School of Rock 2003
I had heard so many good things about this movie that I figured I’d just buy it on DVD rather than rent it. Any time I do that I wind up regretting it and this time is no different. While this is a totally adequate movie, it is nothing special. Jack Black brings a lot of energy and funny faces (kind of a John Belushi or Chris Farley role) but a little Jack Black goes a long way and with nothing to give any weight to the movie, the odes to classic rock get old. The kids are kind of cute, but any movie with a cast of kids is always going to be trouble.
Watching the making of documentary on the DVD I found out that Mike White (who wrote The Good Girl and Orange County) knew Jack Black and wanted to write a movie for him. And certainly this is tailor made for Black as no other movie could be. That’s good because the role really suits him, but it also makes it fall short on just about everything else. While the movie was entertaining, it wasn’t really all that funny. I liked the rock tributes and they were sometimes delivered with great sincerity, but the movie builds up to a battle of the bands where you know the kids will bring it all together and achieve something that no kids could actually do with three weeks of practice.
Cute and lightweight. A good rental but not something you’ll need to see over and over.
I’ll give it a B-.
Owned on: DVD