We love us some Michel Gondry around here and the premise for his latest - Be Kind, Rewind with Jack Black and Mos Def as two friends recreating the entire video library of a small rental shop - has had me grinning like an idiot from the moment I first came across it. And now we can see exactly what Gondry has worked up by checking out the first trailer over at Yahoo. Which, for one day at least, is aptly named.
Jack Black stars in this new comedy from the wild imagination of Academy Award winner Michel Gondry about two best friends, one electromagnetic field, and every movie you’ve ever loved.When Jerry becomes accidentally magnetized while trying to sabotage the power plant he believes is melting his brain, the magnetic field he gives off ends up erasing all of the tapes in the video store where his best friend Mike works. Now Mike may lose his job, and the only way the friends can think to save it is to keep the one regular customer they have - a little old lady with a tenuous grasp on reality - from recognizing what has happened. The way they do this? By recreating and refilming every movie that she decides to rent of course! From Driving Miss Daisy to Ghostbusters to Rush Hour, these two friends become the biggest stars in their neighbourhood by starring in the biggest movies in the world.
This looks a lot hokier than I expected but their version of the Ghostbusters theme is great.
Caterpiller. That may exactly be the point here - just look to the forum here and see that one of the most active discussions is the "VHS review corner" - there is a certain nostalgia that Gondry is aiming to capture here. Suspension of Disbelief is kinda moot in something as goofy as this.
It makes perfect sense, the video shop is owned by an old man who hasn't adjusted with the times. They comment on it directly in the script. There is a nostalgic quality to it, but more so it's about mom-and-pop shops and their place (or lack there of) in modern society. That and it's just hilarious as a plot device.
You just made my week. Thanks so much for posting it.
Kurt, I'm actually buying quite a lot of old, used VHS tapes myself. But they're certainly not of mainstream Hollywood blockbusters that are out on any number of DVD special editions. Visualist, if it's handled like that in the script (and the finished film) it'll be cool.
yeah ok, but they have to speak to a slightly bigger audience ofcourse and not everybody has heard of movies like say, Laserblast :-)
This movie is in the top ten of my must see movies, I'm all for nostalgia!
And Caterpillar if you have some cool cover scans of obscure tapes, or interesting VHS related stories please post them on the forum in the VHS review corner, I'd love to hear them!!
I still have my laserdiscs, hehehe.
It's VHS because you can`t erase DVD`s with an magnetic field!
Yeah, the VHS format is so old school. Before that, they had what was called a "theater," where -- get this -- people actually went out and watched the movie on a gigantic screen together! Ha, ha, ha! People back then were CRAZY!