Leisure Park had undergone a new look since late last year... it looks very different from the old brownish look, and is much more spacious. There was a cinema located upstairs too! And it was there that I decided to watch a movie, seeing that I still had time to spare before the Maroon 5 concert...
"Be Kind Rewind", an American comedy film directed by Michel Gondry, stars Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Melonie Diaz and Mia Farrow... it even features a cameo by the very tall (1.83 m!!!) Sigourney Weaver (best known as Ellen Ripley in the Alien Quadrilogy). The title of the film is a reference to a phrase commonly displayed on VHS rental tapes during the medium's heyday.
Mike (Mos Def) is working at a declining VHS rental store called Be Kind Rewind in Passaic, New Jersey. Mike's best friend Jerry (Black), a nuclear activist who lives in a trailer, 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 (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, but warns him to keep Jerry out of the store.
Jerry attempts to sabotage a power plant that he believes is 'melting his brain'. When his plan goes awry, the magnetic field around his body caused by the nuclear reactor accidentally erases all of the videotapes in the video store!! Fearing that the mishap will cost Mike his job, the two friends team up to keep the store's only loyal customer - a little old lady (Farrow) with a tenuous grasp on reality - from realising what has happened by recreating and re-filming every movie that she decides to rent!
Jerry and Mike then enlist the help of a pouty-lipped woman named Alma (Diaz) to help them remake "Rush Hour 2". Alma helps to demagnetize Jerry by making him drink a bucket of salty water, which leads him to urinate in the streets, causing the magnetism to be expelled from his body via the urine. The trio then go on to create a system where customers come to request movies "sweded" (the process of Mike and Jerry's efforts to recreate their erased videos). Business begins to pick up as the sweded videos are in high demand and eventually the local townspeople become involved in the swedeing 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 plan to sue them for copyright violation. They confiscate the tapes, and 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 based on the fictional life of Fats Waller. The entire town, Mr. Fletcher included, creates the movie using a re-written history of the man created by the townspeople.
Overall, I think this film is really interesting and creative... I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Those who want to relive the good old days of VHS tapes should watch this film. ;-)
Pictures of Leisure Park...
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