Fats Waller Says"Be Kind, Rewind"

At 9:05 last night , I walked into an AMC theatre, and watched the newest Michel Gondry film- Be Kind, Rewind. Starring Jack Black, Mos Def, and Danny Glover, there was a whole lot of laughing to behold.

Jack Black plays Jerry, a homely man in his mid thirties and is slightly suspicious that the government is the source of his headaches. He works in a junk yard, and does car customizations, like 'Pimp My Ride' only, radioactive, and on a budget. Jerry, lives in a trailer at the junkyard, and insists that the power plant is trying to take over his brain. (Maybe a Voight-Kampff test is required?)

Mos Def plays Mike, a store clerk at Be Kind Rewind video rental store and thrift shop.He lives in the apartment above the store, next to Mr. Fletcher, played by Danny Glover.Mr. Fletcher has spoon fed Mike the story of Fats Waller, a jazz musician who was supposedly born in their very apartment building.

When Mr. Fletcher goes away on a "memorial trip" to honor Fats, he specifically asks Mike not to let Jerry into his store, because Jerry tends to "destroy everything he touches".That same day, Jerry has a plan to sabotage the power plant, because they're not only the cause of his headaches, but they also are trying to use their radioactive waves to take over his brain. When he tells Mike of the plan, Mike declines, stating that he has to watch the store. After some begging, Jerry gets Mike to agree , and they go to the power plant together that night. After some unfruitful attempts, Mike leaves, and directly afterwards, Jerry gets electrocuted.

When Jerry comes into the store the next day, he causes a ruckus, and manages to erase all the tapes,because he's magnetized. He says" I didn't sabotage the power plant, the power plant sabotaged me!" So, when the store's most faithful patron comes in to rent Ghostbusters, they have to come up with some way to get it to her.Mike has the genius idea to re-shoot Ghostbusters, because Ms Falewicz has never seen it.When Ms Falewicz shows the tape to her nephew, the demand for the custom tapes becomes too much.

Tons of townspeople want to have their favorite movies 'Sweded' as Jerry aptly names their new creations. Popular titles like The Lion King, Rush Hour 3, Robo Cop, 2001:A Space Odyssey have all been reproduced by the low budget, comical duo.

A problem arises, when the housing and zoning department plans to tear down Be Kind Rewind.In order to save the business, and a local landmark, they decide to 'Swede' the movies for a higher price, and make the goal of 60,000. By this time, they have a big team of people involved with their short reproductions- the entire town. More problems occur when the FCC comes to shut their whole 'Sweding ' process down.So, with government authority,and bad attitudes, a steamroller runs over their tapes.

After this occurrence, the film ceases to be a comedy. With every body's dreams of 'Sweded' videos shot to dust, the townspeople decide to film a pseudo-documentary about the town jazz sensation, Fats Waller. Granted, everyone loves the warm fuzzy feeling you get when you see townspeople forget their differences, and unite as one . However, this doesn't happen in real life, unless its in Connecticut. Seeing as the film takes place in a New Jersey slum town, it seems highly improbable. This, for me, is where the film went a bit downhill. Not saying i don't enjoy heartfelt films, I just don't think a great comedy should change to one so suddenly. It seemed like a quick grind house flick, except not R- rated, and with no nudity.It just changed into an entirely different movie at this point. The composition of the movie changed so dramatically with the shooting of the documentary.It had a few funny bits, but not enough that it was totally enjoyable. I prefer laugh out loud Jack Black, not sentimental Jack Black.

Be Kind Rewind, all in all, was a decent movie. The acting was fairly well, no one over acted. The best part of the acting was Jack Black's various roles in the 'Sweded' films, but in total,his role got tiresome. Mos Def's character was played well, however it didn't seem like he put 100% into the character. However, when he played the part of Morgan Freeman's character in Driving Ms. Daisy, that was hilarious, with Jerry dressed up in a dress as Ms. Daisy.

Would I recommend this film? Sure, why not.If you have time on a Sunday afternoon, and you want to get out of the house for some humor, and heartwarming, go see Be Kind, Rewind.

I'm going to give this film a 2 out of 5 stars, because I liked it, but I didn't love it. My reasons are above. Dig In.

