The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Monday, March 10, 2008 - 5A FILLING IN THE BLANKS By BLAKE GOBLE, DailyArts Writer With the popularity of YouTube lowering the bar for everyone, we can all become pop- ular entertainers. Sure, there are the clever videos from JibJab.com or CollegeHumor. com, but it's the so-so ama- teurs we secretly love. We love the Lonelygirl and the "Leave Britney Alone" guy, Be Kind, regardless of their genuine talent. Within ostensible Rewind crap, there's a quality that's At Quality 16 indescribable. That's the mantra that and Showcase "Be Kind Rewind" was cre- New Line ated upon, but unfortunate- ly, it only sporadically succeeds. Jack Black ("The School of Rock") is Jerry, a Passaic, N.J., mechanic who lives in a trailer that sits frighteningly close to a power generator. Mos Def ("16 Blocks") is Mike, a substitute video store operator and forced friend of Jerry. The guys are barely getting by in their little, crumbling community. And with developers coming in to gut their store, everything is going to be torn down. The guys have to do something. But Jerry becomes magnetized during a botched act of vandalism, turning him into a tape eraser. Casually browsing Mike's store, Jerry blanks every tape. Born from fear, des- peration and limited budgeting, the two opt to recreate classic films as customers request them. And at a dollar a rental with their building about to be torn down, they have to pay the rent somehow. It's a flimsy plot, but it enables some great antics. The movie reshoots are the only places where "Rewind" shines. This film tries to embrace the lazy, crazy and sometimes uber- creative fervor of amateur film. Through the pleasure and uniqueness of watching the work of someone who doesn't really know what he's doing,the film sends mixedsignals.Butannoy- ing, improvised dialogue and wildly inconsis- tent characters mar an otherwise inventive and bizarre exercise in film appreciation. Sure, it's kind of funny to see Jack Black piss out magnetic radiation that drags metal objects into a sewer. But what's the point? Mike and Jerry get popular, but they get shut down due to copyright infringement. Then the power of the people and their love for film with "pure heart" prevails. What- ever. Loose and obnoxious drama mixed with overtcsentimentality ruins an otherwise great camp. Director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sun- shine of the Spotless Mind") has more expan- sive visual invention in his left pinky than most directors have in a $100-million budget. But his talents are squandered for a series of decent montages in which the leads re-create their favorite Hollywood hits. First it was 'Be Kind Rewind.' Next a Mos Def, Tenacious D mashup. "King Kong," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "Rush Hour 2" and "Ghostbusters" all get two-cent tune-downs. This is where Gondry shines despite his cardboard script. Think of every cheap technique - forced perspective, old-timey quality, heads in TV sets - and you'll appreciate Gondry's creativity. "Rewind" proves that sometimes it's not the actual movies, but what we remember and re-create from them in our minds that counts. The film's best moments are so pure and honest and lovingthateven crappy drama shouldn't be able to ruin them. But unfortu- nately, it does. .OURTESY OF NEW LIE "No, seriously, I used to be a rapper." E! EARTS IN BRIEF Looking for love in N.Y.C. for 400 years Tnewestgameshow By PAUL TASSI Daily Arts Writer After the bleak winter of the writers strike, "New Amsterdam" may be the most promising new show to debut in some time. However, it runs the risk of not knowing what to do with its virtually limitless poten- tial (see "Heroes") and shows signs of jumping the shark before it even gets its feet wet. Like "Heroes" (and more recently New "Jumper"), "New Amsterdam" takes Amsterdam the premise of "someone that can do something superhumanly cool" and Monday's builds a show around it. The focal at 9 p.m. point here, however, is not flying, Fox super strength or teleportation, it's something infinitely more interest- ing: immortality. - John Amsterdam (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, "King- dom of Heaven") is a homicide detective in modern day New York City, which is a far cry from his first job as a Dutch soldier pillaging America four hun- dred years ago. After saving a young Native Ameri- can girl from being slain as he and his friends razed her village, she rewards him by granting him eternal life, with the caveat that he can only become mortal when he finds his true love. This explanation is a bit cheesy and ridiculous, but it might have been nice if there wasn't reasoning for his immortality at all, or if the source of his eternal life had been a mystery for the show to explore. But a Native American priestess? Come on. Four centuries later, Amsterdam is still looking. He says he's taken the detective job because "death fascinates him." You would think that with four hun- dred years of wisdom and sound financial investment, he'd be living on his own private island sipping Cristal for all eternity. But "New Amsterdam" takes a more ambitious route, and does so effectively: It shows the complexities that come from being immortal. Living on an island might be relaxing, but it sure as hell would get boring after a few decades or so. That's why, through a series of flashbacks, we find out about John's past lives. Already we discover he's been a famous artist and a lawyer, not to mention that he stormed the beaches at Normandy. Drawing from the nearly infinite well of four hundred years of world his- tory, there's bound to be a lot more flashbacks in store for "New Amsterdam." Thoughpartofthe show is spent exploringAmster- dam's past, the other two thirds is a typical "CSI"/ "Law & Order" type murder investigation, mining Super powers are cool but immortal ity is cooler a genre that's already far too common on television. Through these cases, the show occasionally shows some snippet of Amsterdam's past, but when it's just a typical whodunit, the show drags and forgets it has something new to bring to the table. Also in the crime scenes is the horribly stock character of John's part- ner, Eva (Zuleikha Robinson, "Rome") in the typical hints at the network's trend towards similar fodder "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad" Mondays at 9 p.m. NBC It seems as though NBC is slowly changing from a respected cable network to a crappier version of the Game Show Network. The network's new game show, "My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad," pits fathers against each other in embarrassing (to watch) contests, while their brats shriek encouragement from the side- lines. You can thank the writers strike for this one. Aside from the disconcerting competition for a child's love, "Dad's" contests - Disney-themed trivia quizzes, launching kids toward a target - are completely unentertaining. Where's the "birds and the bees" contest, where each dad competes to give the best sex talk to his their child? Or the competition to see which dad can stay up the lat- est waiting for his teenage daughter to come home after she sneaks out? These would be ahell of a lot more fun to watch than four middle-aged men bat- ting newspapers away with a tennis racket and a frying pan. If this show does anything right, it's prov- ing kids can drive people to do some regrettable things. JOHNDAAVETTILA COURTESY OF FOx You can only live forever if you're this smooth. "I-don't-tak-no-shit" role that seems to be a necessity for all crime shows. The possibilities of "New Amsterdam" are virtu- ally limitless. How many wives has John had over the years? How many children? How many dogs? Well, we know that he calls his latest dog "36." The show feels like it's in over its head sometimes and has to resort to typical crime drama nonsense to fill the gaps between what's actually interesting. "New Amsterdam" is one to watch; hopefully it'll realize what it's capable of soon enough.