Film Review: Be Kind Rewind

Be Kind, Rewind somewhat slipped under the radar at its release. Even with stars Mos Def and Jack Black, there never was really a buzz when it hit theaters. A few days ago I found out why.

The movie is directed by Michel Gondry, which gave me mixed feelings when I first decided to watch it. On the positive side, Gondry directed the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Unfortunately he was also at the helm for the awful Science of Sleep. With those two in mind, Be Kind Rewind had a 50/50 shot to be brilliance.

Sadly things ended up on the other side of the coin. That is not to say BKR is as bad as the horrific Science of Sleep, but it is not a good film by any means. The premise (aka the trailer) is Jack Black and Mos Def reenacting popular movies after all the videos at their store get erased. I mention the trailer because honestly that is about all the reenactment (Sweding as the film calls it) that takes place. If you watch the movie because you think those two acting out classic movies will be fun, you are better off watching the trailer. You will get the same amount of laughter as I got from the movie, and you will avoid all the boredom in between.

In many ways I see the same problems that appeared in Science of Sleep here. Since Eternal Sunshine Gondry has been unable to present a great story. Many (including myself) suspect that the success of that film was due to the creativity of Gondry combining with the writing of Charlie Kaufman, who wrote the script. Both SoS and BKR were written without Kaufman, and both are extremely boring and lack any kind of heart.

Gondry also is trying too hard to live up to his “creative” status. Be Kind Rewind is dominated by ideas that were just blatant attempts to be quirky. It certainly does not help that the characters are strange and completely unexplained. Why is Mos Def living in a video store? Why does he talk very slow and act confused all the time? Why does Jack Black sleep in a trailer in a junk yard? Are we supposed to just assume that is the reason he loves conspiracies? Why do we spend so much time getting force-fed Fats Waller references?

This review is definitely critical, but in the end you might get a few laughs when this hits TNT. Would I recommend spending any money to see it? Absolutely not. In an oh-that-is-sort-of-cool-but-wow-it-did-not-work-out-I-laughed-about-twice sort of way, Be Kind Rewind is just like the short films created by its characters: poorly designed, poorly acted, and overpriced.

5/10