Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Next Day Air is an action-packed comedy about a UPS driver who delivers a package containing bricks of cocaine to the wrong address and it causes havoc, big-time. Next Day Air will be released on May 8, 2009.

Popularity: 1%

Be Kind Rewind is a 2008 American movie directed by Michel Gondry and starring Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover and Mia Farrow. The comedy film opened on February 22, 2008 in the United Kingdom and in the United States.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Melonie Diaz, Mos Def and Jack Black in the movie "Be Kind Rewind"

Mike (Mos Def) works at a crumbling VHS rental store called Be Kind Rewind in Passaic, New Jersey. Mike’s best friend Jerry (Jack Black) is a nutty junkyard worker who lives in a trailer. Mike is fascinated by the story that Fats Waller, the legendary jazz musician, was born in the VHS rental store (at least, 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. He is given a time frame of 60 days to raise funds to renovate his building or move to The Project. Instead of worrying, Mr. Fletcher decides to get ideas on how to increase business by spying on a successful chain of DVD rental stores in neighborhood towns. He puts Mike in charge of Be Kind Rewind while he is away on his spying mission. Mr. Fletcher tries to pass Mike a message before he leaves on a train but Mike misunderstands the meaning due to the backward writing from inside the train.

While figuring the message Mr. Fletcher tries to convey, Jerry asks Mike to join him in sabotaging the power plan, which he believes is the cause of his headaches. Mike refuses to help at last minute after figuring Mr’ Fletcher’s message of “Keep Jerry Out”, and leaves Jerry to sabotage the plant on his own. Jerry is electrocuted causing him to become magnetized. The next day, Jerry goes to Be Kind Rewind to confront Mike for leaving him by getting rid of his customers. Later on, Mike finds out that Jerry’s magnetized body somehow erases all the tapes in the store when two of his customers has returned blank tapes.

When things are not in order, the store’s most loyal customer and Mr. Fletcher’s friend, Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), comes to rent Ghostbusters. Fearing that she will tell Mr. Fletcher about Be Kind Rewind, 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 ‘cuckoo’ to realize it’s not the original one since she hasn’t seen Ghostbusters before. 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 manage to get the help of a local woman named Alma (Melonie Diaz). When Jerry takes the whole bottle of Aspirins thinking they are sleeping pills, Alma helps 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. Eventually, as their business flourishes, Jerry, Mike and Alma create a system where customers come to request movies “sweded” for 20 bucks instead of the usual one dollar (Jerry claims that the movies are from Sweden, the main reason for the higher prices).

When business begins to pick up as the sweded videos are in high demand and eventually the local townspeople become involved in the swedeing process, unfortunately, two court bailiffs, Ms. Lawson (Sigourney Weaver) and Mr. Rooney (Paul Dinello) arrive at the store and confiscate the movies due to copyright violation. To the dismay of the townspeople, the court bailiffs confiscate the tapes and crush them with a road roller. What’s worse is Mike discovers from Mr. Fletcher that Fats Waller was not actually born in the store.

In a final attempt to save Be Kind Rewind, Jerry with the support of the town gets Mike for ideas. A depressed Mike suggests to make a movie based on the fictional life of Fats Waller. Later, Mike, Jerry and others convince Mr. Fletcher about the idea. Though reluctant at first, Mr. Fletcher has finally agreed with the movie-making idea. The entire town, including Mr. Fletcher, creates the movie using a re-written history of the man created by the townspeople. For the premiere, Mike and Jerry break into a nearby video store in order to steal a video projector to present the movie on. Their attempt fails when they are caught by the store owner, who they discover is living inside of the store, porn room. Equally embarrassed, the store owner who knows Mike personally, agrees to let them go if they keep their mouth shut. 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. As Jerry attempts to raise the small T.V. for all to see, it falls and breaks. As a blessing in disguise, 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. Hence, they set up a sheet over the window for it to project on. When Mr. Fletcher is warned by the demolition leader to evacuate the store, Mr. Fletcher begs for an additional one hour so that they can finish watching the movie. 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 have already gathered outside to watch the movie. The crowd is very pleased with the film, and begins to cheer when the three men come outside. In the end, the man organizing the demolition smiles and pats Mr. Fletcher on the back, and the film fades out leaving us to guess whether the store is demolished or saved.

My ratings: 7 out of 10. Bizarre film with quirky lines and artistic trash. A touching ending.

Popularity: 1%