Movie Details
| Title: | Be Kind Rewind | |
| Director: | Michel Gondry | |
| Year: | 2008 | |
| Genre: | Movie About Movies | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 02.24.08 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (3)
- Dave Chapelle's Block Party
- Mood Indigo
- Science of Sleep
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 02.24.08 | Cinemark Pflugerville | I had high hopes for this one. Great idea, great trailer playing to everybody's strengths, and Eric said the script was great as well. How could it go wrong? Even kinda wrong? Reality does, that's who. About a month ago I started hearing that the movie sucked, which made me sad. Gondry's movies have always kind of been right on the border of being GREAT but falling just a few small steps shy. I like Eternal Sunshine and Science of Sleep quite a bit (Human Nature was too all over the place for me) but with both movies there's a vague thing (which obviously eludes me) that's either missing or too much of that keeps it from that perfect balance that some films get where it's a completely satisfying utterly rewatchable experience. I think all his films promise that and certain facets deliver, but the big pictures don't quite achieve whatever it is that I'm talking about. With this movie, I think the promise is seeing Jack Black and Mos Def act out movies. The problem is that we see all of them in the trailer and in essence their whole "sweding" process is boiled down to one shot in a musical montage. This should be like half the movie and instead it's maybe a minute long and BAM, all of these movies are made and it's back to the problems or whatever. Now, the reason (or at least a major reason) for there not being more movies in the film has to be rights issues, which although I'd feel differently if I were the owner of any of those movies, speaking as a consumer I think completely sucks balls. It's bullshit that Black & Def can't show me their Pump Up The Volume remake or Lord of the Rings or whatever. They can't for the same reason why they can't rent the tapes in the movie. Sucks. Hurts the movie to not have more of that stuff in it. Now, hearing that it sucked from a few people and knowing Gondry's propensity for melancholia prepared me for this movie I think. I was ready for it to not be exactly what I wanted it to be and as such I walked out pretty much liking it. I wish I liked it a whole lot more, but I don't think it's a bad movie and bet on second viewing there will be more to appreciate. I do think the Jack Black power plant scene is really strange. Why he has to be... the place he is... is crazy and I would've liked the physics to have been a bit more realistic, but I guess we're working on some level of fantasy here anyway with so many people getting into this childish stuff... so oh well. Another problem I had was the ending or lack thereof. I guess maybe part of me was hoping for some last-minute reprieve and the evil city council dude to come to his senses - which speaks to how involved I was in the film that I cared that much - but to not get any sort of coda or epilogue was jarring. I kind of hate that I wanted one since they're in every movie and that just means i'm brainwashed by the Hollywood system but... I do. I want to see Be Kind Rewind prospering in the projects and strengthening its community. blah blah blah. Bottom line: I liked it but wished I liked it more. It's weird; I caught myself laughing at trailer moments that I've seen like a thousand times now. "What's happening to our hood!?" still gets me. Apparently it gets everybody else too. The crying baby and people talking next to me reminded me how long it's been since I've seen a movie in a theater (and going back even farther, a non-Alamo theater). I hate that I don't live in a theater anymore. Messages from movie friends asking if I'll ever come to Weird Wednesdays ever again make me real sad. I guess I might be significantly less sad when I get my first paycheck and pay off my credit card debt, but still. Sad. |
