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December 07, 2007
Be Kind, Be Smart, See this movie.
Jack Black and Mos Def star in 'Be Kind Rewind": an upcoming comedy about a couple of friends who undertake the task of making low budget versions of classic films after every movie in Mos Def's rental store is erased by Jack Black. The plot spirals out of control when Black and Def become local celebrities for their work in remaking the classics. Among their new version of film are Driving Miss Daisy, RoboCop, Rush Hour 2, Boyz in da Hood, et cetera.
At first glance, this film seems like sketch comedy gone awry. Upon further investigation, it is still sketch comedy gone awry, but for some intangible reason, it still seems to have potential. That intangible may lie in the plot. I love parodies, so seeing them done poorly by two big name stars is pretty funny. Check out the trailer, Jack Black wearing an afro wig as a young black man in South Central LA (per Boyz in Da Hood) is pretty entertaining to watch.
Jack Black is very hot and cold as far as humor is concerned, but his on-screen chemistry with Mos Def (who will be visiting UM's Hill Auditorium pretty soon!) is pretty impeccable. The two go together well, to my great surprise.
The Be Kind Rewind website also strikes my interest. It's obvious that someone took way too much time to put this thing together. Its a total sleeper, but quite funny though(this leads me to think that the movie could have the same effects). The concept of the page is similar to the movie: Upon entering the site someone accidentally "erases" the internet, and Mike and Jerry (Def and Black) are left to rebuild popular sites (imdb.com, facebook, myspace, youtube) on a low budget. The intracacies of the webpage truly excite me for the movie
The flick is written and directed by Michael Gondry. I started to think that I had never heard of Gondry, but on second thought I realized that he wrote and directed one of my favorites: The Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet), as well as Block Party (Dave Chappelle's Block Party) and The Science of sleep (I don't know any of the actors but I heard it was pretty interesting).
All in all, I think this flick has crazy potential to be crazy funny. Mos Def has a tendency to be hilarious when he wants to be, Jack Black is often infectious, and Gondry's quirky style always makes for a interesting film, if nothing else; put him in movie that's purely comedy and he could be dangerous. Don't look for Oscar buzz here, but check it out anyway, it's a cult classic for sure. See for yourself:
Read me later,
Leap
ps. Check out some of the films 'remade' in this upcoming comedy.
Posted by dlheart at December 7, 2007 10:23 AM