Who loves Jack Black? Everyone. Who loves “Nacho Libre” and “School of Rock?” Everyone. Who loves “Be Kind Rewind?” Some. Maybe.
How could you go wrong with a movie starring Jack Black as Jerry Gerber, a neighborhood slacker who accidentally erases all the VHS tapes at Elroy Fletcher’s (Danny Glover) movie rental store while it’s under the watch of his friend Mike (Mos Def). Fletcher’s friend, Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow). tries to rent a movie and the pair replace it with their own home-made adaptation. Their version is so bad it’s good and the nascent filmmakers find themselves remaking all the store’s inventory by popular demand.
With an intriguing story line and some serious actors (yeah, even Mos Def in this case) one would expect a blow up success. Instead “Be Kind Rewind” just launches then quickly lands with a thud. (102 min.)
Rated PG-13, 2008
Directed by:
Michel Gondry
Starring:
Jack Black
Mos Def
Danny Glover
Mia Farrow
Melonie Diaz
Irv Gooch
Chandler Parker
Arjay Smith
Quinton Aaron
Gio Perez
Basia Rosas
Tomaz Soltys
Marcus Carl Franklin
Blake Hightower
Amir Ali Said
Bela Lugosi’s over-the-top performance as mad scientist Dr. Richard Vollin is not to be missed. Lugosi hams it up as a brilliant, egotistical surgeon that has a fanatical obsession with Edgar Allan Poe, keeping a stuffed raven on his desk and devices of torture described in Poe’s tales in his dungeon! Although Boris Karloff has top billing, this is Lugosi’s film. It’s too bad Karloff doesn’t have more screen time, because his performance as disturbed criminal and victim of Vollin, Edmond Bateman, is top notch. This movie includes what is probably the only interpretive dance ever performed to Poe’s eerie poem “The Raven.” (61 min.)
Unrated - 1935
Director:
Lew Landers
Starring:
Boris Karloff
Bela Lugosi
Lester Matthews
Irene Ware
Samuel S. Hinds
Spencer Charters
Ian Wolfe
Writers:
Edgar Allan Poe (poem)
David Boehm (screenplay)
What girl could help herself from being drawn to the charms of Bela Lugosi in his late 50s? Well, most likely any girl, but that didn’t stop anyone from making this movie.
Edgar Allan Poe obsessed and “mature” Dr. Richard Vollin (Lugosi) saves the life of Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) and turns his attention to the young lady. In gratitude she performs an interpretive dance to Poe’s “The Raven” which seals the deal for her freaky benefactor. Edmond Bateman (KARLOFF — Boris Karloff to us little people, he was going by one name at the time) gets unwillingly pulled into a twisted plot of revenge when young Thatcher’s father, Judge Thatcher (Samuel S. Hinds) objects to the doctor’s sick intentions.
While not necessarily a good film, it’s not a bad movie considering the vintage. Plus, you get Lugosi and Karloff together and some mad scientist organ playing as well. (61 min.)
Unrated - 1935
Director:
Lew Landers
Starring:
Boris Karloff
Bela Lugosi
Lester Matthews
Irene Ware
Samuel S. Hinds
Spencer Charters
Ian Wolfe
Writers:
Edgar Allan Poe (poem)
David Boehm (screenplay)
This is a B-movie in every sense — brief, low-budget and bad, obviously made to show in theaters as part of a double feature. Secretary Susan Hart (Pamela Blake) takes on a job from a client while her cash-strapped private eye boss and boyfriend Russ Ashton (Tom Neal) is out of town on a case. It seems simple, the client wants her to get photographic evidence of his wife’s affair and gives her a camera hidden in a hat box. Only, it turns out the box is rigged with a gun and Russ returns to town to find his gal in jail on a murder rap. Neal and his sidekick Harvard, played by Allen Jenkins, are pleasant, but the script doesn’t give them much to work with. Neal, by the way, is best known as the ill-fated lead in the cult film noir “Detour” (44 min.)
Unrated - 1947
Director:
Lambert Hillyer
Starring:
Tom Neal
Pamela Blake
Allen Jenkins
Virginia Sale
Leonard Penn
Olga Andre
Edward Keane
Tom Kennedy
Writer:
Carl K. Hittleman (screenplay and story)
Maury Nunes (story)
Don Martin (writer)
Fans of Coen Brothers’ movies should check out this early gem. “Blood Simple” was the first commercial film by the brothers and the big-screen debut of Frances McDormand. Club owner and jealous husband Marty (Dan Hedaya) hires a scumball private detective to kill his wife Abby (McDormand) and her lover Ray (John Getz). The hired gun comes up with a scheme of his own and everything goes terribly wrong. Some of the elements of “Blood Simple” foreshadow the later and greater Coens’ movie “Fargo.” (99 min.)
Rated R - 1985
Director:
Joel Coen
Starring:
John Getz
Frances McDormand
Dan Hedaya
M. Emmet Walsh
Samm-Art Williams
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