[IMDB link] [Netflix link] I had a vote amongst friends as to whether we should watch this movie, or Click with Adam Sandler. Although we ended up watching Click first, more people voted for this movie. Consider this a random factoid.
PEOPLE: Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover. Jack Black is very funny, of course.
QUIRKS: This movie was quirky as hell! Jack Black causes every movie in a struggling video store to be erased. They spend a lot of time trying to fool their customers by re-shooting the movies. Thus, you get to see weird situations like “how someone would attempt to shoot the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man scene of Ghostbusters if they only had 30 minutes to do so?” We end up with quite a few references to well-known movies: The Lion King, Rush Hour, Ghostbusters, When We Were Kings, Driving Miss Daisy, and Robocop. In fact, IMDB lists about 200 references to other movies in total! In a way, this movie can be compared to the recent onslaught of “spoof genre” films, except that the plot to this movie is a real plot — not a spoof plot.
BAD STUFF: I could really do without the sappy jazz musician angle. I see that they were trying to compare our nostalgia to old movies with others’ nostalgia to more-forgotten artistic works, such as oldtime blues and jazz…. And the comparison was not lost on me. I just don’t care about that stuff. I like movies. Not a big fan of culture.
CONCLUSION: This movie was hilarious!! I only gave it 4 stars out of 5, but still. I really think if more people had their own camcorders, that a “Be Kind Rewind” party would be a fun way to spend a Saturday. For example: 5 friends with camcorders decide on 5 movies to shoot, put the titles into a hat, and draw a movie to shoot randomly. Or they all do the same movie. Either way: Everyone has an hour (or two) to shoot their film. Afterwards, everyone re-convenes at a central location, and we all watch each others’ “movies”. I think it would be a freakin’ hilarious way to kill a day!!
RECOMMENDATION: If you are a movie buff, or play with a camcorder a lot — See this. It’s not the funniest comedy in the world, but it’s fun. And it spoofs many movies without having the feel of the many “spoof genre” films. This film actually has a slightly serious plot about saving the video store from going out of business, and this helps add to the imperitive that they RUSH to re-make as many old movies as possible.
MOVIE QUOTE: Miss Falewicz: The past belongs to us, and we can change it.
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Benj loved it. Glen and Mark liked it.
Mood: hazy
Music: Tiamat – When You’re In
Claire's blog 
October 5, 2008 at 9:43 AM
You’re idea of a Be Kind, Rewind party sounds like a lot of fun. I think it’s one of those things that you would have to know the “teams” before you get started, as best you can. Or, maybe, have everyone film BEFORE the party and the party serves as a way to screen movies. I’m not sure how you would ensure honesty among the participants, though (ie, that they really only took ONE hour to film something).
October 5, 2008 at 11:59 AM
Or simply have the people who film show up to the party early – 6PM for example. With the actual viewing starting at 8PM or such.
But yea. I think it’d be great, creative, unique, FREE (not counting cost of camcorders) fun!
October 5, 2008 at 1:20 PM
I know Susan has a camcorder and doesn’t Aaron, too? My kodak camera takes pretty decent video and I think can hold nearly an hour of video if there is nothing else on the card.
I think this is the sort of thing that would need to done from multiple locations so nobody gets in each other’s way while filming…
October 5, 2008 at 1:31 PM
Or perhaps getting in each other’s way could be part of the game?
For digital cameras, video usually burns battery VERY fast compared to anything else. The limit may be battery life?
October 5, 2008 at 3:23 PM
We also have a camcorder. 2 actually.
October 5, 2008 at 6:55 PM
I can tell you from experience, growing up near my cousin Aaron and videotaping all the time with him… if you have 2 hours to shoot something, you’re going to end up with like 2 to 10 minutes of footage, assuming you want to edit it down and not have the end result be filled with outtakes and such. If you’re just doing dialogue scenes and not going for any crazy camera shots, AND everybody is rehearsed AND you know exactly how you want to shoot the scenes ahead of time you might be able to get more minutes of final good-quality footage, but don’t expect much from just 2 hours of filming.
I haven’t seen this movie, but they probably made filming look much easier than it actually is from the sounds of it. Plus Clint, you did filming with that one job. How much actual footage came out of how much time in front of the cameras, re-doing takes, etc.? Plus keep in mind that most of the people there (from what I remember you telling me) were professional, there was a script already, etc. etc.
October 6, 2008 at 1:52 PM
Greg:
The point is to have fun.
You really need to watch the movie to really know what I’m talking about.
October 20, 2008 at 11:37 AM
And here is the cover of the book about filming “Be Kind, Rewind” style:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glenscolen/2942285347/
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