Be Kind Rewind Blu-ray Review

Be Kind Rewind

Blu-ray Review
New Line Home Entertainment
Released: June 17, 2008

Be Kind Rewind comes to the Blu-ray format with a very interesting premise to say the least in regards to its storyline. The film stars Jack Black, along with Mos Def and comes from New Line Home Entertainment.

The story behind the movie is that businessman Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) makes the mistake of leaving his VHS-rental store in control of a clerk by the name of Mike (Mos Def).

All Mike had to do was to keep Jerry (Jack Black) out of the store. He failed his one and only job as Jerry makes his way into the store after having his body magnetized by some sort of electrical issue.

What happens next is truly tragic, as Jerry somehow erases all of the VHS tapes which were on the shelves of Mr. Fletcher’s store. Customers begin to return blank tapes to the store, and things get pretty ugly.

The decision that Jerry and Mike come up with is to reshoot all of the movies, and rent these version to customers instead.

Mike and Jerry are joined by Alma (Melonie Diaz) as they begin to recreate some of the most classic films of all time. Be Kind Rewind has an interesting premise and it has its moments as a fun, yet rather dumb comedy. Overall though things stay too inconsistent throughout to really make this a must-have release.

The video quality for the Blu-ray release is pretty solid, especially considering the film is not really trying to be a reference quality film.

The video is presented in 1080p/VC-1 and looks nice on Blu-ray with some solid colors which make the image seem very lively and consistent from start to finish. Some of the details could have been a bit more clean, but overall there is some great pop here to this release.

The audio has been presented in a DTS HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track and is very well done for a comedy. Usually with comedies, you pretty much just get a clear dialogue mix and not much else. With this though, New Line has clearly gone above and beyond expectations as there is a great deal of ambiance and nice separation throughout.

There is not much here to really try and draw you away from the audio mix, it is quite impressive and a jobw ell done.

There are some nice extras included here for the Blu-ray release, starting with the stuff that was only the DVD release. These include a feature called Passaic Mosaic, as well as the original threatrical trailer.

In terms of Blu-ray extras, there are plenty here to satisfy fans of the film. The first is a 33-minute feature called The Making of Be Kind Rewind, which is standard but well-done.

Up next is a 7-minute feature called Booker T and The Michel Gondry, which is basically a scene that was cut out of the film, then added back in. This is a nice little short for fans of the film.

Beyond those, you get a 6-minute conversation with Jack Black and Michel Gondry, which is, to be honest, far too short as it is very entertaining.

You also get a nice short film based on the jazz musician Fats Waller, as well as 5-minutes of improvisational songs with Jack Black and Mos Def.

The final extra is a 6-minute feature called A Tribute to Fats Waller: LIVE! which features an actual performance from France.

Be Kind Rewind is a fun comedy film and features great performances from Mos Def and Jack Black. For fans of the two, there is some good stuff here which will have you entertained. It may not be the perfect comedy, but it is certainly recommended!

Film: 8.0 A unique story and a solid cast make this an enjoyable comedy throughout.

Video: 9.0 A surprisingly good video transfer, great colors and clarity.

Audio: 9.0 New Line completely went above and beyond with the audio mix, well done.

Extras: 8.5 Some great exclusive Blu-ray extras make the high-def version top-notch.

Final Score: 8.4

Do you have a product that you would like featured on dBTechno? If so, drop us a line at vicb@dbtechno.com

Interested in picking up this release? Head over to Amazon at the link here Be Kind Rewind [Blu-ray]