Be Kind Rewind

Posted May 22, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

Elroy Fletcher is the owner of a local videostore that’s been around for ages but as business grows smaller due to the demise of VHS things aren’t going too well and when a big company wants to take over the shop in order to bring it down and build a new mall, Elroy feels it’s time to act. He decides to do some investigation to what people want and leaves his shop in the hands of his assistant Mike, something he maybe shouldn’t have done… Mike’s friend Jerry accidentally erases all videotapes and since they don’t want Elroy to be disappointed about Mike screwing up they decide to “remake” (aka ‘Sweden’) all movies from Robocop to Ghostbusters to even The Lion King. Incredibly but true: the “new” versions appear to be even more popular than the original movies!

Sound and Vision:
Be Kind Rewind has a color palette that nicely suits the oldfashioned atmosphere, meaning that it leans towards brownish tones, and for the rest there’s little to say actually. The images have plenty of detail and compression errors are quite low. There are some dust and scratches here and there but this is mostly in the scenes of a “swedened” movie so done intentionally.

The sound is focused on dialogues so mostly coming out of the front speakers but the surround speakers do come into action whenever music starts to play to support the atmosphere and that is done excellently.

Extras:
– Passaic Mosaic
– Booker T & Michel Gondry
– Jack & Mos improvise songs
– A Conversation with Jack Black & Michel Gondry
– Fat was born here
– The Making of Be Kind Rewind
– Paris Concert

Conclusion:
Be Kind Rewind isn’t the typical Jack Black slapstick comedy although there are quite some low-to-the-ground jokes present. At first the film is quite simple but as the story progresses a more dramatic tone is set that uplifts the movie to a whole new level and makes it almost a drama. I was happily surprised to see a combination of good jokes (mostly the “swedened” movie scenes) with a very emotional touch that especially at the end makes the movie shine. Although the movie probably won’t be remembered by the larger audience it’s a shiny diamond for those that discover it.

A-Film delivers this DVD with good image and sound quality but although there are plenty of extras they don’t do the movie justice in my opinion.

You Don’t Mess with the Zohan Day of the Dead (2008)