Dewey Finn is an aging rocker that has had trouble moving on from his life of Rock & Roll. Although he has never had any success with his band he always believes that he is just about to make it big. But everything comes crashing down when his own band, the one he started decides he is what is holding them back and vote him out of the band. Now, Dewey who has the battle of the bands coming up in a month must find a new band if he is to achieve his dreams, but that’s not his only problem. His roommate Ned whom he has been mooching off of for years has a new girlfriend who hates Dewey and his mooching ways and is constantly bugging Ned to kick Dewey out. With the rent due, Ned makes an ultimatum for Dewey that he must have his share or he is out on the urgings of his girlfriend. So, now Dewey must do the one thing he dreads and that is to find a job. But when he answers the phone for Ned who is a substitute teacher he finds himself pretending to be Ned to get a job at a richy prep school to try and make his share of the rent. He figures it will be easy, he can just tell the children to goof off and not teach them anything allowing him to get paid and not have to do anything for it. But when he discovers the children can play musical instruments he comes up with an idea to get back into the battle of the bands, and that is to use the children as his new rock band. So now Dewey embarks on a new scheme, as he must avoid a nosy principal and teach the children his philosophy of rock and roll so they can be ready to battle the bands.

The thought of Jack Black teaching anybody anything scares me to death, especially if he is teaching young children like in this movie. That’s what makes the movie so funny is the fact that Black is the anti-teacher in every aspect and you have to wonder how the kids and the principal could ever believe that he was a teacher. Jack Black is hit an miss when it comes to his movies simply for the fact that he is too over the top in most instances that he needs the right role to allow him to be at his comedic best. Several weeks ago I saw a movie that also involved a lot of singing and I was the first one out during the credits, this time I was last one out as I really enjoyed the music they played during the movie. Yes, you could see that some of the kids were not really playing their instruments and that some lip synching was going on but it did not overly detract from the movie. Black whom has his own rock band Tenacious D made up for a lot of the shortcomings of the children. It was evident that Black poured his heart into this movie about his favorite subject rock and roll and it really makes the movie enjoyable. It allowed Black to reach a level of chemistry with the children you would not expect him to achieve. The movie did have its slow moments and could drag a little bit at times but over all it was funny, it was witty, it was charming and it was very entertaining.
3.5 stars out of 5