Pop Culture Buzz

GRADE: A

Michel Gondry is a Director who has the ability to make everyday living things look animated and larger than life. His music videos with Bjork are monumental pieces of artistic eye candy. His film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is one of my favorite “quirky” films of all time. Along those same lines as his past films “Be Kind, Rewind” is a modern adult fairy tale with some surprisingly sweet and sincere moments made for movie lovers.

If you LOVE movies then this movie is chock full of pop culture and movie references for you to gobble up. I nearly pissed myself watching Jack Black’s character try to sing the “Ghostbusters” theme, his role in this film adds a childlike exuberance to the screen that very few actors can portray. Even when he is the bumbling fool he can bring a smile to your face. His accidental prone paranoid character in this movie adds a sense of glee to the film.

Mos Def has slowly but surely become one of the best actors around today. His genuine and down to earth acting style make you fall in love with his character within the first few frames he is on screen. Him and Jack Black have some great old school Hollywood moments ala’ Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in the “The Odd Couple”. Mia Farrow and Danny Glover also give warm and fuzzy performances in this movie that reminds you what great actors they truly are.

The plot behind “Rewind” centers on Black’s conspiracy theorist character Jerry who tries to sabotage the local power plant, but he accidently receives an electric shock, causing him to become magnetized. The next day, when Jerry goes to the “Be Kind Rewind” video store to see his friend Mike (Mos Def) his magnetized body erases all the tapes in the store.

The best part of this film is obviously Gondry’s colorful interpretation of Hollywood hits; he adds a level of detail that is completely original. His creative technical skills when it comes to cartoonish over the top set pieces and costumes adds a youthful style to this film that reminded me a lot of Tim Burton. As the characters try to recreate movies to replace the ones they accidently erased (they coin the phrase “sweded” to describe the new movies), you can hardly wait to see which film they will lampoon or recreate next.

“Be Kind Rewind’ is already one of my favorite comedies of the year. This sweet modern fairy tale won me over within the first moments it started. The dialog is uproariously funny and real to life. The images and movie re-enactments are non-stop fun. This is one film that movie fans can watch over and over and find something new hidden in the mountain of details with each viewing.

WATCH THE “BE KIND REWIND” MOVIE TRAILER BELOW:

WATCH THE “SWEDED” TRAILER OF “BE KIND REWIND” BELOW: