School of Rock

A quick glance at the story or trailer tells you that School of Rock is probably the cheesiest, gratuitous, airhead excuse for a movie in ages, but if you thought that was a good reason to avoid it you'd be wrong. Jack Black plays the slightly past it rocker, stuck in a groove of 70s heavy metal rock and roll and refusing to move on – until his (more up to date) band fire him. Struggling to pay the rent, he takes a phone call intended for his schoolteacher flatmate and accepts a job as supply teacher at a top school. Soon he has the kids not only studying the history of rock and roll, soundproofing the room and playing rock instruments, but actually competing in a major ‘Battle of the Bands' competition.

Unbelievable? Yes. What's more unbelievable is that somehow the whole thing works – Jack Black's over-the-top enthusiasm for his subject is contagious, the edge-of-disaster suspense is continued throughout the length of the movie, and by the end the audience is so desperate to see how the kids (who they all play their own instruments by the way) perform in the concert that seat wetting would probably go unnoticed. Joan Cusack, as the gobsmacked headmistress, delivers a performance that is worth the price of your cinema ticket in itself. Achieving such tears-down-the cheeks laughter and adrenalin-packed excitement for air guitar music is nothing short of miraculous.

School of Rock is a movie that promises entertainment and delivers. Everything is as it says on the packet. For sheer feelgood factor, this movie is unbeatable – and you can even take the kids!

I wish they made more of these kinds of films. It's refreshing to see a G-rated comedy that had kids but was also funny without having to resort to body function jokes.

It's a film about accomplishment. It's a film about deception to achieve your dreams. It's a film about how children can achieve remarkable things. It's a film about how they can still make good clean movies, even if they're made with kids in mind they can still be funny without being too saccharine.

I just don't get why they don't make more movies like this. Jack Black is in his usual rare comedic and terrific performance form. And the supporting cast is also dynamic, especially the kids who do a bang up job.

There's a bit of three stooges here. There's a little bit of Jerry Lewis. There's a healthy dash of classic post 1950s rock injected into this film, but again clean enough that children and their parents can enjoy it.

The plot is pretty basic, a conman of a want to be rock star who's on the outs with his former band and one friend, does a bit of double dealing to help bring rock to young minds, enlighten their parents, and make his way back into the thing he loves most; music.

Definitely worth streaming, possibly buying the bluray when it becomes available for your library.

Enjoy.

Glancing at what other people have written about this movie, it seems that these individuals are taking this film a bit too seriously. Worrying about the "messages" this movie is delivering? Come on, there is no way that the con that Jack Black's character pulls off could ever get far in the real world! I don't think any sane person watching this movie would take this seriously. This is a comedy, for crying out loud, made to make us laugh!

I thought Black was fine in this movie. Sure, maybe his character is a little one-note with his proclamations of "rock on" and "stick it to the man", but Black somehow manages to do it over and over without being boring. He's unbelievably energetic AND versatile, delivering these same things in different ways each time that prevent the movie from getting into a rut. I think it's safe to say that only Black himself could have made this role work so well.

There is plenty of humor and great music. Even my senior citizen parents kept laughing, and told me after it was over that they enjoyed the rock soundtrack as well. It's a great movie for the whole family. Why was this rated PG-13? Sure, there are some references to stuff like alcohol and groupies, but they are not emphasized at all in their brief passing - and your kids will already have seen these kind of things treated much worse elsewhere! In fact, here in British Columbia, the ratings board gave it a "G" rating.

Jack Black gives a very lively and even astoundingly hilarious performance. The movie was well-made for the time and it's not only about a fake teacher/wannabe rock star trying to get a job and make quick money and instead ends up teaching rock and roll to kids at a private school, but about young individuals learning to uncover their hidden talent, foster a sense of self-confidence, and express themselves in a fun artistic way! The extras in the film did well too and I can see why Miranda Cosgrove was chosen to play Megan in Drake and Josh since she acted brilliantly as a young girl in this movie as well.

I avoided this film for years because I thought it would just be Jack Black being loud and overbearing. Luckily, he managed to exceed my expectations. He plays a genuinely lovable character in an equally heartwarming story. It's really much better than I expected.