While I don't usually comment on other reviews from this site, I was struck with one person who included "Another thought-provoking film by Jack Black" in the headline. And while everyone has a right to their opinion, I'm trying to figure out what "thought-provoking" film Jack Black has made lately.
Was it "Shallow Hal"? Was it "Nacho Libre"? Was it "Orange County"?Could it have been "King Kong"? Or maybe it was "Tenacious D" or "Holiday."
Might have been "Hi-Fidelity," which I did like, but then again, that was made almost 10 years ago.
His pictures have been cute, funny, stupid and interesting, but never "thought-provoking." Even this latest release, "Be Kind, Rewind," directed by Michael Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Dave Chappell's Block Party"), isn't so much a thinking man's movie as it is a quirky, goofy, silly, genre-bending mish-mash. It isn't bad, at all-but it certainly is not up there with either of Gondry's other two efforts.
In fact, it was Jack Black who forced me to give this movie a 6 rather than a 7. He can be a bottle-rocket of superheated energy and passion when directed correctly (like in "School of Rock") or he can be an embarrassing loose cannon of buffoonery (such as "Libre").
Here, he plays Jerry, a junkyard worker who lives in a trailer beneath a huge electrical transformer. Jerry believes the transformer-and the power company that owns it-is trying to melt his brain. He enlists the help of boyhood friend, Mike (Mos Def-real name Dante Terrell Smith- "Dave Chappell's Block Party," "16 Blocks"), who works in Mr. Fletcher's (Danny Glover) video-only store in Passaic, New Jersey, to sabotage the contraption.
There's really no back story on why these two people-seemingly polar opposites-are friends, and no demonstrative reason on earth why anyone would hang around the obviously demented and anti-social Jerry.
Mike, who has much more sense (but still talks like a dimwitted character from a "MAD TV" sketch), thinks better of this insane idea and takes off; leaving Jerry to get suspended in a cartoon-like electrical current and become magnetized.
This results in the erasure of every tape in Fletcher's establishment. This forces the two imbeciles to re-film (or "swede") such movies as "Ghostbusters," "Rush Hour 2," "The Lion King," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "RoboCop," and others.
Patrons at the store seem to like these productions better than the originals, despite the fact that Jack Black is the star of them and they are only about 20 minutes long.
Meanwhile, Fletcher-who has told Mike he was off on a week's celebration of the life of blues great, Fats Waller-is instead spying on another, more popular video outlet in an effort to increase his own sales. Another plot complication occurs when Sigourney Weaver appears as an uptight film studio lawyer demanding the two cretins cease and desist the impromptu film-making enterprise.
Facing millions of dollars in fines and hundreds of years in jail if they continue, the two meatheads decide to complete a black-and-white version of "Fats Waller Was Born in This Building in Passaic, New Jersey," which is duly finished and shown to the entire neighborhood. Mia Farrow ("Rosemary's Baby," "Broadway Danny Rose") also makes a small cameo as a woman who urges Fletcher to declare his building a national historical landmark.
Gondry tries to walk several lines here, he wants the film to be taken as a serious drama, a slapstick comedy, and a parody of popular cinema. He should have stuck to the latter category. When Jerry and Mike are making their ridiculous remakes, the movie shines with truly funny situations.
These scenes, however, are few and far between, as well as way too short (for example, the "Lion King" takeoff lasts only a minute or two). A tepid love story is thrown in between Mike and a local cleaner-turned-"actress," Alma (Melonie Diaz, "A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints," "Lords of Dogtown") for no reason other than to throw a tepid love story into a movie like this.
Mos Def is fine in this picture; and despite his willingness to go along with the ludicrous antics of Jerry, he knows when to draw the line. Glover does a nice job, as well, torn between pleasing his customers, making himself happy and earning enough money to save his livelihood. His devotion to Fats Waller, while bordering on the obsessive, seems genuine and heartfelt.
Black has his moments, but continues to milk the crazy, wild-eyed lunatic that people in "reel" life think is cute and eccentric, but folks in "real" life would not tolerate for more than 15 minutes. He is rude to people in the store, a jerk to Mike and is a general nuisance to anyone he comes in contact with.
Overall, however, this is just interesting enough to check out. It's certainly nowhere near a perfect 10 movie (like so many reviews on this site seem to rate it-maybe the writers have never seen pictures like "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca," "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Godfather," "Raging Bull" or "GoodFellas," among others), but it has it's Jarmuschian charm.
