Be Kind Rewind - out now
Thursday, July 17th, 2008More light-hearted than French director Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind nonetheless shares its surreal assumptions. Set in retrograde Passiac, New Jersey, sweet-natured Mike (Mos Def) works in a video store run by kindly Mr Fletcher (Danny Glover), an old-timer who still exclusively rents out dusty old VHS tapes, fitting for the dreary backwater in which the store is situated. When Mr Fletcher takes a trip out of town, he leaves his store in the capable hands of Mike, giving him just one piece of advice: not to let Mike’s quirky friend Jerry (Jack Black) anywhere near the store. However, Jerry, whose body has been completely electro-magnetised after breaking into the local power plant, does visit the store and inadvertently wipes every single tape. Only one option is left to the pair: armed with a video camera, they start with a biopic of Fats Waller, going on to film their own versions of classics such as Rush Hour 2 and Ghostbusters Pretty soon the home-made films achieve cult status and the money won’t stop rolling in.
Directed by Tom Shadyac (Ace Ventura, The Nutty Professor), this sequel to Bruce Almighty at $135 million dollars is purportedly the most expensive comedy ever filmed. Steve Carell plays a newscaster turned politician who has uprooted to Virginia, dragging a reluctant wife and three boys with him to support him in his ambitions. His campaign pledge to “change the world” becomes a reality when God, in the form of an avuncular Morgan Freeman, tells him to build an ark to save America from a great flood. In spite of hints at an environmental message – the flood after all followed a controversial decision to privatise a national park – Evan’s penchant for gas-guzzling 4×4s makes him an unlikely eco-warrior.
Seasoned action man and all-round geezer Jason Statham (Collateral, Snatch) and Saffron Burrows (Frida, Deep Blue Sea) star in this comic thriller documenting the 1971 robbery of the Baker Street branch of Lloyds Bank. Oddly enough, the robbers’ walkie-talkie conversations were recorded by a radio ham, but when he reported the incident, no action was taken…
Perhaps the ultimate Girl’s Night In movie has arrived on cinema screens, following Monday night’s premiere at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square here in London – of course we’re flattered that Carrie and the girls chose to unveil their first big screen performance here in the UK, but we can’t help feeling that perhaps their native New York would have been a more fitting choice.
