Be Kind Rewind (2008)

O Masterpiece
O Excellent
X Rental
O OK
O Mediocrity
O Avoid

Review by Jason Pyles / February 23, 2008

Note: The following preface is unusually lengthy but worth reading.

True story: In 2001, my friend Zach Ziegler and I were watching “Jackie Chan’s First Strike” (1996), a movie that I recommend, because it has Chan’s best-ever usage of a prop: “the ladder scene”; it’s unforgettable.

Even so, in our arrogance Zach and I discussed Chan’s tendency to do all his own stunts, and we decided that we were unimpressed; and since I had taken karate for 10 years, I felt confident that we could make our own movies, too, and do just as well, despite our budgetary restraints.

We began filming and cast various other friends and family members. That was our first mistake. Our second mistake was Zach’s decision to film without a screenplay or any pre-written dialogue; instead, we foolishly relied on improvisation and creative whimsy. Our film, which is inexplicably titled “Orange Duck Shoes Hurt?” (2000), is a simple story, a thriller, about a young man’s search for his missing cousin. (I should review it someday, just for fun.)

Anyway, it was time to shoot the climactic scene. We were planning a martial arts fight scene atop a six-story parking garage in downtown Wheeling, W.Va. I was supposed to be kicked over the edge of the parking structure but hang onto the side and dangle, Jackie-Chan style.

Lucky for me, my intelligent friend, Jason Marsh, refused to have me perform the stunt over the actual six-story edge. Instead, I’d simply hang over a wall that had no drop at all. I agreed begrudgingly. When we performed the stunt, I lost my grip and my feet hit the ground on the other side of the wall. To my horror, at that moment, I realized that I would have fallen to my ignominious death had I not listened to Marsh.

But that’s not the end of the story: On another day, Zach and I returned to the parking structure unsatisfied. We still needed to shoot the dangling-Jason footage. So, I slowly lowered myself into position to hang one story up. This gave the illusion of my desired six-story hang. I hammed it up, swinging my legs and pretending to climb up. But again, to my horror, when it was time to pull myself up, I had reached exhaustion and could not do it.

Soon Zach came to pull me up, which eventually worked, but not without painful effort and broken glasses. It turns out that amid the idiocy, someone saw me swinging from the building and dutifully called 9-1-1. By the time the fire trucks (plural) and police cars (plural) arrived, Zach and I were casually driving out of the parking garage, looking innocent. I’m ashamed to reveal that I was 25 years old at the time.

I began with this personal prelude for the three lessons it teaches: 1. In the movies, when you see a guy hanging off a ledge and he climbs back up, unless that guy is Jackie Chan, he couldn’t really do that. 2. When they say “Don’t try this at home,” we should listen. 3. I respect Jackie Chan and am humbled anew at his stuntman-martial artist prowess. Admittedly, making movies is not as easy as it looks.

Eerily similar to Zach and me, “Be Kind Rewind” is about two pals who also think they can make movies just as well as Hollywood. In fact, they even remake “Rush Hour 2” (2001), a movie starring Jackie Chan, and they film a scene depicting one of them hanging from a building. I laughed out loud from the instant recollection of my embarrassing memory. But you know what? My scene was better.

Like the zany documentary “Cinemania” (2002), “Be Kind Rewind” is made especially for movie lovers. Mike (Mos Def) works in a video store in Passaic, N.J. called Be Kind Rewind. The store only rents VHS tapes, and has the following motto: one video, one day, one dollar, everyday. Also, despite its dilapidated condition, the store is a historical landmark, as it is the birthplace for the great jazz musician, Fats Waller.

Of course, there’s a corporate presence trying to tear down the store and refurbish the entire block. (This plot line also previously happened in Wheeling.) Meanwhile, amid the pressure of competing with the Blockbuster-like competition (West Coast Video), Be Kind Rewind struggles to remain afloat.

So, when its owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), goes on a “business trip” to spy on his competitor, he leaves the store in Mike’s capable hands. But when his pal Jerry (Jack Black) unwittingly and ridiculously becomes magnetized, the result is a store full of erased VHS movies.

In order to keep the business going, Mike and Jerry begin making “Sweded” films, which means they star in shorter, hilarious, low-budget, homespun remakes of the titles customers request, such as “Ghost Busters” (1984), “The Lion King” (1994) and “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), just to name a few. And, only in the movies, the homemade movies become all the rage, a neighborhood craze.

From the previews, you might think that the Sweded remakes are the primary focus of “Be Kind Rewind.” Unfortunately, they’re not. In fact, it’s a shame that the movie doesn’t stick to this winning concept. Instead, it has several plots afoot, which take considerable time to develop and resolve. This is a miscalculation on writer-director Michel Gondry’s part.

Indeed, the brilliance behind “Be Kind Rewind” is that it makes us, the audience, crave to see more and more of the low-budget films within the film. That’s a funny and amazing trick that Gondry pulls, because we usually hate low-budget films!

Had Gondry stuck with the golden idea to have Jack Black remake movies we’re all familiar with, “Be Kind Rewind” could have been excellent, possibly even a masterpiece. The inventive and ingenious ways that Mike and Jerry come up with to film special effects scenes give us a wink from the professional filmmakers behind the camera.

“Be Kind Rewind” is worth seeing, particularly if you’re a film buff, solely for its in-joke tributes of classic films of the past. And though I’d recommend seeing the movie first, you should check out the film’s Web site: www.bekindmovie.com

I read somewhere that the best way to learn how to critique movies is to try to make one yourself. And so it is with a few of the most respected movie critics: The legendary Graham Greene wrote the screenplay for “The Third Man” (1949). The monumental James Agee worked on writing the adaptation of “The African Queen” (1951). And my favorite critic, Roger Ebert, wrote the screenplay for “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” (1970).

But not even the great Roger Ebert did his own stunts. I guess not everybody can be a stuntman gone movie critic. … Any attempts were probably not survived.

Directed by Michel Gondry
Jack Black / Mos Def / Danny Glover
Comedy 101 min.
MPAA: PG-13 (for some sexual references)

U.S. Release Date: February 22, 2008
Copyright 2008: 245