1949. Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny (2006)

Starring: Jack Black, Kyle Gass, JR Reed

Director: Liam Lynch

Running Time: 93 mins

Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny is an American film about two budding rock musicians who hatch a plan to capture the legendary Pick of Destiny, a guitar pick that will give them the skills of the greatest musicians in history.

On the one hand, this is a fairly run-of-the-mill modern Hollywood comedy, with some good laughs and entertainingly zany characters throughout. However, what’s most enjoyable about Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny is the musical side, as it powers along at a rocking pace with some fantastically entertaining and inventive songs that add something a little different to proceedings.

And we’ll start on that note, as the way the film kicks off in its opening scene can alone sum up how well the music works here. Never wanting to shy away from going absolutely all out with a rock soundtrack, the film starts off with a musical back story of a young boy rebelling against his religious family with rock-and-roll.

Now, that sounds like a fairly simple exposition, but the film makes it a whole lot more entertaining to watch by telling that little story entirely in song, and a really rapid one at that. Bursting into energy from the moment it begins, it’s a hugely entertaining opening that tries something very different and very difficult, and manages to make it work really well, with inventive and silly lyrics that’ll make you laugh as well as a rapid-fire beat that’s simply huge fun to watch.

This isn’t like Les Misérables or anything where effectively every single line of dialogue is sung, but what Tenacious D does well is use musical interludes to advance its story along at a faster pace, and covers what are somewhat more generic and predictable sequences of the story in a different way, thereby making them feel fresh and a whole lot more enjoyable.

The musical sequences are definitely the highlight of the whole film, which is no mean feat given how hard it can often be to make a musical movie work.

Beyond the music, however, this is still a fairly enjoyable film. I can’t say that the story itself does much to engross you in the lives of the two band members, but when it comes to some of the sillier antics that the characters get themselves into, it all makes for a light-hearted and entertaining watch anyway.

It’s not the world’s most endlessly hilarious comedy either, and although there are a good few laughs throughout, most of them are in the musical sequences, and the pure comedy of the story being told through rock music itself. When it’s just the two leads on their own, the film is nowhere near as funny as it should be, and that means it’s not quite a non-stop laughter fest from start to finish.

Overall, however, I had fun with Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny. It’s not the world’s greatest comedy, but with its fantastically entertaining musical sequences throughout, it adds something a little different to the genre, and that’s why I’m giving it a 7.3.