Film-makers who make movies about making films rarely have much success. And I'd be surprised if Michel Gondry will score at the box-office with this whimsical effort.
After Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and even The Science of Sleep, Be Kind Rewind is only a mildly amusing watch.
The stars are Jack Black, an actor who dominates even when he would be wiser not to, and Mos Def, who substitutes a quieter charm for Black's over-exuberance.
Def plays Mike, who works at a downtown video store in New Jersey owned by a Mr Fletcher (Danny Glover). Black plays Jerry, his best friend.
Something odd happens when Jerry gets caught in an electromagnetic field that leaves him dazed and erases every tape in the store. The pair have to make their own versions of the movies people want, such as Ghostbusters, Rush Hour, Robocop and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
This is called "sweding" for some undisclosed reason. The amateur versions are pretty terrible, but the customers, including Mia Farrow, seem to like them. The crunch comes when a lawyer (Sigourney Weaver) arrives with charges of intellectual property theft and demands the videos are destroyed.
A huge steamroller does the job but Black and Def are undeterred. They make a film about Fats Waller, who lived nearby, with the help of passers-by. Everyone loves it, though why escapes me; Black's approximation of Waller looks like Oliver Hardy playing Bessie Smith.
Either you surrender to this sort of fun, recognising Gondry's passionate feeling for filmmaking and the idea that everyone should be able to make a movie these days - or you resist the whole thing as a mess.
The choice is yours. I can't say that even Gondry, who at his best is an imaginative film-maker, swings this one.
Be Kind Rewind
Cert: 12A
