Wildly improbable, occasionally just silly, but continuously funny.
That's the short version.
The long version of this review is that Jack Black (who actually fronts his
own rock band, Tenacious D) stars in this unashemdly feel-good movie about
a wannabee-rock-star who suddenly finds himself as a supply-teacher at a
very expensive school. Unexpectedly seeing his students in their music class,
his mind fizzes and before long he's issuing lectures on the Art of the Guitar
Solo, teaching them about Prog Rock, Rock'N'Roll, Death Metal and Nu-Metal.
By the by, he's also manipulating them into performing in Battle of the Bands
to get one over on the people who kicked him out of his own band at the start of
the movie, but we're not worried about that.
Jack Black throws in a wildly-over-the-top performance for this film, but I
couldn't help but think it's his sheer enthusiasm for Rock music that drives the
film along. In every scene he's either enthusing about Rock or playing it for
himself, and you just get swept up - as the kids do - into cheering him on.
Ah, the kids.
They're excellent. All of them. They play instruments, they act, they're
funny. Some of them have little sub-plots, such as the black girl with the
amazing voice who was initially too shy to volunteer to sing. She easily steals
the later scenes she's in, pretty much whenever she showcases her voice.
The DVD includes several excellent extras. The usual commentary and so forth,
but also music videos (which doubled as trailers to a certain extent) and most
entertaining of all, Jack Black begging Led Zeppelin live on camera to let him
use The Immigrant Song in the film. As he says, "The moral of this tape is
that you should never be too proud to beg - but it helps to one thousand rock
fans chanting your name."
The highest praise I can give this film is that halfway through I noticed my
Dad was tapping his feet to the music of 70's rock music. My Dad is normally
noted for his love of Buddy Holly.
