Be Kind Rewind

Interesting fact. I no longer own anything that can rewind. It's true. With the addition of my new Tivo to my entertainment center, I got rid of my VCR. My stereo doesn't even take cassette tapes! But even though I no longer rewind, I still thoroughly enjoyed the film, Be Kind Rewind when I saw it on Tuesday night.

One thing I really liked about this film is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. With Jack Black and Mos Def leading an ecclectic cast of characters, you can't expect it to be serious, right? When Black's character Jerry tries to sabatoge a power plant that he believes is trying to control him through microwaves, he gets more than he bargains for - he gets magnetized. The next day, when he enters the failing video rental shop where he and his friend Mike spend most of their time, he inadvertently erases the video tapes in the shop. The store has been left in Mike's hands while the owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover in a wonderful performance) is otherwised engaged, so Mike and Jerry have to figure out how to keep the very few customers happy until Mr. Fletcher returns.

The plan is born out of that despiration - they will shoot the movies themselves and rent them to an unsuspecting public. They were not prepared for the popularity of these "sweeded" versions of popular films, however, and they soon receive a lot of requests for a variety of different films.

I'll be honest, the plot surrounding the sweeded films was not as fun to watch as the films themselves. I died laughing at their rendition of Ghost Busters, and the very small piece they showed of their version of Men in Black was hilarious as well.

As it turns out, renting sweeded versions of movies to the public is a violation of copyright, which creates a snag they were not expecting. Their attempts to save the video store from demolition and to save the owner from prison and fines for copyright violations seemed inadequate until the community got together and created their own film.

It is surprisingly touching in the end, but what I personally remember most about the movie is how much I enjoyed the sweeded movies. Back in high school, some of my friends did this to amuse themselves. Who knew that years later someone would make a movie about it?