When 10-year old Lil' JB serenades his ultra-conservative family with a rocking rendition of Kickapoo, a song with lyrics that would make a sailor blush, his father unleashes his belt and shows him no mercy, tearing down all of his beloved rock posters. JB then implores Dio, one of his rock Gods, for guidance. Dio reassures him that he is on the right path but he must leave his stifling home environment and go to Hollywood to find the secrets of his art. JB spends the next several years on the road stopping at numerous towns called Hollywood until he finally arrives in rock 'n roll Mecca--Hollywood, California. Strolling along the Venice boardwalk, he is enthralled by the music of KG, a troubadour playing Bach's Bourrees in E Minor on a classical guitar. Although his naïve suggestion that they form a band together is rebuffed, JB joins in on KG's melody.

To JB they are jam-ming; to KG, the neophyte is driving away his crowd. After the dust settles, a friendship is formed and a band is born. KG's funds having been cut off by his parents, the two are in desperate straits. Their only hope is to win Open Mic Night at Al's Bar. When their first performance is met with less than a stellar response, they determine that to win the contest they need to write a masterpiece. They soon realize this is much harder than they ever imagined. Then Fate intervenes: they notice that every cover photo in their collection of Rolling Stone magazines show all the great rockers using the same peculiar guitar pick. Racing to The Guitar Center to buy one, the store manager has an acute reaction when they show him the covers. Leading them to a private room, the ex-guitar tech turned rock historian tells them the history of The Pick of Destiny--the darkest secret in the history of rock. The Pick, he informs them, now resides in the Rock and Roll History Museum--an impenetrable fortress.

This is what Jack Black’s career needed, a movie that fully lets him live up to his comedic potential and a movie that he obviously feels very strong about since it’s about the birth of his band. Anyone who has ever listened to Tenacious D understands that Jack Black can be side splitting and obscenely funny better than anyone else in Hollywood. No longer pigeon holed playing the loveable loser, Jack Black is playing Jack Black and that is what who we want to see Black play. After letting him go a little crazy with Nacho Libre which could be hit and miss as Black has a very mellow and subtle humor in the film they finally let him going completely crazy in the pick of Destiny and it works to perfecting as Black is back to his outrageous and side splitting self as he is so over the top as so outrageous you find yourself laughing yourself silly.

I read that Kyle Gass was a little angry because of how much press Jack Black was receiving and how he thought that they should be given a dual headline as he is also a founding member of the band but there is a reason Black gets more of the credit for Tenacious D than Gass and that’s because he is funnier and he is the one who makes the movie hilarious an not the other way around. It’s the reason Black has shot to stardom even doing mainstream chick flick fare like the Holiday and why Gass is always playing the bit parts and the cameo’s. Gass should be happy they he can play second fiddle, the straight man to Black’s zany craziness and that he is allowed to costar in a movie. The two work well together that’s for sure but its Jack Blacks show and his stage to show off the humor of Tenacious D.

I think it’s almost too fitting that much of the movie is played out in a musical like format and the funniest moments of the movie are easily these musical moments where the two are in their complete band element and are showcasing Tenacious D for what it is, musical comedy. When Black serenades his father at the first of the movie, I almost broke a rib laughing so hard and there is one like that I wish I could remember because it cracked me up so bad I want to see the movie again just for that one line. Those who are familiar with the comedy stylings of Tenacious D will recognize many of the songs and the moments of the movie, from Big Foot, to the battle with the Devil. Fans of the band will love the movie as well as fans of over the top and outrageous comedies.

Grade: B+