Film Reviews

Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny

• Rating:
• Director: Liam Lynch
• Starring: Ben Stiller
• Details: US / 93 mins (16).

'Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny' is not the greatest movie in the world and it wouldn't even garner a 'tribute' status. Would-be rocker JB (Black) travels to California to play in a band, after a vision from Ronnie James Dio. There he meets busker KG (Gass), and they form the not-so supergroup Tenacious D. With no money to pay the rent, the band enter an open mic contest; but when they learn of a legendary guitar pick, handed down from one rock God to the next, they set out on the road to find it. Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny is a movie that preaches to the converted - a niche-niche-niche movie (you got to like Jack Black, his music and interested in seeing both on the big screen) that fans will love and happily lap up every single second of screen time, but anyone coming in from the cold will fail to get most of the laughs. Making self-deprecating jokes about your penis might be a laugh after a few cans with your mates in the sitting room, but forking over a tenner to watch Jack Black do the same is asking too much. The problem with the movie lies not in the gags or the acting or the music - which are all fine without giving us anything new - but in its formulaic plotting that smacks of lazy, redundant writing. Everyone likes a good comedic road movie, but the least the boys could have done was show us something, anything, we haven't seen before. They don't, however; and writers Black and Gass seem content to just bring the lyrics of the album to the big screen. That may satisfy the fans, but not me.

Review by Gavin Burke