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SUNDANCE ’08! A Spy Sees BE KIND REWIND!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I saw this one here in LA, and I’ll hold my personal review until closer to release. For now, let’s hear from someone who saw it in the thin mountain air of Utah last night:
Harry and Co.,
I just got back to my room from attending the world premiere of Be Kind Rewind at the Eccles up here at the festival and I have to say I was surprised by this picture. The film is fairly straightforward and the marketing material genuflects the thrust of the picture. Danny Glover owns a video store (a VHS video store) that's going under and decides he needs to take a trip to find out what makes a successful video store (he notes "less selection, more copies, lack of general knowledge by employees", etc.) He leaves the store in the care of Mos Def with only one instruction: keep Jerry out. Jack Black is Jerry. And he's a loon. He thinks the power plant is microwaving everyone's brains and hatches a scheme to sabotage it.
In turn, he ends up becoming magnetized and waltzing into the video store, insulting customers and erasing every tape in the store.
Soon, he and Mos Def are caught with their pants down and need to remake Ghostbusters and fast, otherwise Danny Glover will find out somethings wrong and be dissapointed. As the film progresses (just like the trailer) people find the "Sweded" videos better than the originals and with more heart. Soon, they've earned enough money to save the video store, but the movie studios (Sigourney Weaver) find out about the sweded pictures and runs them all over with a bulldozer. The community who's made the videos popular reacts with one last grand gesture: to make their own movie about the history of a figure in their neighborhood.
The film has a surprising amount of heart.
So surprising that I was shocked to find myself tearing up at the end of the picture. Here I am, watching a group of people just watching a movie and it's got me almost crying. The heart this film supplied was so subtle and brilliant, I didn't even realize it until it crept up on me.
I can see this film playing much better to a crowd of filmmakers though, than the general public. The sweded pictures they make look like all the films every kid interested in film made in jr. high, but with much more cleverness and creativity. It was, as the guy who introduced the film and Jack Black reiterated, lyrical.
And it was also ironic that this picture sort of embodied the themes of what Sundance wishes it still was. Small people, away from (or in spite of) the studios, making films that mean something, whether they're good or not. Sundance is now premiering U2 concert videos and the new Chuck Palahnuick picture. Which is fine, but they just can't say they're independent anymore.
All in all, this film is solid and I would hope that it sees a release larger than the arthouse release Science of Sleep saw.
Sincerely,
ShineBox
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+ Expand All
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will be seen by MILLIONS!
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guess there is a market still for overpriced sundance merch..makes the rich feel all indy and shit
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thanks for spelling out the whole damn plot in a three sentence paragraph... Shine-my-Box, Jackass!
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Actually it is, but it's an early Christian word pertaining to worship, not a Hollywood executive bullshit word meaning "genuinely reflects", which is what this dimestore PA moron thought it was.
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Jan 21, 2008 7:02:37 AM CST
genuflect means to lower oneself as a sign of respect by bending
by dr. sid schaefer
from latin: 'genu' (knee) and 'flectere' (bend). there is no other use. submitter is an asshat.
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whoops. cut off there. submitter is still an asshat, though.
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for the spoiled ending.
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...they're called 'stupid cunts'.
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Down on one knee! Now, try your best to stay calm, brush up your sunday salaam then come and meet his spectacular coterie!
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So Sigourney Weaver plays all the movie studios? Is she CGI'd as a giant, transformer-like monster (who can apparently transform into a bulldozer?)
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if they're poor. The hard part is finding a video store that still has VHS tapes.
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God this sounds like a youtube experiment gone wrong, fucking horrible. shame on you JB, you're just in it for the MOAH-NEIGH!
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that just sounds nasty.
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original story, chance for Jack Black to be funny, Mos Def goodness...what's to hate?
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Truly, I know how to give a woman pleasure.
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This film looks great.
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this dude must still be stoned from the show.
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yer an ass. this movie looks awesome...
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...not EVERYTHING is out (or will be out anytime soon) on DVD. The video store I used to work at had tons of super-rare titles on VHS.
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And if it was anything like the video store I used to work at, a customer would return the super-rare title with six feet of chewed-up tape trailing on the flor and say "I think something's wrong with this tape. All my other movies play fine." Ah, memories.
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I guess I was thinking of the film Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (sure I was).
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let's hope so. VHS rocks man! lol
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those things are cheap
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This movie would have made a lot more sense as an early-90's period piece.
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...But the trailers fucking stink, the attempt to add "sweded" to the lexicon, and the shitty vids themselves up on youtube. I hope it's just a case of everything not working out of context.
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Just doesn't sound quite right.
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Theres so goddamn much on VHS that isn't available (from rental sources) on DVD, that I'm left with no choice. Well, no cheap choice other than purchasing the DVD online.
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some amateurs instead of the original. Sure. It sounds likes this movie is trying to combine today's internet technology, and rampant homemade clips on You Tube with 80s nostalgia and technology. If I rented Rambo and watched it only to find Jack Black with a bandolier I would hunt him down and kill him. I find it easier to believe Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in Tomorrow Never Dies (or whatever one it was) than this plot. There's suspension of belief, and there's who the hell are you kidding. As far as VHS goes I just rented Watership Down in that format because no one carries the DVD. Maybe Netflix, but I don't have a subscription.
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I know its pretty predictable but still... goddamn it
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Welcome to 1980.
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Jan 21, 2008 9:44:27 PM CST
If I had a nickel every time Moriarty promised a review and neve
by jackislost
I would have approximately $30 bajillion.
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Seriously, just post what you write and stop telling what you WILL do. It's enough, already.
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I wonder if after this has passed theatrical release if it will come out on dvd or VHS. a bonus VHS tape with crappy ads for Leprachaun 4 or Blair Witch project 2 and the tape is not reqound
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meant to say rewound .. reqound is australian for beer
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as havent seen anymore posts .. ha ha I am legend (get it .... all alone in a world full of zombie vampire looking creatures ... aka fanboys)
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Menace.
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was 15 minutes with robert de niro and edwards burns ... good film
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still have lots of rare movies on VHS.
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he's just THAT talented
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