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Features: DVD
Newline Be Kind Rewind (Blu-ray)Experience the antics of two outcasts, Jack Black ("School Of Rock") andMos Def ("The Italian Job"), as they attempt to save a local video store in this outrageous and offbeat comedy from Academy Award(R) winning writer/director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind"). Amateur filmmaker Mike (Mos Def) must find a way to save the business after his magnetized friend, Jerry (Jack Black) erases every movie in the store. Using an outdated video camera andtheir own special effects, the two embark on an adventure to remake all the movies, from "Ghostbusters" to "Driving Miss Daisy", turning the two townmisfits into local celebrities.
"Altogether wonderful." A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"...playful, cerebral, wildly imaginative..." Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
"...visual wit, game performances, and overflowing humanity..." Keith Phipps, The Onion A.V. Club
"A love letter to the technology and movies of the 1980s as well as celebrating the DIY ethos of the YouTube generation." Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"...a geeky celebration of the power of no-budget inventiveness...a lot of fun..." Michael Bonner, Uncut
"...[forms] a unique chemistry that bubbles with strange and unexpected flavors." Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"A charmingly off-the-wall little tale." Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Editor's Note
Music-video-director-turned-auteur Michel Gondry continues to charm with his low-tech offering, BE KIND REWIND. Set in dreary Passaic, New Jersey, the comedy centers on two of the town's residents: trouble-making Jerry (Jack Black) and well-meaning Mike (Mos Def). Mike works in a video store in an age where the VHS is long dead, but the store's owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), doesn't seem to be in any hurry to change. When Mr. Fletcher leaves town for a trip, he entrusts his store to Mike with one piece of advice: don't let Jerry in the store. But after some mischief, Jerry returns to the store in a strange state. Not only is he weirder than usual, but he's also magnetized, which causes the entire store's stock to be erased. In order to keep the struggling business afloat, Mike and Jerry begin remaking the films in the store one by one. Their hilariously low-budget versions of films such as GHOSTBUSTERS and RUSH HOUR 2 soon begin to draw attention and business to the store, but that creates a whole new set of problems for the pair.Though Gondry's three previous fiction films--HUMAN NATURE, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, and THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP--were all essentially love stories, BE KIND REWIND captures another kind of romance. Both the writer-director and his characters are in love with the cinematic medium itself, and their devotion shows. BE KIND REWIND doesn't reach the heights of ETERNAL SUNSHINE, but it doesn't seem to be aiming for that genius. This is simply a hilarious comedy, fun for film fans of all stripes, which celebrates the sheer joy of watching and making films.
| Features | Source: Warner Home Video |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Be Kind Rewind - DVD Review By: Bill Gibron - filmcritic.com DVD Reviews Published on: 5/30/2008 4:31 PM | |
Along with sound and color, the recordable magnetic tape has to be one of the most important technological advances in the history of cinema. It literally allowed the elitist conceits behind film fandom to become populist, even pedestrian. Beyond all the "everyone's a critic" caterwauling, VHS also made for a more communal experience when it came to creativity. It broadened the horizons of many who only knew what their local cineplex spoon-fed them. And one of the best examples of its lasting impact exists in Michel Gondry's brilliant little allegory Be Kind Rewind. While it purports to be a clever comedy, it's really the celluloid significance of the '80s as an amiable analog fairytale....read the full review |
| Be Kind Rewind - Blu-Ray Review By: Franck Tabouring - Cinema Blend DVD Reviews Published on: 6/20/2008 4:14 PM | | The good old video home system really changed the world of home entertainment. People bought the films they loved for a one-time charge, and they watched them whenever and wherever they wanted, over and over again. Although you don't see much of the VHS anymore in today's world, it still plays a big role in Michel Gondry's good-hearted comedy Be Kind Rewind, a charming little movie about how amateur filmmaking can bring people together to achieve great things. ...read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 6/17/2008 |
| Running Time: 101 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2008 | | Catalog ID: 1000040435 | | UPC: 00794043123252 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Uncut
3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] geeky celebration of no-budget inventiveness....A lot of fun..." 03/01/2008 p.119Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "There's just enough whimsical good humour to carry BE KIND REWIND..." 03/01/2008 p.60 Entertainment Weekly
"[T]here's nothing not to like about the movie....Fitted with pockets of guest stardom, including Mia Farrow...and GHOSTBUSTERS' own Sigourney Weaver..." 02/29/2008 p.44-45 Sight and Sound
"[C]inematic to the bone: it's an affectionate, illuminating paean to filmmaking, a DAY FOR NIGHT for the retro-chic set." 03/01/2008 p.57 USA Today
"BE KIND pays homage to the idea of film as a collective art....Good natured and sometimes endearingly loopy..." 02/23/2008 New York Times
"[The characters] provide a welcome a welcome reminder that even the slickest blockbuster is also a piece of handicraft, an artifact of somebody's nutty, unbounded ingenuity and the potential object of somebody else's innocent, childlike fascination." 02/22/2008 Rolling Stone
"Def is likably low-key....Gondry and the gifted indie cinematographer Ellen Kuras have fun with the amateur versions of the likes of ROBOCOP, RUSH HOUR, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, KING KONG and DRIVING MISS DAISY." 03/01/2008 p.63 ReelViews 7 of 10
Despite some solid laughs and a feel-good ending, Michael Gondry's Be Kind Rewind exists far from the mainstream and its appeal will be limited to those who embrace the kind of awkward quirkiness that defines the production. This comedy/fantasy/drama constantly reinvents itself as it progresses, skipping gleefully across genres, discarding subplots and plot threads, and occasionally turning nonsensical. It's a hodgepodge of tones and styles but, given a chance, it may grow on a viewer. It's not always easy going, however. For every genuine, hard-earned laugh there are at least two missed chances for something more outrageous, and what starts out as a zany Jack Black physical comedy ends up as a heartfelt homage to independent filmmaking. Predictable this isn't, but that can be seen as both an asset and a detriment...It takes a while for Gondry to get where he's going, but Be Kind Rewind eventually puts aside its romantic misfire, its half-hearted arguments against gentrification, and its comic book silliness about Magnet Man, and settles into an ode to low-budget filmmaking...But, to be honest, the whole thing is kind of a mess, although not an uninteresting one. Be Kind Rewind hits and misses with equal abandon. It frustrates even as it entertains, and that's not always the most satisfying or enjoyable of mixtures. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 7 of 10
Michel Gondry's "Be Kind Rewind" is whimsy with a capital W. No, it's WHIMSY in all caps. Make that all-caps italic boldface. Oh, never mind. I'm getting too whimsical. Maybe Gondry does, too. You'll have to decide for yourself. This is a movie that takes place in no possible world, which may be a shame, if not for the movie, then for possible worlds...Co-starring as their female leads in these movies is the fetching Alma (Melonie Diaz), who has the sexiest smile since Rosario Dawson. The re-enactments are not very skillful, to put it mildly, but they have the advantage, as Mike argues, of not taking up all your time because they're as short as 20 minutes. They explain that they import their versions from Sweden, which is why they call them "sweded." You can see the works of Mike and Jerry on the Web, by the way, which might be about two-thirds as good as seeing the whole movie. One of the perhaps inevitable consequences of re-enacting movies is that the exercise brings out all the latent manic excess within Jack Black, who when he is trying that hard reminds me of a dog I know named McQ Junior, who gets so excited when you come over, you have to go to the dry cleaners after every visit...I felt positive and genial while watching it, but I didn't break out in paroxysms of laughter. It's the kind of amusing film you can wait to see on DVD. - Roger Ebert
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