Be Kind Wear Makeup

Monday was St. Patty's day and I forgot to wear green! You know who was wearing green, though, and lots of it? Heather Mills (like Heather, I'm glad this long, drawn-out divorce is settled so I can stop hearing about it). Also rolling in green, Dr. Seuss - but since he's dead, all the credit goes to 20th Century Fox, Jim Carey and the rest of the gang from Horton Hears a Who!, which toped the box office this weekend, bringing in about $45.1 million.

I, however, decided to swim against the current this weekend and saw Be Kind Rewind, a cute Jack Black film tackling THE issue of our generation - copyright infringement. Now I was pretty skeptical going into it, thinking that this was going to be one of those movies that looks really funny in the trailer but turns out to have little substance beyond a single punchline stretched far too thin to be the premise of a feature length film. I was pleased to see that this film had a little more heart than that. Be Kind Rewind is the story of a small VHS video store that is threatened by urban development and large competitor with more to offer and, (gasp!), DVDs. While the store owner, played by Danny Glover, goes on a reconnaissance mission to find out how to be more competitive with the larger store down the street, Mike (Mos Def) and Jerry (Jack Black) end up erasing all of the tapes through a hilarious mishap and have to remake each film so the customers won't find out - don't ask me how that logic works, I don't even want to pick that apart. (And by the way, when did Danny Glover's roles go from wise-cracking cop in Lethal Weapon to stuffy, girly-hips, slow-moving old dude in the likes of The Royal Tenenbaums and Be Kind Rewind?)


*spoiler alert* Just as the harebrained scheme starts to take off, the small business gets dragged down again by "the man" and slapped with copyright infringement.

Now on the surface, it seems that BKR speaks to how older folks, who refuse to get with the times end up losing in the end or maybe about how small businesses are always trampled for the sake of "progress," but I think it's deeper. BKR speaks to the younger generation, made to fear the entertainment business - the generation whose radio options are limited to what Clear Channel or ABC want to offer, the generation that has had to re-purchase it's music and video collections on multiple different formats, and the generation that got busted for "stealing" what Napster put right in their laps. So copyright infringement hits pretty close to home and hurts the little guy, who just wants to remake his favorite movies in peace. Mos Def's appearance as Jack Black's sidekick then seems ironic, as if to say that artists don't agree with big entertainment.

But perhaps I'm reading too much into it. After all, it is a Jack Black movie. Plus, how does a person even get magnetized in the first place? We may never know, but before we go, let's take a quick look at the products of some film that should be erased...

...Celebs without makeup!




Debra Messing

She actually looks pretty normal. I don't appreciate when gossip magazines try to make gossip out of nothing. Aren't there enough trashy celebs without makeup to take bad pictures of? The best they could do was Debra Messing in a fishing hat? Give the girl a break.





Kathy Griffin

With or without makeup - just different kinds of ugly. Don't stare too long - you might go blind. Yikes!




Dawn Wells (who?)

Somehow Mary Anne managed to wear makeup every day she was stranded on Gilligan's Island, but after the escape back to civilized society she can't manage a little lipstick? Plus, she had a terrible St. Patty's Day weekend and is now in a little trouble with the law.



That's all for tonight!

This entry was posted by Lady Amy, on Monday, March 17, 2008. You can leave your response.