I remember being so excited when I heard Jack Black and Mos Def were doing a comedy together, being a big fan of both men. Misty from the phenomenal Cinema Schminema (killer blog name) takes a look at the results.

Be Kind Rewind (2008) features Jack Black doing what Jack Black does best – running around all crazy like in a feel good flick.  The unfortunate part is that the feel good part wears off relatively quickly and the movie goes the way of tedium.

So Jerry (Black) hangs out with his friend Mike (Mos Def) in the video store where Mike works.  Jerry’s kind of klutzy and kind of paranoid. After attempting to sabotage a nearby electrical substation, believing its energy to be melting his brain, Jerry becomes magnetized, and when he enters the store the next day, he inadvertently erases all the VHS tapes in the store.  Uh-oh!  Mike quickly discovers the disaster, and is further pressed when Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), Mr. Fletcher’s friend, wants to rent Ghostbusters. To prevent her from reporting a problem to Mr. Fletcher, Mike comes up with an idea: as Miss Falewicz has never seen the movie, he proposes to recreate the film using himself and Jerry as the actors and cheap special effects hoping to fool her. They complete the movie just in time when another customer asks for Rush Hour 2. Mike and Jerry repeat their filming, enlisting the help of Alma (Melonie Diaz), a local woman, for some of the parts.  Soon word spreads of their epic remaking adventures and everyone in the neighborhood has a request.  Hilarity ensues.  Or something like that.

I mean, sure it’s fun at first watching Black and Def redo Ghostbusters with only themselves but as time passes the schtick gets old.  Then there’s another storyline about the video store being forced to move or go out of business and another storyline about a jazz musician and then Sigourney Weaver shows up as some government official claiming copyright infringement for all these remade flicks and proceeds to destroy them all with a bulldozer.  That was obviously the simplest way to go about destroying them…

Not the best Jack Black flick ever made and certainly nothing noteworthy happening here.  Mostly, after having watched I just want to gather up my friends and go remake some classic movies on the cheap.  Simple fun for a rainy day?

Verdict: Schooner of Carlton Draught

Want to win a copy of Bernie thanks to Madman Entertainment? Check out the details here on how to enter.

Misty is the creator and writer of the wonderful Cinema Schminema, a blog focusing on fantastic B Movies and the odd classic. Be sure to check it out and like her page on Facebook here.