MOVIES
Starring: Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow
Rated PG-13 for some sexual references. In "Be Kind Rewind," a handful of characters shoot an entire movie in one week. Which, based on the evidence, was probably three or four days more than it took to shoot "Be Kind Rewind."
An utterly amateurish film on all fronts, despite the work of some previously talented people, "Be Kind Rewind" takes to heart the advice of one of its characters: "It doesn't have to be perfect."
Indeed, it isn't. And although no one in the comedy ever says "It doesn't have to be funny," they certainly took that one to heart, too.
With his performance here on top of a spate of other recent flops, Jack Black should now officially ask for his name to be removed from the quality pictures he somehow managed to make, "School of Rock" and "High Fidelity." Somewhere along the line in his horrifying career, he got the idea that to act in movies all he needs to do is to be irritating.
And the audiences laugh. As another critic says, to please this young generation, all a comedian has to do is show up.
Black plays Jerry, a mentally deficient junkyard owner who tries to sabotage a power plant he thinks is trying to control his brain. His plan goes awry and he becomes electrified, though unfortunately not killed, resulting in his being magnetized. When he walks into the videotape rental store, his magnetism accidentally erases all the tapes.
Mos Def co-stars as Mike, a mentally deficient clerk at the video store who is Jerry's only friend. Mike has been put in charge of the store by its owner (Danny Glover -- what is he doing here?), and he is afraid the store will have to close.
So when a customer (Mia Farrow -- what is she doing here?) comes in and asks for a copy of "Ghostbusters," Jerry and Mike decide to film their own incompetent, low-rent, amateurish and unfunny version of that movie.
At last. The filmmakers can finally make what they know.
The filmmaker in particular is Michel Gondry, whose work some misguided souls actually enjoy. All he has to do is show up.
Jerry, Mike and new friend Alma (Melonie Diaz) proceed to shoot their own intentionally awful versions of such movies as "Men in Black," "Driving Miss Daisy," "King Kong" and "Rush Hour 2." Seriously, "Rush Hour 2."
Somehow, this is supposed to be funny, but funny it is not. The problem would seem to be in the script. Despite Gondry being credited for writing the film, there does not seem to have been anything written down; everything looks improvised -- by people who cannot improvise. Only the barest essentials of a plot seem predetermined, such as a visit by an officious city official (Sigourney Weaver -- what is she doing here?).
Only one solitary moment has any genuine emotion to it, a scene at the end when we see the redemptive powers of film. But that moment is ruined by the inclusion of Farrow, who had a very similar scene at the end of "Purple Rose of Cairo."
Now that was a great movie and a wonderful comedy. It was everything "Be Kind Rewind" is not.
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© Copyright 2008, Richmond Times-Dispatch
