16 Blocks

My friend Farnell once recommended this movie to me, so I added it to my Netflix queue, at the very bottom, but then as chance would have it I randomized my Netflix list and lo and behold I got it in the mail the other day. I thought it would be a standard buddy comedy about Bruce Willis' cop character who has to escort Mos Def's petty thief character to the courthouse to testify against some dirty cops as every cop tries to kill him on the way. But it turns out the movie is a lot darker, directed by Richard Donner, and has Bruce Willis' character look pained and drunk most of the time. It's got a lot of pretty good moments, and it really seems like an impossible task for the two, but then after Bruce Willis' character takes an entire city bus hostage it starts to get kind of dumb and predictable. Oh well, it was good for over half its running time. Also, for some reason Mos Def talks in this incredibly annoying voice for the whole movie, so points off for that.

RATING: 55%

Be Kind, Rewind

This movie is pretty darn funny at times, and not just when the two main characters are "sweding" the different movies...though it's definitely interesting to see the tricks which are used for special effects in their films. The relationship between the main characters is justifiably quirky. While Jack Black plays a variation on the Jack Black character, Mos Def is nice and squirrely. Gondry does a relatively awesome job with the special effects, both the subtle and unsubtle ones. A fun rental, if nothing else.

RATING: 77%

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Be Kind Rewind

The plot of this movie as we all know is that at this VHS rental store all the tapes get erased and Mos Def and Jack Black end up reshooting all the movies for some reason. I guess the thing with this movie is that the parts where they are remaking the movies are funny, but the rest is kind of a flimsy holder for those moments. I would have almost rather seen 90 minutes of these cheesy remakes than the heartfelt plot about being evicted by a realtor. Anyway, it was fine but I can't really recommend it to anybody living.

RATING: 49%