qual parts comedy, satire and sloppy sentiment, the latest movie from the exceedingly rich imagination of writer/director Michel Gondry (the director behind Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and The Science Of Sleep) pays homage, to a certain degree, to the dearly departed VHS tape. "Be Kind Rewind" is a quirky comedy that will nonetheless be an acquired taste for some - a tolerance for Jack Black's schtick will go a long way- and too terminally sentimental for others.

The story involves two best friends (Jack Black and Mos Def) who, due to a bizarre misfortune, try to recreate famous movies when they accidentally erase all of the videotapes in the shop.

Mike (Def) works in a ramshackle Passaic, N.J. rental store owned by Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover). Mr. Fletcher, who is an avid Fats Waller fan, takes an out-of-town trip to scope out shinier video stores, and Mike is left to run the store. But when the boss is away, Mike will play... and his car mechanic chum Jerry (Black), ha a ludicrous accident at a local power plant that causes his body to be “magnetized,” and accidentally erases every videotape in the shop.

A quirky comedy that will be an acquired taste for some, and perhaps too terminally sentimental for others.

With nothing but blank tapes to flog to the customers, Mike and Jerry hurriedly re-create Ghostbusters for a persuading regular customer, Miss Falewicz (Mia Farrow), who happens to be Mr. Fletcher's eyes and ears in his absence. With just one handheld video camera, they manage to pull it off: the gooey marsh mellow monster, the sound track, the saving of New York City.

Turns out, she likes it. The pair then go on to make their own versions of the movies that people request - such as Ghostbusters, RoboCop, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rush Hour 2, The Lion King, Robocop and the Ali-Foreman doc When We Were Kings -, and pass their versions off as the real deal, hoping that Fletcher will never find out.

The amateur versions are pretty terrible, but the local residents fall in love with the pals' remakes, and begin to request new versions of other films. Crowds start lining up for the store, which is threatened with demolition to make way for new condos. As the unplanned business venture takes off, Mike and Jerry enlist the help of pretty cleaner Alma (Melonie Diaz) from her gig at the dry cleaning shop, to play some of the female roles.

Mr Fletcher returns and is soon persuaded to throw his support behind the flourishing enterprise, which now involves half the town. However, The buzz of the homemade creations (inexplicably called "sweded" films) is killed when the law intervenes, claiming piracy and bootlegging and forcing the little video store that could into desperate straits.

Be Kind Rewind is a tad too disjointed to be a solid a movie. And while no one is going to mistake Gondry’s wacky movie for documentary realism, the film is still a sweet and simple story tale that shows how far a little bit of wit and humanity can go.