Mos Def, Jack Black, and Danny Glover star in this dramedy about a store that rents VHS tapes.
This was a really odd film. I'm not sure what the writer intended it to be, a comedy or a drama, and the director seemed to be just as confused.
The movie starts off showing Danny Glover as the owner of this store where Mos Def works and his best friend, Jack Black, hangs out.
As you've seen in the previews, Jack gets magnetized and deletes all the tapes in the store. Jack and Mos Def then start to create their own remakes of all the movies in the store. Initially, this is pretty funny. After the third movie or so, it gets repetitive and boring.
The true story, however, is a drama about Danny and Mos Def's place in this world and their link to that world through the store. If the writer intended to give us a message via that story, it never came through. The ending, if you can call it that, was supposed to be about heart, but fails because it was so forced and phoney.
The characters throughout were all over the map and about as poorly written as you'll ever see.
Jack's character is just a mess here and that's saying something considering the roles he's played in the past. I honestly couldn't figure out if he was crazy, mentally challenged, or something else. His situation in life was completely unexplained. How does this guy, who does NOTHING but hang out at the video store have an employee? I assume he owns a junkyard, but that's never really explained. Why is so he crazy? Why does he wear a tin helmet on his head? Why does he try to actively sabotage things he believes are involved in some vast conspiracy.
That's just Jack. Now imagine every character in the movie having unexplained motivations and pasts. I cannot stress enough just how badly these characters are written. None are ever fleshed out.
This could have been a very funny and original comedy, but instead this film falls flat as both a comedy and a drama. Skip it.
3 out of 10.
Be Kind Rewind
I ended up watching the whole movie. Yeah, it's comedyish and dramaish without committing. Yeah, it has issues. But iliked it more than leisher's review.
i didnt love it. and it was in the background while i did other things, cuz, quite frankly, it doesn't deserve full attention.
but it was good. i'd give it 6/10 as a background filler.
i didnt love it. and it was in the background while i did other things, cuz, quite frankly, it doesn't deserve full attention.
but it was good. i'd give it 6/10 as a background filler.
It's not me, it's someone else.
the solution to their problem of remaking the movies was cool and different then anything else I had seen and I really enjoyed it.
My problem is that the advertising for this film pushed this concept as what the film was all about. It IS original and entertaining, however it was a small, small portion of the film. It was essentially a slightly extended montage video ala 80s movies.
Just because one scene was good doesn't mean the film was good.
Considering the majority of the film dealt with bullshit that had nothing to do with them remaking films, and that stuff was in your words "The feel good stuff at the end didn't interest me", I don't understand your 8/10 score.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
I never saw ads for the film, so that must have helped.
That could be true.
Here's how all the trailers went:
2 friends work at a video store. One day all their tapes get erased. So they decide to reshoot them all themselves. Hilarity ensues.
Nothing else in the film was even hinted at in the trailers.
Edited By Leisher on 1241454932
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell