>>REVIEW
TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY
STARRING: Jack Black and Kyle Gass
DIRECTED BY: Liam Lynch
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Depending on your taste, Jack Black is either a comedic deity or a complete dunce.
His lazy, nasally California drawl, speech pattern and fat-guy slapstick rarely change from film to film. However, it’s his trademark smarmy goofball style that has made him a bigger box office draw than even such Hollywood heavyweights as Brad Pitt or George Clooney.
And while his range may not be as obvious as the above-mentioned Oscar whores, Black’s commercial appeal lies in the fact he can play the lovable, good-hearted hero (Nacho Libre) or the insulting, obnoxiously sexist twat (Shallow Hal) with equal aplomb.
Those who prefer the bumbling, dimwitted side of Black will no doubt enjoy his return to his roots in Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.
Perhaps the biggest psychedelic comedy metal duo in the world, ever, Black and his partner Kyle Gass have garnered a massive cult following with their cleverly written and frighteningly spot-on fantasy metal spoofs.
But the question is, can Black and Gass stretch what is essentially a single-joke concept into a full-length 95-minute movie.
The answer is yes… and no.
The story is simple – naïve Midwestern metalhead JB arrives in Hollywood to find fame and fortune, befriends socially inept loser KG (if I have to explain to you who plays which character, you are too dim for even this film) and decides to form the most super-mega-awesome rock ’n’ roll band the world has ever seen.
Unfortunately the world doesn’t seem to be catching on all that quickly.
But one pot-filled afternoon – while staring longingly at the covers of some old Rolling Stone magazines – JB and KG stumble upon rock ’n’ roll’s darkest secret. They notice that guitar gods Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page et al seem to be using the same creepy looking green pick.
Having been given the lowdown on the evil origins of the pick by a surly, curly locked guitar shop employee (hilariously played by Ben Stiller), the pair embark on a quest to retrieve the magical pick from a nearby rock ’n’ roll museum.
Along the way, they encounter horny college sorority girls, a magic mushroom-induced Sasquatch and a horribly disfigured eastern European (Tim Robbins), who lost his leg attempting to retrieve the pick.
Written by Black, Gass and director Liam Lynch, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is a brainless, but wildly funny comedy that highlights the duo’s fantastic comic timing and a chemistry that only comes with time and experience.
Chock full of great cameos (the first five minutes alone is a hysterical mini-rock opera featuring Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf as JB’s ultra-religious father), Tenacious D isn’t for everyone, but there are plenty of belly laughs, particularly if you are, or know, a hardcore, old-school music fan.
The film’s weakness is that it is not particularly cohesive. There are several hysterical moments that work in shorter YouTube-style bursts (the demonic rock showdown at the end is almost worth the price of admission), but the scenes stringing them together are mediocre at best.
Still, the funny outweighs the not-so-funny. And did I mention Dio and the Loaf are in the first five minutes?
For Tenacious D fans, The Pick of Destiny – as JB would put it – brings the thunder. |
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