Lifestyle

BE KIND REWIND

LX NEWS CATCHES UP WITH JACK BLACK AS HE PROMOTES NEW FILM

On Tuesday 18th December I was lucky enough to be invited to watch a preview of Academy Award-winner Michel Gondry’s latest film, Be Kind Rewind, and then attend a press junket with its star, Jack Black (King Kong, School of Rock), at the Soho Hotel in the heart of London’s West End.

Jack Black takes on the comic role he is most comfortable with, playing Jerry; a bumbling mechanic who lives in a trailer near the local power plant, which he swears is slowly killing him with its “microwaves”. His best friend, Mike (Mos Def), lives and works across the street in an ailing video rental store, aptly named “Be Kind Rewind”. When the owner of the store, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) takes a trip to commemorate jazz legend and local hero, Fats Waller’s death, Jerry unknowingly erases all of the tapes, as his brain becomes magnetized during a (highly amusing) attempt to sabotage the power plant. This forces Jerry and Mike to concoct a plan to start “remaking” all of the erased films using inventive camera tricks and some “special effects”, and soon the whole town is involved, re-envisioning classics such as Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, Robocop, and even Disney animation The Lion King. However, Hollywood hears of the remakes and so in a bid to stop the store being shut down, the two friends create their own original movie about Fats Waller. The rather ambiguous ending sees the principal characters realising that the dream of immortalising their hero had finally come true and that the tiny store would attempt to continue living.

Despite being hideously jet-lagged and facing a hectic day of questioning, Jack Black was his usual funny self and surprisingly on-the-ball throughout the press conference. It soon became apparent that although Gondry and Black had never worked together before, the two had a mutual appreciation of one another long before their collaboration. Black refers to it as “Jazz-Rock Fusion”, as both are extremely interested in music, but of very different genres. Black insists that the “re-made” movies were all chosen by Gondry, even though he tried to push for Road Warrior, and that some films, such as Back to the Future, in which he would have most certainly played the mad scientist, could not be cleared for reproduction. When asked whether he thought any versions of the films were better than the originals, Black says that he was “told not to watch any that I hadn’t seen before, like Rush Hour,” so that it was all improvised. Such methods are repeatedly employed by Gondry, as Black explains how the director “doesn’t tell you too much, because he doesn’t want you to expect anything”, such as a car hurtling towards him at top speed! In contrast to his many accolades, Black admits he feels that he “doesn’t really belong in the film industry” and that he feels “a bit of a phoney”. But despite this he believes that he puts all he’s got into his characters and the spectacular outcome is no less evident in Be Kind Rewind.

Be Kind Rewind is out in cinemas nationwide from 22nd February (with previews 20th and 21st Feb).

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