Saturday, November 18, 2006

TENACIOUS D: THE PICK OF DESTINY: awesome songs, okay story

There's a rack to hang the stockings on/We still have to shop for Genghis Khan/Michael Landon's hair looks swell/It's Christmas time in hell!TENACIOUS D is the cult rock band fronted by movie funny-man, Jack Black, backed up by lead guitarist Kyle Gass. For those who've never seen them, the joke is that they're a pair of out-of-shape middle-aged men channeling three parts Led Zep to one part Spinal Tap. Their feature length movie sits firmly in the canon of films like Wayne's World - where two unlikely ordinary idiots grapple with greatness after a training period reminiscent of movies like KARATE KID. In THE PICK OF DESTINY, JB and KG have to break into the Rock and Roll Museum to steal the aforementioned pick - apparently fashioned centuries ago from a tooth of Satan and capable of turning any idiot into a genius rock musician.

I had a fine time watching the film. At its worst, the film has a sort of low-level background hum of humour and good-will, even if that resides in dick and fart jokes and the odd superstar cameo. (Ben Stiller and John C Reilly are hysterical but Tim Robbins' part is seriously under-written/just not funny....) But whenever the movie gets off of the actual story and into the songs the humour ratchets up to an altogether higher level. The guys clearly know whereof they spoof - the songs are really fantastic and echo all the worst excesses of the rock genre. I loved the final rock-off with Satan and the homily on how Satan is inside of all of us was Pure Comedy Gold. So, I guess I have to give TENACIOUS D: THE PICK OF DESTINY a qualified thumbs up. It's patchy for sure, but when it works it really makes you laugh.

TENACIOUS D: THE PICK OF DESTINY opens in the US on November 22nd, Singapore on November 23rd and in the UK on November 24th. It opens in Argentina on November 30th, Finland on December th, the Netherlands on December 21st, and in Iceland and Norway on December 26th. It opens in Italy and Australia in January 2007, in Germany in February and Belgium in March.

2 comments:

  1. Ahh, the D! Not the Ali D, but the Tenacious D! lol I think the story is irrelevant in the same way that the coherence of Tenacious D's lyrics is irrelevant ;-) The whole point of the film is to be silly & make you laugh & simply rock your socks off! Another film I really want to see!

    BTW, what's wrong with "dick and fart jokes"?! lol That's what the D do best (along with rocking your socks off :-D).

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  2. Nowt wrong with dick and fart jokes. It's just that when they're placed alongside some OUTSTANDING Led Zep spoofs they just aren't as satisfying. They're still mildly amusing but you just want to fast forward to the songs....

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