When Jerry becomes magnetised after trying to sabotage an electricity substation he thinks is melting his brain, he causes all kinds of problems for his best friend Mike. For a start he accidentally manages to erase all the tapes in the old-fashioned video store where Mike works. To keep their tiny band of customers happy, they decide to remake one of the films in Jerry’s scrapyard. Surprisingly it’s a hit and Mike and Jerry are soon inundated by request for more shoddy, no-budget remakes of everything from “Ghostbusters” to “Driving Miss Daisy”. Before long the whole neighbourhood is involved revitalising not only the store but also the local community.

If you’ve seen “The Science of Sleep” you’ll know all about the director’s passion for weird and wonderful ramshackle props that look like they’ve been made by kids. But here they are more successfully embedded in the story, as the players try to recreate the effects of the blockbusters they are remaking. The best example of this is a prolonged tracking shot where Alma sets one effect rolling and we move through the sets of various movies as characters dive in and out of roles and films. It gives a nice flow to what would otherwise be a generic montage. It is also symptomatic of the sense of fun inherent in Gondry’s filmmaking. There are other moments as we watch the “sweded” versions of the films, which show the memorable bits from a number of pictures. The films-within-a-film look as cheap as chips – shot on grainy, scratchy video with intentionally bad acting and continuity. But they show a great deal of invention in how they circumvent budgetary constraints (hanging off a jungle gym for “Rush Hour 2”, using giant paper cut-outs to recreate “The Lion King and Jerry wrapping his head in green cellophane to play Slimer in “Ghostbusters”). It will doubtless encourage members of the YouTube generation to go out and make their own mini epics. That’s why the movie is so good – it shows why filmmaking is so much fun and that you can do anything with a few mates and a little imagination. There is a genuine sense of community among the players that coalesces into the exuberant and factually flawed Fats Waller movie. It’s this ebullience that keeps the film chugging along at a decent pace throughout the hundred-and-two minute running-time.

The original music by Jean-Michel Bernard goes for a retro feel that suits the old-fashioned video store aesthetic. So there are lots of 70s-influenced Hammond organ and funk guitar arrangements, slap bass and chimes and jazz piano and flute. There is a sense of hope in the uplifting flute and harp motifs for the in-camera moviemaking. Jerry’s sabotage is illustrated by B-movie thriller themes and the blank tapes by threatening strings, brass and cymbals. The other soundtrack choices include a mangled version of the “Ghostbusters” theme, the jollity of Billy Preston’s “Nothing From Nothing” and a couple of Fats Waller tunes (“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” and “Your Feets Too Big”). It all fits the film but probably wouldn’t work as a stand-alone body of work.