I was happy when Robert told me about this free, open to the public event to promote the upcoming Jack Black movie "Be Kind Rewind" at the Apple store in San Francisco. I got there half an hour early and the line was already around the block. Some people had been waiting 4 hours to get in. Dear lord why? It wasn’t like this was a free screening of Star Wars with a guest appearance of Carrie Fisher giving lap dances to fan boys.

I was (un)lucky enough to be one of the last people to be let in the door. I went upstairs and watched the trailer over the heads of about 300 people. The very boring interviewer from SF360 introduced the way French director Michel Gondrey and began a line of uninspired questioning. I couldn’t understand a word of his English and her interview style was enough to put anyone into a deep coma. You began to wish that as the director spoke they’d put English subtitles of what he was saying up on the screen. They also introduced the co-star of the film rapper Mos Def who appeared to have smoked way too much reefer before the event.

Many people tried to make good of a lame situation by reading a newspaper, surfing the web for granny porn or checking their e-mail on the many available Macbooks. The interviewer did open it up to questions from the audience. I almost ran up there to ask the director if he was taking any classes to clean up his French accent? The whole night was a washout, but it was neat looking around the upstairs of the Apple Store. I imagine Jack Black wasn't able to understand a word the director was saying when he made the film so it might be a lot of improvised fun. I'll be happy as long as Jack doesn't have that creepy bug eyed look he had after numerous belt whippings from Peter Jackson in Kong. Plus, this French guy wrote the movie. If his English is this bad imagine what his written dialog is like? 

The director loves Apple Mac & its software so much that he does HP TV commercials.
Perhaps you'd be better at understanding what the guy is saying than I am.

My question on the concept of this film is: How many rental stores still have videotapes? I know the local Hollywood video clearanced their remaining videos out for a buck each about a year ago. So, the whole concept about Jack Black becoming magnetic and erasing videotapes & having to re-film movies on his own is pretty implausible in this current day and age of big corporate rental stores who only carry DVD's.

That night I did have a huge craving for Blondie’s Pizza which is a Bay Area favorite and a big thank you to the worker who freshened up my vegetarian, whole wheat (I know only in the Bay Area) slice with extra organic tomatoes. After this complete waste of time you made my night! For those of you who like being herded into an Apple store and trying to make sense of what some French guy is saying there’s one more free event like it in New York on Friday, January 11th. I suggest you get their 6 or 7 hours early for the best seats.

Once upon a time in an Apple Store in SF I was far, far away from the screen or from seeing anything.

You know it's bad when Monday's newspaper is way better than an event you're attending.

TRAILER FOR "BE KIND REWIND"

Here's Danny Glover babbling on about the movie being a "rich film you wish for".
I hope he wins an Oscar for it.