Talkie Zoo: BE KIND REWIND

Jack Black and Mos Def star, along with Danny Glover, in this film about two friends who accidentally erase all the video tapes in a man's movie rental store. They set about to make their own "Sweded" versions of the movies. The movies are much shorter and a whole lot more amateurish than the originals, of course. Yet, they find a following until the FBI steps in, charges them with pirating copyrighted movies, and threatens them with hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Be Kind Rewind is more than a comedy, though it does have its hilarious parts. Black plays "Jerry", who lives in an RV right under some major power lines. He is convinced the power lines are giving off radiation that affects the health and well being of all those in the neighborhood. He decides to sabotage the core of them but becomes magnetized instead, hence wiping out all the movies in the movie store when he goes in and walks up and down the aisles. Mos Def is taking care of the store while Danny Glover is away on a trip to celebrate the birthday of a now-deceased blues player from long ago whom, he purports, was born in the building that is now his movie store.

Mos Def makes his own movie, finally, with the cast being people from the neighborhood. They are all trying to save the building which has been slated for demolition.

The real story isn't in the antics of Jack Black and Mos Def. It's in the feeling of community that develops through the film and the way the neighborhood responds to an "outside attack".