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Capone Reviews BE KIND REWIND!!
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
The latest film from visionary director Michel Gondry (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND; THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP) is not, as the trailers would have you believe, a film about two video store clerks remaking classic movies... not exactly. Instead, it's about two men who discover they have a passion and certain knack for making their own films. With absolutely no budget and armed only with their own self-generated creativity, Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) invent a style of filmmaking that not only doesn't require much knowledge of the process, it also doesn't even demand that you know the film you're remaking all that well. But in a far more interesting way, Gondry is interested in people creating their own reality when the one they live in doesn't suit them.
If you really extend that metaphor, you could look at this film as a comment on the world we're living in today, but I think Gondry is more interested in people making small adjustments in the truth of their world than the global picture.
Despite the presence of Jack Black sporting a pair of thick, oversized glasses, BE KIND REWIND is not simply a showcase for the comic actor to cut loose all of his standard-issue Jack Black-isms. Gondry infuses his film with a darker edge than you might expect. Jerry and Mike are childhood friends living in Passaic, New Jersey, and neither one have much money or anything resembling a life. Jerry lives in a small trailer near some scary-looking power lines that he's pretty sure are nuking his brain, while Mike works at a nearby video store owned by Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) that only rents VHS tapes of movies (brilliantly limiting what films might be available for remaking).
Establishing early on that these two men aren't cinephiles, the film instead focuses on Fletcher's obsession with jazz musician Fats Waller, whom Fletcher says was born in the same building where his video store in now located. Getting pressured to sell his store in the interest of the neighborhood's rapid gentrification, Fletcher tells his two friends that he's going to take a memorial trip to locations key to Waller's life and death and is leaving Mike in charge.
Through means that are far too funny to reveal here, Jerry become magnetized shortly after Fletcher's departure and erases every film in the store. When a customer (Mia Farrow) who knows Fletcher comes in to rent a movie, the boys concoct a scheme to remake the film and rent it to her the next day. The process is deemed "Sweding" because (according to Mike and Jerry) the customized tapes are imports from Sweden. Makes sense. The films aren't so much remakes as they are reductions, each running about 20 minutes long, and I can't wait for the DVD of BE KIND REWIND to see if any complete Sweded films are included. GHOSTBUSTERS; ROBOCOP; 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY; DRIVING MISS DAISY; THE LION KING; RUSH HOUR 3; BOYZ N DA HOOD; and the original KING KONG are all films we get a taste of, and each one is glorious. There's a level of creativity shown by these characters that is admirable, especially in terms of how they handle the special effects and costuming.
The boys bring Alma (Melonie Diaz) on board to help with female roles and production design, and pretty soon there is a line around the block for Sweded movies, bring in more money to the store than it has ever seen. Even when the neighborhood realizes that these films are just Jerry and Mike productions, they still find them hopelessly entertaining. Good news for the fellas since that means they have bigger budgets and crews for their productions, but bad news when the Hollywood lawyers find out about their little operation.
The final act of BE KIND REWIND is perhaps even more interesting to would-be filmmakers than any of the Sweding material, as the neighborhood joins forces to make its first original film. Thankfully, this is not two hours of Jack Black cutting loose; it's better than that. Black shows subtlety in his performance that he's never really mustered before this film. Jerry actually begins to get an ego for the first time in his life as his career as an actor blossoms (he is the lead in all of the Sweded films), and the resulting fame changes him into a version of a spoiled Hollywood star.
Writer-director Gondry is paying tribute to the way he (a man in his mid-40s) grew up discovering movies: on degraded, sometimes full-frame videotape. He is reminding filmmakers that they have a unique opportunity to create realities that simply don't exist, all for the betterment and enjoyment of millions of people worldwide.
