4. Be Kind Rewind
Why It Should Have Been Great: With Michel Gondry in the director's chair, and Jack Black and Mos Def frantically (but affectionately) re-enacting your favourite film scenes, what's not to love?
Why It Wasn't: Despite a brilliant premise, the film reaches a crossroads around the halfway point; unsure whether it should be a quirky comedy or sappy drama. So instead it tries for both. Def plays the New Jersey video-store clerk left in charge for a few days, and Black his clumsy friend who, after becoming 'magnetized', accidentally erases the shop's entire stock. Together, they set about recreating ,or 'sweding', as many movies as possible and passing them off to the public. Rather than bring the store to the brink of bankruptcy, these videos actually prove more popular than the originals, and so it isn't long before the entire town finds themselves on either side of a camera. The 'sweded' films are excellent- yet again showcasing Gondry's flair for lo-tech flights of fancy- so it's a shame that we barely see more than fifteen minutes' worth. Instead, too much is made of the subplot: bringing the community together to save the store from closure, as well as protecting its status as the (alleged) birthplace of jazz musician Fats Waller. You can't deny that the film has heart; you just wish it wouldn't nosedive into schmaltz so soon and for so long.