Be Kind Rewind

Roger Ebert's review in the Chicago Sun-Times of Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black, is probably a whole lot funnier than the movie itself. His description of the plot will likely evoke rollicking laughter, but (spoiler alert), he ultimately concludes: "But you haven't read this far unless you hope to learn whether I would recommend the movie. Not especially." Actually, that's about the same reaction of most other critics, whose reviews aren't half as funny. Carina Chocano writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Sweet-natured and likable as the movie is, it never really delivers on the promise of its ingenious premise, which hints at a subversive retelling of mainstream Hollywood movies but stops short at goofy homage." (The film is about a guy who accidentally erases all the VHS tapes in an ancient video store and then, together with friends, proceeds to reenact them on camera for the store's ancient customers.) Still, many critics, call the film "simple and sweet" or "genial," descriptions that Rick Groen in the Toronto Globe and Mail isn't buying at all. He writes: "Problem is, there's simple and then there's simplistic, and this crude thing is a refutation of its own thesis: It's a joyless ode to joy, it's a leaden salute to the silver screen, it's a painful testament to filmic pleasures. Be kind, and don't even begin to rewind."