Anyone out there remember VHS? Anyone been to a shop which only rents VHS copies of films recently? Of course you haven't. They all died out with the mullet and the ra-ra skirt. But curiously enough this is where Michel Gondry, the director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, chooses to set his first mainstream comedy.
Mike (Mos Def) works in just such a store. It's no surprise that it's going to the wall; the area is run-down and the custom for videos is near non-existent. His boss Mr Fletcher (Danny Glover) goes on a fact finding mission to see what all the fuss is about regarding the DVD world leaving his young assistant in charge. What could go wrong, after all the takings are way down?
Enter social misfit Jerry (Jack Black), a friend of Mike, who offers his dubious customer care skills in the absence of the boss. After contact with a power station next to his trailer home, Jerry finds that his has become magnetised - good news for Black's brand of physical comedy, but bad news if you happen to work in a video store.
Sure enough, Jerry manages to wipe the entire contents of all the videos leaving the business on the verge of closure. When a customer (Mia Farrow) comes in looking for a copy of Ghostbusters, Jerry decides there is one thing for it - they'll have to make their own version. When this proves to be a success they turn their sites on different movies including King Kong and Driving Miss Daisy and before you know it their abbreviated versions are a roaring success.
The whole enjoyment of the film is wrapped up in watching the guys make their films and recognising the scenes they are re-enacting. Jack Black is his usual motor-mouthed self and throws himself into each of the roles with varying degrees of success. Gondry's eye for detail is in evidence all over the various sets and costumes and while they are a delight, the viewer is left wishing he'd spent more of his time on the script.
So from an unlikely scenario audiences are left with a film that raises smiles rather than laughs. If you want to 'Be Kind' see it at the cinema, if not wait for the video...er...I mean DVD.
Rob Andrews
