Movie Review: Be Kind Rewind

Be Kind Rewind could work as a short film, but as a feature length comedy, it runs dry relatively quickly. A simple yet absurd idea fuels quality parody laughs, but the story attempts to have meaning - which it is unable to muster. Essentially a series of skits sewn together with incongruous drama, Be Kind Rewind bizarrely executes a plot that fuses reality and fantasy in the most unpalatable of manners. When every harebrained concept is wholly unrealistic and the conflict is depressingly real, the outcome is one that can't find resolution - least of all satisfactorily.

In Passaic, New York, Mike (Mos Def) is left in charge of a shoddy video rental store called "Be Kind Rewind," while owner Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) takes a vacation to investigate how to make his business boom. Being threatened by contractors who wish to level his dilapidated building, his only hope is to raise a huge sum of money to pay for the necessary repairs. When neighboring friend Jerry (Jack Black) accidentally becomes magnetized and erases all of the VHS tapes in the store, Mike must quickly think of a plan to replace them. Jerry suggests re-filming each movie using themselves as actors, and much to everyone's surprise, the customers actually like the home-made short films. Recruiting Alma (Melonie Diaz) and several of the townsfolk, (allowing them to become "stockholders of their own happiness") Mike and Jerry start raising money to save the nostalgic store, but soon events spiral out of their control when studio agents discover the copyright-infringing antics of the desperate duo.