Be Kind Rewind

2008 comedy

Rating: 13/20

Plot: The existence of a VHS-only rental store is threatened by foreclosure and the problem that nobody watches things on VHS anymore. The proprietor, Elroy Fletcher, goes on a little trip to celebrate the life of Fats Waller and leaves Mike in charge. He warns Mike to not let his bungling pal Jerry in the store, but Jerry, magnetized in a freak accident, winds up destroying the store's merchandise. Oh, snap! The solution to the problem is simple. They simply make their own ultra-low-budget versions of the movies to rent out to their apparently easy-to-please clientele.

This should have been so much better. There are funny moments and one terrific montage scene that appeared to be a single long take. But there was much clunkiness in getting from Point A to the funny remakes (I guess, Point C), and the subplots really got in the way. Also, and this might be due to illness, I didn't really get what this film was trying to say. Somewhere along the line I missed the point. I was surprised to look this up and see that it was from this year. I figured this was a pre-Spotless Mind movie that I had somehow never heard of. It actually has the feel of an 80's movie which isn't necessarily a bad thing in this case. I did laugh a few times, but I coughed more and fell asleep once and had to be kind and rewind to see what I had missed. I gave this movie a bonus point just because I'm in a bad mood which might not make sense to you but makes perfect sense to me. I know nothing about how this movie did in theaters (the fact that I didn't know what it was probably isn't good), but it seems like the type of movie that could become a sort of cult classic following its release on VHS.