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Be Kind Rewind
Be Kind Rewind Theatrical poster
Directed by	Michel Gondry
Written by	Michel Gondry
Starring	Jack Black Mos Def Melonie Diaz Danny Glover Mia Farrow
Cinematography	Ellen Kuras
Edited by	Jeff Buchanan
Music by	Jean-Michel Bernard
Distributed by	New Line Cinema (USA) Focus Features (International)
Release date	February 22 2008
Running time	102 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million

Be Kind Rewind is a 2008 American comedy film from New Line Cinema, directed by Michel Gondry and starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow. The film first appeared on January 20, 2008 at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It was later shown at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film opened on February 22, 2008 in the United Kingdom and in North America.

The title is inspired by a phrase commonly displayed on VHS rental tapes during the medium's heyday.

Plot

Mike (Mos Def) is working at a declining VHS rental store called Be Kind Rewind in Passaic, New Jersey. Mike's best friend Jerry (Jack Black) accompanies Mike while he works at the video store. Mike is fascinated by the story that Fats Waller, the legendary jazz musician, was born in the very store (according to the store's owner, Mr. Fletcher). Fletcher (Danny Glover) is informed by Passaic town officials that his store is scheduled to be demolished and replaced with a new building complex, unless he can raise funds to renovate his building. Mr. Fletcher decides to get ideas on how to increase business by spying on a successful chain of DVD rental stores. He puts Mike in charge of Be Kind Rewind while he is away. While leaving by train he writes a last-minute instruction on the window: "Keep Jerry out". Mike sees this in mirror image, and needs some time to decipher it.

Jerry lives in a trailer very close to a power plant, and is very concerned that this is unhealthy; he believes it may melt his brain. He asks Mike to join him in sabotaging the plant, but Mike refuses. Jerry tries to sabotage the plant on his own, but receives an electric shock, causing him to become magnetized. The next day, when Jerry goes to Be Kind Rewind to confront Mike for leaving him, his magnetized body erases all the tapes in the store.

The store's most loyal customer and Mr. Fletcher's friend, Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), comes to rent Ghostbusters. Fearing that they will lose Mr. Fletcher's trust, Mike suddenly comes up with the idea to completely remake the movie with him and Jerry as the stars; his logic being she is too 'kooky' to realize it's not the original. The two friends create the 20-minute remake using an old VHS camcorder and cheap special effects. Soon another customer requests the movie Rush Hour 2. During the filming of this movie, they enlist the help of a local woman named Alma (Melonie Diaz). During this, Alma helps to demagnetize Jerry by making him drink a bucket of salty water, which leads him to vomit and urinate in the streets, causing the magnetism to be expelled from his body via the urine. Eventually, Jerry, Mike and Alma create a system where customers come to request movies "sweded" (Jerry claims that the movies are from Sweden, which is the reason for the higher prices).

Business begins to pick up as the sweded videos are in high demand and eventually the local townspeople become involved in the sweding process. Mike and Jerry propose to Mr. Fletcher to use the increased revenue to fund the renovation of the store. However, two court bailiffs arrive at the store and confiscate the movies due to copyright violation. They crush them with a road roller. To add to their misery, Mike discovers from Mr. Fletcher that Fats Waller was not actually born in the store.

Jerry realizes that they can still make original films, and with support of the town, he goes to a depressed Mike for ideas. Mike conjures up the idea to make a movie about the fictional life of Fats Waller. The entire town, Mr. Fletcher included, creates the movie, including the fiction that he was the youngest of seven children, that his six siblings were killed by ninja gangsters, etc. Mike and Jerry break into a nearby video store in order to steal a video projector to present the movie on. Their attempt is jeopardized when they are caught by the store owner, who they discover is living inside of the store in the adult video room. Embarrassed, the store owner agrees to let them go. Mike and Jerry leave and decide to show the movie on the only T.V. they have, which is too small for everyone to enjoy. On the day of the premiere, the demolition crew arrives to destroy the store, as Mr. Fletcher was not able to repair the store in time. The crew cannot destroy the building with people inside, however. As Jerry attempts to raise the small T.V. for all to see, it falls and breaks. Fortunately, the video store owner from the night before had realized the boys were attempting to steal his projector and brought it for them to use. They set up a sheet over the window for it to project on. Mr. Fletcher is warned by the demolition leader that he has one hour to watch the movie and then evacuate the store. The citizens proudly watch their movie with each other. Mr. Fletcher, Jerry, and Mike go outside to find that their movie could be seen from outside. A large crowd of people had gathered outside to watch the movie. The crowd is very pleased with the film, and begins to cheer when the three men come outside. The man organizing the demolition smiles and pats Mr. Fletcher on the back and the film fades out to the final credits.

"Sweded"

Films that were erased and recreated are referred as being sweded. These remakes are unedited with only a single take per scene. The tapes are described as having come from Sweden as an excuse for higher rental fees and longer wait times. Jerry fabricated the word sweded while arguing with a customer.

In light of the theme of sweding, director Michel Gondry sweded a version of the trailer of the film, starring Gondry himself. On the official website, users can engage in sweding, which puts their faces on the VHS cover of a movie. The Be Kind Rewind YouTube minisite also encourages filmmakers to create sweded versions of popular movies.

Production

Filming of Be Kind Rewind took place over several weeks in the fall of 2006 largely in and around Passaic, New Jersey.

Cast

Melonie Diaz introducing the film in Karlovy Vary

• Jack Black as Jerry
• Mos Def as Mike
• Danny Glover as Mr. Fletcher
• Mia Farrow as Miss Falewicz
• Melonie Diaz as Alma
• Arjay Smith as Manny
• Paul Dinello as Mr. Rooney (court bailiff #1)
• Sigourney Weaver as Ms. Lawson (court bailiff #2)

Critical Reception

The film received reasonable reviews from critics. As of October 10, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 67% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 119 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 53 out of 100, based on 30 reviews.

Box office performance

In its opening weekend, the film earned $4 million in 808 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #9 at the box office, and averaging $5,013 per theater. As of May 28, 2008, the film has grossed about $27.6 million worldwide — an estimated $11 million in the United States and Canada and $16 million in other territories.

External links

• Official site
• Official trailer
• Be Kind Rewind at IMDb
• Be Kind Rewind at Rotten Tomatoes
• Be Kind Rewind at Metacritic
• Be Kind Rewind at Box Office Mojo
• Be Kind Rewind at AllMovie
• The Internet (Sweded) Movie Data Base at swededmovies.org
• Collection of fan 'swedes' at SwededFilms.com
• Jack Black Be Kind Rewind Interview
• An italian fan movie