Monday, 5 March 2007

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2006) Liam Lynch

Just as I start rewatching This is Spinal Tap during lunch hours, my stepson makes me watch this. To give it the credit that it has due, it contains some clever in jokes for the metal crowd, and Jack Black is damn good at what he does, but this is mostly embarrassing. In keeping with the trend of the times, there's nothing remotely subtle here in the slightest: it hammers every point home with a vengeance and isn't ashamed to do so. When you realise that the band Tenacious D gets its name name from compatible birthmarks on the butts of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, you should get an idea of where this film will take you.

Black is a wannabe rocker from nowhere whose father, played by an uncredited Meat Loaf, hates every thought of it. All these scenes are stolen from the We're Not Going to Take It video by Twisted Sister, but that's probably deliberate. Instead Black leaves for Hollywood and eventually ends up in the real one, where he finds Gass busking on the sidewalk. He hooks up with him to form Tenacious D. There are references throughout to A Clockwork Orange and Kung Fu and Mortal Kombat and The Wiz and who knows what else. Ronnie James Dio appears as himself, Dave Grohl plays Satan and David Krumholtz is just there.

But oh dear. It plays like a cross between a South Park version of This is Spinal Tap, along with a bunch of ideas that sounded really cool when Jack Black was drunk, which include the whole point to the title. The pick of destiny was made from a tooth of Satan by a medieval dark wizard that bestows awesome shred powers and his been handed down through the ages from some dark ages guy on a lute trying to impress his girlfriend to Robert Johnson, Jimmy Page, Angus Young, you name it. Unfortunately I was sober so I didn't care.

No comments: