It bothers me when a movie's goal is to be 'cute'. Shooting for your final product to be hilarious, touching, or meaningful makes sense. You want to make a picture that either makes a profit or one that is a culturally important piece of art, if not now, down the road.
"Be Kind Rewind" attempts to be cute and the only reason it comes close is because it has the help of some big name actors. Jack Black does his damndest at what he does best being ridiculous and for the most part he does an okay job. Mos Def, who I have little to no connection to, does an okay job at playing an emotionally impotent straight man. Danny Glover does a good job whisper acting as an old shop keep trying to save his business. And even Sigourney Weaver of Alien fame makes a brief appearance and while mildly distracting doesn't do a bad job at playing a disgruntled movie executive. I like Jack Black, I think he's funny. Is he less funny in this role than any other given role? No. You put all these good actors in one film you can't have a total piece of crap right? No you can't but that is the exact reason why extra critical.
Dawned with the label: a Michel Gondry Film just above the title on the DVD case makes me think I should know who this joker is but I don't. Upon further research he directed Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, a truely touching film, but without the backing of the great Charlie Kaufman writing his script, "Be Kind Rewind" falls flat.
This came as much as a disappointment to me as it was a surprise. This film meanders so much and makes you suspend your disbelief to the point of skepticism. Maybe it's because I know how hard it is to make a film, even a shitty one with no production value. Or maybe it's because there are like half a dozen different plot changing conflicts in the 102 minute film. Not once did I care about their building getting demolished or whether or not their films were getting repoed in a cartoony manner. Did I mention that this film also had probably the worse conclusion of any fiction I've seen or read, video games included? Cause it did. It made me think, "Wait which plot points are we resolving here? Not the main one? Wait, we're just confirming whats already been confirmed 30 minutes into the movie, which is that people like their shitty movies?!"
Without carrying this on for too long, this film tries for cute and ends up being a regrettably stupid movie. I'm glad Charlie's the one that blindly bought it at Best Buy for 3.99.
3/10