Cidade de Homens, City of Men.

City of Men, directed by Paulo Morelli, is a moving film.
Set in towns and gang lands near Rio, the violence presented in this film mimics real life to a tee. The story is of two friends, Ace and Laranjinha, who are just about to turn eighteen. Ace's father is dead, and Laranjinha has no idea who his father is. Since he can remember, Laranjinha has been on a quest to find who fathered him, and thanks to Ace, he does. While all this is going on, Ace's girlfriend leaves him to go get a job in the city, so they can buy a house, leaving him alone with their son. All is not well in their town though, some gang dealings have left people mutinous, and people are getting killed.Ace's cousin , Midnight, is gang leader of their small town, and in his band of cronies are Fasto and Fiel. Both, without Midnight's knowledge, plan on uprooting Midnight, and killing him. When Mightnight suspects a plot being afoot, he believes its only Fiel, and makes Fasto go and kill him. Instead of killing him, they both flee town to get guns, and precipitate a gang war the likes of which god has never seen.Laranjinha is involved with Feils sister, which seems to ally him to their side of the cause, and Ace on the otherhand, appears to be with midnight, only due to his relation to him. Thus a rift is formed between friends.
Fiel and Fasto take over what was once Midnights territory, and sets out to get Ace, and anyone else deemed loyal to Midnight. At this time, with midnight exiled, Laranjinha's father was found and released from prison.Laranjinha nad his father's bond grows, and Midnight and Ace's does as well. Because of his affiliations with Midnight, Ace flees town to join him.
It is here that the movie takes a twist that could shatter the two friends lives. Ace learns from Midnight that Laranjinha's father was the one who murdered his dad.This widens the rift between friends, and causes Ace to want revenge. Bent on killing Laranjinha, he goes back to town with Midnight and the gang, to reclaim the land for their own.As the gang war rages, the two friends are forced to make life altering decisions- whether their fathers pasts will decide their futures. So, in the end, friend chooses friend, and they leave the town in the midst of a gang war.

The cinematography was beautiful and smooth, and the dialogue was very realistic. Spoken word was Portugeuse, with English subtitles, and the run time was 110 minutes.

All being said and done, I give this film a 5 out of 5 stars. Above is my reasoning. Dig In.

Drillbit, You Old Fool!

What to do when you're a bum: get a job, or rip people off? How about a job, ripping people off?

What do you do when you're a weak little freshmen with no friends and no one to protect you: karate lessons, or hire a bodyguard? How about a bodyguard who knows karate?

Directed by Steven Brill, Drillbit Taylor has that very idea. With a tagline of "You Get What You Pay For", Owen Wilson stars as homebum turned bodyguard.

Do you remember when you were a freshmen in highschool,and you got picked on by upperclassmen? There were plenty of hazing rituals going on. Did you ever decide to "man up" and stand up for the underdog? Ronnie(Josh Peck) and Ryan (Troy Gentile) did just that, and ended up with the spazmatic Emmit(Daniel Dorfman ) following them around like a stray dog.All three are being picked on by the school psychopath, the good looking 'Filkins' ,who was never given the courtesy of having a first name.After enough bullying has been done, Ronnie decides to place a wanted add, for a bodyguard.'Drillbit' Taylor, as he is known, answers the add.After being homeless after deserting the U.S Army in Iraq, Drillbit is left homeless and pennyless.He then decides that the best way to start over is to do the most obvious thing: move to Canada.However the problem with that is the money issue, but the wanted add he answers hopefully will change that.As the movie goes on, Drillbit trains the three young friends so they can defend themselves from torture, and he goes undercover as a teacher.

The whole time Drillbit is helping the threesome, he's not being completly honest, which totally comes back to bight him in the ass. Now, this being a PG-13 flick, of course there are morals to be taught, in some way. The two I've found, are : be honest, and don't be a bum, if you can help it. When the truth of Drillbits identity comes out, all hell breaks loose, with cops, parents, teachers, crying, cussing, and throwing of objects, and stealing of valuable possessions.

