I could tell from the first moment I saw a trailer for Be Kind Rewind things weren’t going to be pretty. The premise sounds entertaining when you first hear it; a video store, through some weird occurrence ends up having all of its rental videos erased and must recreate each video in order to keep the store afloat. Then you hear movies like Ghostbusters and RoboCop and think, “Ahhhh, the genius…” However, the one thing you forget is that a story must be built around this idea.
Movies aren’t sketch comedy contrary to what Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell would like you to believe. You need story, you need substance, and you need something for the audience to grasp onto. Be Kind Rewind tries, but it turns into an absolute mess in the second half and you begin to wonder if it is the same film you started watching only 90 minutes earlier.
The marketing would lead you to believe the recreation of classic ’80s films is what Be Kind Rewind is all about. However, there is a major side story centered on Danny Glover’s character and the possibility of him losing his building to city planners that dominates the second half of the film. Explaining it would take far too long and would be an absolute waste of your time. Suffice to say the film turns into a neighborhood project to tell a fictional story of a man that has nothing to do with the overall plot of the film. However, this fictional film ultimately changes the framework of the entire neighborhood.
To say it makes sense would be an utter lie. To say it is entertaining would be an even bigger lie.
I originally went into this thinking the re-filming (or “sweding” as it’s referred to here) of the movies would be Be Kind Rewind‘s major downfall. As a matter of fact, that part of the story didn’t really bother me. It’s when the story turns the corner into what feels like an entirely different movie that I started praying it would all end.
Be Kind Rewind was bumped all around the release schedule last year and when it finally landed in the dumping ground of the early months of 2008 I knew we were in for a rough ride, but I held out hope. Jack Black is pretty funny in the flick and you may actually get a few laughs out of the early moments of this film. However, once you get farther in I can’t imagine anyone actually enjoying themselves.
