Not too long ago, we brought you the news that Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli had started moving forward with his next project, Area 51, with the casting of three virtually unknown actors.

At the time, Peli was trying to keep the plot of the movie tightly under wraps. Well, Peli continues to want to keep the plot secret, but as so often happens in Hollywood, details have been leaked.

A first draft of the script of Area 51 tells the story of an alien-intrigued teenager and his two buddies who take a trek to Las Vegas to meet up with a former worker from Area 51. He tells the guys about supposed government involvement with human/alien experiments in order to gain alien technology. The one thing he doesn’t have? Proof that such experiments took place.

Luckily, the former worker has extensive knowledge of security around Area 51, and the teens just happen to be equipped with a brand new video camera. They set off to break into Area 51, and capture on film the evidence needed to prove that the legends surrounding Area 51 are true.

Area 51 will be shot in the same home video style as Paranormal Activity, and with the same intention of making audiences question what’s real and what’s not.

There are still no production details concerning Area 51.

My first question going into this film was; Does anyone rent videotapes anymore? Do kids these days even know what they are? Alright, that was two questions. And for the movie to work you really have to suspend that disbelief. Let me back up, there is some more disbelief you will need to be suspending, but I need to tell you the plot first. Mike and Jerry (Mos Def and Jack Black respectively) are taking care of a run down old video store/thrift shop for elderly old Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) while he’s away. Somehow along the way Jerry gets magnetized. Yeah, you read that right, he becomes magnetic. Granted, it’s not as much as a logic leap as a store still renting video tapes, but it’s still a pretty huge hurdle if you’re looking for realism. Aaaaaanyway, Jerry erases all of the tapes in the store by his mere presence. *HEY! That’s why they made them rent video tapes! The plot line wouldn’t have worked if they had DVDs/it this took place this century. * Now, people are coming in to rent movies and these guys don’t want to see the old man’s store go our of business, so they decide to grab a video camera and make their own versions of famous films (Ghostbusters, Rush Hour 2, Robocop and plenty of others). Throw in some evil corporate developers trying to have the store demolished and some evil corporate show biz lawyers trying to shut down our boys and you’ve got yourself a movie.

So what did I think? Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) does a sometimes masterful job directing here. The montage scene in particular is incredibly well-done. There is a whimsical and almost fantastic feel to nearly everything about the film, which somehow works to help you get around the absurd storyline. Even though the movie takes place in a horrible neighborhood that is barely one step up from the projects (maybe just a step over). This is a neighborhood where the thugs merely glare at you rather than beat you into a puddle of your own blood and piss. This is a neighborhood where people still seem to know each other. Alright, that too may be harder to believe than Jack Black becoming magnetized. However, even though I “bought it” I still felt like it was lacking something. It felt like it could have been funnier. Many of the funniest parts have been seen on the trailers, and once you’ve seen a couple of movies get “Sweded” (what they call their movies) the joke has kind of played out. I didn’t get bored, but I wasn’t really busting a gut laughing either. Gondry did do a good job of taking this goofy idea and giving it some soul and meaning, but more on that later.

Mos Def keeps working his way up my “Actors I Really Enjoy, But Don’t Go Out Of My Way To See” list. He’s almost on my “Actors That I Will Be More Inclined To Watch A Movie Because They Are In It” list. I really hope that his real voice isn’t that borderline retarded voice that he used in 16 Blocks (and slipped into a few times in this) though. He brought a simple-minded sincerity to the film without making it too sappy. His initial refusal to do, and later outrage at being part of, the Driving Miss Daisy remake is one of the few (and nicely underplayed) darker moments of the film. Damn, I really wish I had thought of a better way to put that. Jack Black is in good form here. He is a much better sidekick than lead, and in this he gets to slip into that more comfortable skin. Don’t believe me? Watch School of Rock, then watch High Fidelity. See what I mean? In Be Kind, Rewind Black gets to act like his usual goofy self, but he pulls it back a few notches from his more recent performances, and that is a good thing. He and Mos Def have a decent chemistry and his spastic insanity was a nice foil to Def. Danny Glover was alright I guess. It’s hard not to like an actor playing the lovable old man about to get tossed out on his ass by the corporate developers. Mia Farrow is actually still cute. It’s in a crazy old lady kind of way, but anyone that publicly speaks out against Woody Allen is aces in my book. Hell, for that I’ll say she still looks gorgeous. I should mention that Melonie Diaz was great as the woman in their lives. She was realistically pretty, and about as intelligent and savvy as you could expect for anyone from this world.

WONDER TWIN POWERS ACTIVATE

For probably the most commercial movie of Michael Gondry’s career he managed to work some covert anti-commercial messages into it. He is clearly opposed to the gentrification of the movie/video business, or what he sees as his art. The statements run rampant through the film, that what these guys are creating is just as valid, if not more (to their community) as anything Hollywood produces. Our heroes suffer the futility of fighting the system (corporations, lawyers, Hollywood) to be find the triumph of art over adversity (that soul and meaning I mentioned earlier). This was a good movie, but not a great one. I don’t think it really hit on all cylinders, but when it did it nailed it. It could have/should have been funnier, but at least the drama wasn’t over played or out of place. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon all in all.

RATING: 7/10

I swear, you best be knocking that shit off or I will knock dem teeths right down your throats.