To him, having the opportunity to make a wonderfully entertaining film is a gift that should not be squandered. His version of Passaic is a dreary, sad place into which Mike and Jerry inject a great deal of almost childlike wonder and excitement. Hopefully this is the spark that pushes all great filmmakers to make movies. It reminded me of those kids who remade RAIDER OF THE LOST ARK so many years ago and created something almost more entertaining because they didn't have the resources at the disposal of Spielberg and Lucas. BE KIND REWIND does not turn out to be what you think it will; much like the Sweded films in the movie--it turns out better.
Capone
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it looks really good!
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but michel gondry has my faith!
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That movie grew on me over time and I find therewatchability of it to be pretty high.
I like movies that have heart, from the reviews it seems that this little flick might have one. -
Feb 22, 2008 8:34:41 AM CST
"Getting pressured to sell his store in the interest of the neig
by critch
It's a store that only rents VHS. It has ONE customer. It deserves to be sold.
The entire premise of this movie insults the intelligence. -
...okay, that's a touch harsh, it's not shit exactly, but it is exceptionally mediocre, telegraphed and predictable as all fuck. Plus, irritatingly, it seems to think it's a far cleverer a film than the fairy tale piece of fluff that it really is, and the 'feel good nature' of the film never feels genuine, instead it feels delibeate and manipulative. And while this isn't Jack Black at his most annoying, he still relies far too much on his usual Jack Black type schtick for my liking. Unlike much of Gondry's previous work, this is probably middle of the road enough to not only prove reasonably popular, but also likely do well at the box office, I just felt like it didn't push any of it's ideas far enough, as if not wanting to risk alienating anyone, instead wanting to say as mass audience friendly as humanly possible. As a result though, most of it just fell utterly flat. To be fair, it has moments, but the gimmick soon wears off, and as a film it could have been so much more than it is. I mean, hell, I even enjoyed Human Nature more than this. Like I said, it has it's moments, but they really aren't enough to justify the rest of the film that's haphazzardly strung up all around them, and because of that it just felt hollow and drawn out, even with a relatively short running time. Still, that said, I think there are going to be people who just eat this movie up, especially the usual Jack Black fans. I just wasn't one of them. Not even close unfortunately.
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I will see this film just like every other Gondry film.
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but everyone says it's good. Guess I'll give it a try.
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You spoiled most of the main plot twists here, no banner on the main page or nothin'
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I've been flip flopping back and forth on whether or not I was going to make sure to see this in the theater. Nothing torks me more than spending $20 on movie tickets for me and my wife on a movie I know is going to suck going into it. But the more reviews I read, the more excited I'm getting that this movie is something special. Something I have a real passion for. And if it does wind up sucking, my wife still owes me for making me take her to see "License to Wed".
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I’m sorry, but if you honestly believe those words there isn’t a fucking iota of credibility in what you’ve written here or in anything else you will ever write regarding cinema. The frame for frame remake was more entertaining because…it was made for a paltry sum? IS that supposed to be some sort of pseudo-intellectual, avant-garde thesis that cements you as a true elitist with enlightened taste and sensibilities? Personally, I think that remake was cute but considering they literally aped everything from Spielberg, it wasn’t exactly a profound work of art. As a point of fact, your entire thesis regarding Be Kind Rewind doesn’t make a whole lot of sense considering what these guys are doing is the cinematic equivalent of lip synching. It’s cute, and it does demonstrate passion, but really, are we going to reach that far into homage and plagiarism that we actually start calling it some sort of evolved, independent filmmaking? Really?
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you simply must be right, considering you use such big words and all.
how dare those kids "ape" everything from spielberg for a movie they were intentionally directly copying! little bastards!
and how dare ain't it cool news claim it was a work of art, even though they never claimed anything of the sort, actually merely comparing the feeling of watching both features.
you're so wise. -
that line cracks me up
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did it suck? was it good? do I really have to read the whole thing? how bout stars? is that too faux pas?
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thats a nice BE KIND REWIND ad up above there. the banner image? just curious how much do they pay for that? i'd like to put a banner image of my girlfriend's hoohaas I think that would be pretty funny. $2000 do the trick?
