Be Kind Rewind follows two friends, Mike (Mos Def) and Jerry (Jack Black), during their misadventures at a video store (where they only rent VHS tapes) in Passaic, New Jersey. Mike has been put in charge while the manager, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), goes out of town for a few days. Fletcher leaves him with one rule: Don’t let Jerry in the shop. If that simple instruction was followed, there wouldn’t be a film.

Jerry lives in a trailer parked in a junkyard next to some rather large power lines. He thinks these large metallic conductors are related to a government conspiracy. So one night he hops the fence in order to “sabotage” them somehow, but things go as wrong as they possibly could, and Jerry ends up as electrified as Horace Pinker. Afterwards, he seeks refuge from Mike and walks into the video store. His head hurts, he is throwing up, and metal things end up sticking to him.

The next day, a customer returns a copy of a film where the tape has been erased. Minutes later, another customer walks in with the same problem. Mike frantically scours the store’s video collection for something that hasn’t been erased but to no avail. Each and every tape in the whole store has been wiped clean. The duo then decide to recreate (”sweded” they call it) these films by themselves, as to avoid any trouble from Mr. Fletcher, who entrusted Mike with keeping the store in good hands while he is away.

Armed simply with an older style camcorder, these guys do somewhat of an admirable job. There versions are only 20 minutes long, compared to the average 90-120 minute runtime of any film, but the neighborhood loves them more than they ever would have thought. This is the kind of thing I (and many others I am sure) did during my childhood. It was fun to remake your favorite films with you behind (and in front) of the camera. Only Jerry and Mike actually have a lot more creative skill than I ever did.

Written and directed with an immense amount of heart and admiration by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Be Kind Rewind not only reminds us why we love film so damn much, it pays tribute to those films that may have had a hand in it. It’s a picture cultivated from years of inspiration but never drowns in it. Jack Black (who gives his best performance here) and Mos Def are a perfect pair here and the laughs they provide couldn’t be any more frequent.