If the rest of "Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny" were as funny as its first 10 minutes, it would be next to "Borat"
as one of the year's most riotous. In full rock-opera mode, a young Jack Black (Troy Gentile) battles with his father (Meat Loaf) over his guitar-playing, culminating in an appearance by Black Sabbath's Ronnie James Dio. The dialogue is all sung, peppered with mystical allusions and self-serious progressive-rock goofiness. It's a spot-on parody/homage, and Troy Gentile does a great Jack Black impersonation. (He played a young Jack in "Nacho Libre," too. This is his destiny.) The rest of the movie is uneven, ranging from the deliriously funny (like a crazy acid trip taken by one of the characters) to the belabored and overdone (like most of the elements related to a museum break-in). It's a one-joke movie -- sort of how Tenacious D is a one-joke band -- but it's a joke that can be pretty funny sometimes. It certainly does not lack for energy. Written by Tenacious D (which is Jack Black and Kyle Gass) and Liam Lynch (of TV's "Sifl & Olly") and directed by Lynch, it's an appealingly goofy flick. It seems at once pure-intentioned and filthy-mouthed, the two lead characters being grown-up children whose only desire in all the world is to rock. And I mean rawk!! Oh, and smoke pot. They want to do that, too.
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