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I'm glad you didn't come across my review, it was l onger. Capone loved the movie, he explained why. If it's too long for you to read there are plenty of morons who will do their little half-assed capsule reviews with a star rating or a number at the end. Capone is writing an actual review to share his thoughts about it, not some consumer reports garbage that assumes you don't know anything and don't want to know anything. I'm not gonna go tell those hacks to write longer reviews with more depth so maybe you should lay off Capone for putting a little thought and effort into it.Enough with the witch hunts for people who want to actually explore a topic in-depth.
But I do want everybody to be happy so I have taken the liberty of rewriting Capone's review to your specifications.
BE KIND REWIND
Dir.: Gondry
GOOD
***1/2
--Capone
Sorry if that one was too long, I wanted to abbreviate 'good' to 'G' but wasn't sure if that would be clear.
YOUR POST: C- -
Read his review again, dipshit. And his comment about the remake being more enjoyable was fucking retarded, period. There, I brought it down for you, nice and easy. Do big words hurt your brain, little fella? Oh, and one more thing, smart guy: what makes you think educated people don't post here too? I read articulate, intelligent posts here frequently.
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Pwned.
I'll definitely be seeing this movie as well. My friend is crazy excited about it and his excitement usually ends up paying off. This really sounds like a little flick with that extra special something, er, special. -
But his visual cleverness rarely works at feature length. ESOTSM is easily the best of his movies, but its success is as much the result of Kaufman's efforts as Gondry's.
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Did I mention that Vern is my hero? And to prove it, I'll be filtering all of my reviews through him so he can reduce them down to title; director; 1-4 stars; a one- or two-word opinion; and my sign off. That would certainly make my job so much easier.
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Good idea for a movie... ten years ago. I guess it doesn't matter if it's entertaining though.
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I love how TheRealCapone used 'Sweding', the way Gondry wants this thing to catch on.
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Not everyone here wants to read an entire article for a review. An article about the movie might be good, but really a review like this for a stupid little movie about a couple of douche-bags re-making classic movies so we can all laugh at them... a bit much. It aint Citizen-Freakin'-Cane. Its a dumb movie (that is not necessarily a bad thing) with an out of date premise that has already been done.
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yes, the review lacks any credibility whatsoever and even contains portions that are "retarded". that's why these guys are running a successful website while you're... whining about a review in the talkback section. big words are great. small people who use them in some kind of attempt to make their ridiculous comments sound like they have foundation, without sounding like a douche, not so great. anyway, looking forward to this one.
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So, you read a long review of a movie you're not really interested in seeing, and then complain about having to read a long review of a movie you're not really interested in seeing. I can't possibly think of a solution to this problem.
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I hate carmike.
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Hopefully this will be more like ESotSM than SCIENCE OF SLEEP. God, SoS was totally unwatchable. Hopefully that one was Gondry's one failure, and he won't turn into the next M. Night Shamalamadingdong.
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This premise may have been valid in 2001, when people could still buy a VCR and DVD was new. Who cares?
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No need to wait for the DVD, they are on the website www.bekindrewind-themovie.com It shows it at the end of the movie.
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you tell 'em! I'm sick of this 'the review is too long' bullshit! If it's too fucking long, stop fucking reading, or skip to the last paragraph. If you want a summary judgment, go to Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic where the make up some stupid score based on what a bunch of no-name critics think. Seriously, I've never heard of half the people on RT. If you click on Capone's shit you gotta be willing to commit. Stop complaining and like what you've been given. Nice review, Capone. I've still gotta check out Be Kind Rewind. I loved Science of Sleep and much prefer it to the ridiculously overrated Eternal Sunshine. I'm gonna go swede The Accused.
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Feb 25, 2008 9:51:16 AM CST
I hope AICN writers will gang up on idiot posters more often
by david cloverfield
Lead them Outlaw Vern
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