Be Kind... Watch It!

Warning: If you hate Michael Gondry (#68 on SWPL), do not read this blog. If you have absolutely no idea who Michael Gondry is, he has directed the films Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, and Dave Chapelle's Block Party. If you have heard of none of these films, know that they are weird, as is the film you are about to read about (especially the first twenty minutes). So with that in mind, feel free to skip this post and read a classic from the archives, like the one about apple picking. You may also skip this post if you hate when I refer to movies as films or if your favorite movie is Gladiator or Fletch or if you are so serious and curmudgeonly that you go around and tell little kids that Santa Claus isn't real.

You are about to get your second consecutive upbeat post. This is a bigger upset than USA 4 CCCP 3.

I have found comedy genius. It is Be Kind Rewind.

We all know my lamenting of the state of film comedy (the woes continue even before I watch the written and produced by Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen Pineapple Express, which runs 130 minutes! Will someone hire these guys an editor!!! Austin Powers ran 94 minutes men!!!), particularly when discussing the recent spate of "wild romps" that seem to hit the theaters every six months. And so it is with great pleasure that I recommend to you all Michael Gondry's Be Kind Rewind. This is the hardest I've laughed since Napoleon Dynamite.

Some of you may have heard of Be Kind Rewind, others may have seen it, and most of you probably heard of it and know the premise, but failed to check it out. You also probably know that it has annoying Jack Black and that rapper dude who showed up as Chappelle's Head of CIA in his Black Bush skit. You need to put your preconceived notions about both of these guys aside. While I love Mos Def (#69 on SWPL!), I loathe Jack Black when he is in something not called High Fidelity. While he is being Jack Blacky for parts of the movie, most of the time you don't notice him because you are laughing at the absolutely incredible writing ("We're gonna get caught... When Ms. Falewicz sees it, she's gonna know it's fake because our version is like twenty minutes") or the preposterous visuals. While I often make grandiose statements about how much I dislike so and so for not liking so and so that I liked, I literally DARE you to not laugh at the Ghostbusters (the copy machine part... MY GOD!!!) scene. You've heard this song before yes, but those five minutes are what great writing and great acting are all about. And there's not a dick reference in sight.

But it is not just the five minutes that are hilarious. Without giving away too much, Be Kind Rewind makes camouflage, collanders, magnetism, illiteracy, negative light, and a shopowners discovery of DVDs absolutely hilarious. It also invents the funniest word I've ever heard; one that I can't wait to start using in my everyday lingo.

But along with being absolutely hysterical, Be Kind Rewind is also a strangely uplifting and inspiring film. Maybe it is the fact that our new President so firmly believes in unity and I buy that, but Be Kind Rewind was powerful. By no means does this movie turn into something it is not advertised as, like the lame comedies Wedding Crashers and Knocked Up, but it does something magical at the end without being at all cheesey. And that made me love it all the more.

While watching Be Kind Rewind, I thought often of The Big Lebowski, not because they are alike (although they have equally hilarious scenes), but because of how they were (are) later viewed. I feel like Be Kind Rewind will follow a similar path to Lebowski as it is a movie that opened with little fanfare and mixed reviews (52 on metacritic), yet will likely be extremely appreciated by people as word of mouth spreads. While it will take ten years to measure this, I truly believe that Be Kind Rewind will be a cult classic.

Be Kind Rewind is ambitious and some criticisms of it are understandable (lengthier clips of their "films" would have been nice), but some of the hatred directed towards it is misguided at best and 100% wrong at worst. Be Kind Rewind will have it's haters. Stupid people who laugh at Scary Movie 2 and flock to see Marley And Me will hate this movie. They are also the same people who find Napoleon unfunny. I don't want to simply call them stupid, but I will say that haters of this movie might have a sense of humor that is not overly... Mature. And like The Coen Brothers almost eleven years ago, Michael Gondry has a built in group of haters who find his work random (Be Kind Rewind is that at times, but not nearly as often as many films are) and overrated. But if people can get past that and past his pretentiousness, they will find a movie that if given the chance, is absolutely hilarious.

I wavered on whether or not to even post this blog as my hype will now ultimately lead to disappointment, but with that said, try not to go in thinking you're watching the second coming of your favorite Seinfeld episode. However, if you love movies, want to laugh, and can be unserious for a bit, this film needs to be seen. Even if you don't laugh (which you will at at a random black dude channeling his inner Sigourney Weaver), you at least have to appreciate Be Kind Rewind, because I really have seen nothing like it in recent cinema.

And until you see it, here's a taste:

Jerry: Walking down the street, and you see a little ghost, what you gonna do about... GHOSTBUSTERS!!! That's the theme to Ghostbusters...

Mike: No it's not...

Jerry: I'm pretty sure it is...

See it. Love it. And don't be so serious all the time.

PS- Running time: 100 minutes...