And sometimes-especially in these dark cinematic times-that's good enough.
Was it "Shallow Hal"? Was it "Nacho Libre"? Was it "Orange County"?Could it have been "King Kong"? Or maybe it was "Tenacious D" or "Holiday."
Might have been "Hi-Fidelity," which I did like, but then again, that was made almost 10 years ago.
His pictures have been cute, funny, stupid and interesting, but never "thought-provoking." Even this latest release, "Be Kind, Rewind," directed by Michael Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Dave Chappell's Block Party"), isn't so much a thinking man's movie as it is a quirky, goofy, silly, genre-bending mish-mash. It isn't bad, at all-but it certainly is not up there with either of Gondry's other two efforts.
In fact, it was Jack Black who forced me to give this movie a 6 rather than a 7. He can be a bottle-rocket of superheated energy and passion when directed correctly (like in "School of Rock") or he can be an embarrassing loose cannon of buffoonery (such as "Libre").
Here, he plays Jerry, a junkyard worker who lives in a trailer beneath a huge electrical transformer. Jerry believes the transformer-and the power company that owns it-is trying to melt his brain. He enlists the help of boyhood friend, Mike (Mos Def-real name Dante Terrell Smith- "Dave Chappell's Block Party," "16 Blocks"), who works in Mr. Fletcher's (Danny Glover) video-only store in Passaic, New Jersey, to sabotage the contraption.
There's really no back story on why these two people-seemingly polar opposites-are friends, and no demonstrative reason on earth why anyone would hang around the obviously demented and anti-social Jerry.
Mike, who has much more sense (but still talks like a dimwitted character from a "MAD TV" sketch), thinks better of this insane idea and takes off; leaving Jerry to get suspended in a cartoon-like electrical current and become magnetized.
This results in the erasure of every tape in Fletcher's establishment. This forces the two imbeciles to re-film (or "swede") such movies as "Ghostbusters," "Rush Hour 2," "The Lion King," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "RoboCop," and others.
Patrons at the store seem to like these productions better than the originals, despite the fact that Jack Black is the star of them and they are only about 20 minutes long.
Meanwhile, Fletcher-who has told Mike he was off on a week's celebration of the life of blues great, Fats Waller-is instead spying on another, more popular video outlet in an effort to increase his own sales. Another plot complication occurs when Sigourney Weaver appears as an uptight film studio lawyer demanding the two cretins cease and desist the impromptu film-making enterprise.
Facing millions of dollars in fines and hundreds of years in jail if they continue, the two meatheads decide to complete a black-and-white version of "Fats Waller Was Born in This Building in Passaic, New Jersey," which is duly finished and shown to the entire neighborhood. Mia Farrow ("Rosemary's Baby," "Broadway Danny Rose") also makes a small cameo as a woman who urges Fletcher to declare his building a national historical landmark.
Gondry tries to walk several lines here, he wants the film to be taken as a serious drama, a slapstick comedy, and a parody of popular cinema. He should have stuck to the latter category. When Jerry and Mike are making their ridiculous remakes, the movie shines with truly funny situations.
These scenes, however, are few and far between, as well as way too short (for example, the "Lion King" takeoff lasts only a minute or two). A tepid love story is thrown in between Mike and a local cleaner-turned-"actress," Alma (Melonie Diaz, "A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints," "Lords of Dogtown") for no reason other than to throw a tepid love story into a movie like this.
Mos Def is fine in this picture; and despite his willingness to go along with the ludicrous antics of Jerry, he knows when to draw the line. Glover does a nice job, as well, torn between pleasing his customers, making himself happy and earning enough money to save his livelihood. His devotion to Fats Waller, while bordering on the obsessive, seems genuine and heartfelt.
Black has his moments, but continues to milk the crazy, wild-eyed lunatic that people in "reel" life think is cute and eccentric, but folks in "real" life would not tolerate for more than 15 minutes. He is rude to people in the store, a jerk to Mike and is a general nuisance to anyone he comes in contact with.
Overall, however, this is just interesting enough to check out. It's certainly nowhere near a perfect 10 movie (like so many reviews on this site seem to rate it-maybe the writers have never seen pictures like "Citizen Kane," "Casablanca," "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Godfather," "Raging Bull" or "GoodFellas," among others), but it has it's Jarmuschian charm.
And sometimes-especially in these dark cinematic times-that's good enough.