The bad thing about this truthful reawakening is that Drillbit is all alone and hated by the four people he cared about. To redeem himself, he ends up saving the day, throwing in some great one liners that only Owen Wilson can pull off. He beats the bad guys, loses a finger, gets the girl, gets locked up, and back out of jail again, and the day is saved. Hoo-rah!

For being greared towards highschool children, the movie was great.The humor was deffinatly something teenagers would get a kick out of, and there were some references that older people, or just science fiction geeks would get a kick out of.The reference of which i speak from Blade Runner, one of my personal favorites. I remember sitting in the theatre with my jaw dropped to my chest upon hearing it. Drillbit-"Look into these eyes.I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate." Ronnie-" Isn't that from Blade Runner?"

I looked into my co-worker's eyes, and said the exact thing.It was sheer greatness.

There was also some humor derived from rap-battling.You see the highschool bully and the rotund young Ryan( aka T-dog) go at it, on school grounds. This ends with Ryan winning the battle with a line about sucking family jewels. Not a wise move, but very funny.

Over all it was a solid flick, and I'd say, to anyone who remembers being bullied, or is a bully themselves, go see this movie.

3 out of 5 stars, reasons above. Dig In.

Same Character, Different Hair.

Have you noticed that Will Ferrell gets to play the same role, over and over again?Just, with different hair? Last night I went to see Semi-Pro, and Will Ferrel delivered the same preformance he does in any other movie, down to the mannerisms.

In his directing debut,Kent Alterman has managed to create your average comedy with Will Ferrell; because they're all the same.Kent Alterman is known for producing such comedies as Elf,Balls of Fury, and Mr.Woodcock. The plot is as such: Jackie Moon, our red,afro laiden friend, (Ferrell) is owner, coach, and a player of team The Flint Michigan Tropics. Yes, the Tropics.Who would have thought that Michigan had anything tropical about it, but I suppose if a film can't be out and out good, it should have irony involved.So, Jackie Moon is almost bankrupt, and needs to get his team into the N.B.A, or they will cease to exist.Reasoning behind this is because they can't play for a damn, minus Andre Benjamin's character, Coffee Black; and the fact that attendance to these games is low.Really low.The team spends more time on getting fans to at least show up to a game, then they do scoring baskets.Some of the promotions, I will admit, were amusing, such as Free corndog night, and "Jackie Moon Fights A Grizzly Bear", and also some promotion where Jackie decided to jump over all of his cheerleaders, in a kind of Evel Knievel sort of stunt.The funny thing about the cheerleader jumping was that it was done in green spandex, on rollerblades.Seeing everyone in a stadium of people running away from a bear named Dewey was also comical.I like bears a lot, especially when they cause Will Ferrel agony, that is always a plus.Assisted with the bear fighting is Bobby Dee, who is friend to Jackie.What he does, except sit around, I'm not sure.Played by Andy Richter, hes a decent character, who somehow manages to retain a childlike innocence.

What do you do when you want a new player on a basketball team? You trade one player for another. In this case, you trade one for a washing machine.Monix, played by Woody Harrelson, is indeed traded to the Tropics, in exchange for a washing machine.The character is a basketball player, towards the end of his career,who manages to unite the team, with some difficulties along the way.Some difficulties include, wrestling a bear, running until puking, kicking and screaming, and sometimes crying.Watching a basketball team vomit simultaneously is mildly amusing, especially when Monix gets puked on by Jackie. To envoke the wrath of vomit, he had to be punched in the stomach, because he had never puked once in his entire life. At the playoffs, after a lot of hard work, the Tropics win, and the day is saved, because thats what always happens. Guy gets girl, they do sexual things, team wins, Coffee goes to the NBA, and Jackie gets to help the NBA commissioner.

The humor was ok, the audience laughed a lot, because there was quite a bit of genital related jokes, and also the fact that people seem to love Will Ferrell.The theatre was packed with fans ready to lose whats left of their minds laughing at drawn out jokes, cheesy costuming,and more one-liners than you can count. I don't want to give too many details, just enough to say, all in all, its a pretty mediocre attempt of a movie. If you do decide to see it, be warned- Will Ferrell is a very hairy man.

I'd have to give this movie 2 stars out of 5, my reasons are above. Dig in.