Out today on DVD:
TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY
(Dir. Liam Lynch, 2006)
A friend of mine years ago (I believe upon the release of their first full length self titled album in 2001) said that he had determined that Tenacious D is funny "for about 11 minutes."
Certainly the case here the first 11 minutes including a mini rock opera in which Jables (Jack Black) escapes the rule of his oppressive father (Meat Loaf singing for the first time on film since ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW), and journeys to Hollywood to chase his musical dreams is pretty funny.
After that we pretty much go through the movie motions with material that was better covered in their short sketch-films that aired in the late '90s on HBO - indifferent open mic-night crowds, Sasquatch, the devotion of their only fan Lee (Jason Reed), and a never ending slew of bombastic though acoustic mock anthems.
Almost immediately after getting off the bus in L.A., Black meets Kyle Gass a long haired street musician with similar delusions of rock-star grandeur whom Black mistakes for a guitar God.
After being beaten up by the droogs from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (played by a few of the Mr. Show guys - yep, it's that kind of movie) on his first night in town Black is taken under Gass's wing to be schooled in the ways of rock.
Gass's cover story of previous rock glory that Black worships at the altar at is soon blown and the narrative becomes a quest involving a sacred guitar pick made from one of Satan's teeth.
The stoner slacker road-trip comedy genre is pretty cashed and so are the modern comedy conventions - obligatory supposedly surprise cameos (Ben Stiller, Tim Robbins, Dave Grohl as Satan), scatological gross-out humor, and even a car chase just for the sake of having a car chase proven by the soundtrack song "Car Chase City" blaring along.
There will be hardcore fans of "the D" (as their fans call them) that will consider this a crude comic masterpiece that will become a cult classic in years to come but for the rest of us this is just a mediocre mix of BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE and THIS IS SPINAL TAP. So as Spinal Tap lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel might say on the how-many-laughs meter this "goes to eleven."
Special Features: 14 deleted/extended scenes, plus alternate endings and outtakes, The Making of The Pick of Destiny, In the Studio segment, Music video, The making of the music video, "Jump to a song" feature and trailers.
More later...
