School of Rock
Rock! Rock on! Rock and roll! Rocking! Rock out! Rock it! Rock sock! Rock doc! Rock mock! Rock in the wok! Tick tock! Wear your smock! Did you knock? Chicken pock! On the dock! Don't be a cock! Packin a glock! Now in hock! That's a crock! Out of stock!
Ok enough of that. For this flick I brought in a big water and snuck in a bag of Jelly Belly jellybeans. It turned out that the jelly belly in the theater was a bad call because I couldn't see what the hell color they were and I don't like orange and a couple other weird gross ones. So I kept eating flavors that were yucky. Finally I ended up holding them up one by one to the light on the screen to make sure I didn't get the blechy ones. And it didn't work for every one. Coconut? Or popcorn?
Ok School of Rock. It's good. I'm not a crazy Jack Black fan but I dig the energy. I'm not all nutty for 'The D'- but respect em. And I dig some of the songs like this one. Dig it. I was psyched for this flick. Not sure why because the commercials didn't seem all that hot. And I got the feeling that 45 minutes in I would be sick of all the JB 'rockin out' all in my face all like a dick.
And this movie is Jack Black rockin'! Jack Black the overweight clown. Jack Black the hip anti-hipster. Jack Black the out of control dickhead. It's the Jack Black pied piper parade! School teacher Jack Black boiling over with rock and roll and needing to spread it around like a bootleg Nirvana cover of Funkytown on kazaa! It's about rebelling against 'the Man'! And listening to kids! A guitar chord blast of Dead Poets Society-ey plot sans tragedy! And rock! Rockin everyone in the house! Until the crowd has their jaws hanging open inhaling the sound waves like super sonic CPRrrrrr!! ... or whateverrr..
Anyway, he didn't really get on my nerves which was a shocker. But the thing that caught me a little off guard was how 'family oriented' and clean it was. The mission of the movie was very apparent. To rock the socks off box!!!..umm... office. This movie was straight. And as much as I dug it and almost got a little teary in the end- it wasn't quite the powerhouse of funny I expected. By the end of the first hour I realized that I wasn't riveted. I had a good time with it. And I liked what the movie was selling. I liked that it made a point to make sure everyone in the class felt important and special in a real way. Everyone got their piece of the rock and roll dream. And everyone became better because of the rockin! But I was never blown away by the show when all was said and done. I liked this movie alot but I never quite fell in love with it. And everything that was going on led me to believe that I would.
Three Good Things About This Movie
- Jack Black came through with the funny. I liked his stage dive right off
the bat alot.
- Joan Cusack is always great to see. Ever since she wore that neckbrace back in
the day- she always makes things better.
- There's a future Aretha character that gave me the happy chills.
Three Bad Things About This Movie
- The formula didn't leave room for wild cards.
- I faded in and out on it from time to time.
- Although there were lots of laughs... thinking back... I can't really remember too many of them.
All in all this flick is solid clean entertainment. This movie is consistently funny and because of that it's worth seeing. The best mainstream comedy in a while for sure. It sends a nice nice message out to families and people in general loud and clear. In the end it all works out a-ok of course (sorry for the spoiler). Adults happy. Kids happy. Teachers happy. Future looks happy. But is that rock and roll? I mean it's always nice as an unintentional side effect... but when its the primary purpose.... it takes some of the edge off.