillation of the charm that made these films so good in the first place.
It is generally a good sign when the major flaw in a movie is that you are begging for it to be longer. All of the flaws are not enough to tear away Be Kind Rewind's intense emotional pull. It is impossible to wipe the grin off your face while watching the film. Whether you are a film buff or not, you will find something to like about Be Kind Rewind.
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Chris Bruce
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Jack Black and Mos Def characters resemble classic comedy team, leave critics begging for more despite unexplored relationships
