Be Kind Rewind – Back to Where It All Began!
By Michael Nazarewycz
Everybody started somewhere. Whether it’s an all-star athlete who cut his
sports teeth on neighborhood sandlots or urban courts, a brilliant
scientist who almost burned down the house with her first chemistry set,
or an Oscar-winning actor who was the understudy to the understudy in a
community theater production, every famous person, real or imagined, has
an origin.
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Young
Sherlock Holmes
1985
Starring Nicholas Rowe, Alan Cox, and Sophie Ward
Directed by Barry Levinson
It’s hard to believe that the greatest detective ever created was once a
teenager. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes has always seemed like he
was born a grown man. In this alternate origin, Holmes (Rowe) meets
Watson (Cox) for the first time while they are teenagers at school.
Their relationship is established when several seemingly unconnected men
are murdered, and Holmes must use his big brain, keen eye, and stout
friend to figure out whodunit. Leave it to the smartest kid in school to
show off. This film features Oscar-nominated special effects by George
Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic.
Young
Einstein
1989
Starring Yahoo Serious and Odile Le Clezio
Directed by Yahoo Serious
Australians made quite the mark in 1980s cinema. Bryan Brown had success
with films ranging from Breaker Morant to Cocktail;
Olivia Newton-John (technically British, but an Aussie since age 5) was
forever immortalized in Xanadu and reunited with her Grease
costar John Travolta in Two of a Kind; and Paul Hogan had the
number two film of the year in Crocodile Dundee (being edged
out by $2MM by Top Gun). And then there was
Yahoo Serious. Formerly known as Greg Pead before legally changing his
name, Serious used this film to answer the question, “What if Albert
Einstein had been born in Australia?” Unfortunately, no one asked. In
the film, the Aussie Einstein (Serious) uses his genius on trivial
things, like correcting the problem of flat beer. The film came in 79th
on the year, barely beating Who’s Harry Crumb?.
Check out other Be Kind Rewind
issues:
Michael Nazarewycz is a
US-based Writer for UK-based
Filmoria.com.
He also blogs at
ScribeHard On Film. He can be reached via Twitter
@ScribeHard.
