Stars:
** 1/2
Rating: PG-13 for language and sexual
references
Run
Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Only crazy
rubber-faced Jack Black could pull off such a spoofy, overly-eager slapdash of
a project.
It’s
classic Michel Gondry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”) – equal parts
comedy, fantasy and sloppy sentiment. Jerry (Black) is a misfit mechanic who
hangs at a Passaic, New Jersey video store owned by super Fats Waller fan Mr.
Fletcher (Danny Glover). The shop is manned by mild-mannered Mike (be-still-my-heart
Mos Def) who wouldn’t harm a flea.
A ludicrous
accident at a local power plant causes Jerry to be “magnetized”, at which point
he has only to step foot in the video store to wipe out the entire collection
with his vanquishing microwaves.
So far, so
dumb. Desperate to keep the disaster from Fletcher – who’s on the road seeking
financing to save his dilapidated building from the evil clutches of a rampant
real estate empire – Mike and Jerry hit on a plan to recreate the tapes by
creating cheesy, low-budget remakes.
With
let’s-put-on-a-show bonhomie the pair mounts restorations of “Ghostbusters”,
“Rush Hour” “Boyz N the Hood” and “The Lion King” among others; short, cheap
and surprisingly user-friendly. Surprisingly funny, too.
The films,
inexplicably called “swedes”, are a hit with the renters, who are recruited in
droves to star in the satirical indies as well as running camera and crew.
The buzz is
killed when the law intervenes, claiming piracy and bootlegging and forcing the
little video store that could into desperate straits.
Gondry’s
playful style is wildly fractured, a crazy pastiche of hilarious (zany movie-making
montages), corny, and didactic. I’m not typically a Gondry fan though I’ll cop
to some chuckles over some clever jabs at the cutting-edge sincerity of indie
filmmaking.
Climax is supremely touching, loosely tying it
together on a good, not great, note.