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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 21 February 2008

Jack Black replaces lost videos in Be Kind Rewind

Sorry Michel, it’s a video nasty

BE KIND REWIND
Directed by MICHAEL GONDRY
Certificate12a

I’M not sure if I’m on the same planet as writer-director Michel Gondry, because I just couldn’t get my head around this little slice of comic hokum set in a New Jersey rental video store that is scheduled for demolition.
Jerry (the splendidly frenetic Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) are scratching a living in a run-down area of the city, and trying to save the store run by their friend Mr Fletcher (Danny Glover), who is convinced the place was once the home of jazz legend Fats Waller.
When Jerry accidentally gets caught in an electromagnetic field, with bolts of blue lightning flashing out of his ears, his magnetised brain erases all the tapes on the shelves. The likely lads concoct a scheme to recreate the lost films as 20-minute shorts, using camera tricks and special effects before the boss finds out.
The films catch on. They’re amateurish rubbish, but they become huge cult hits among the local community who flock into the store to rent them out. The locals even start demanding to be given parts as extras, and the pair decide to make a full-length feature about their hero – Fats Waller.
The whole ludicrous premise is the brainchild of Gondry, who shared an Academy Award in 2005 for writing the oddball romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Mia Farrow and Sigourney Weaver lend their support in minor roles, but they can’t save the comedy from being just plain puerile.
Laugh? I thought I’d never start..

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