Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

The Pick of Destiny may be the year's greatest guilty pleasure. Let's face it—any movie that starts and ends with fart jokes (stay through the entire closing credits) isn't exactly Shakespeare, but trust us, The Pick of Destiny is destined to become the most hilarious musical epic ever. Sure, there are a lot of great rock flicks from A Hard Day's Night to This Is Spinal Tap, but none of them are as off the charts as this jack jam. Jack Black and Kyle Gass turn the comic volume up several decibels, finally showing how their now legendary musical act started. An early sequence sets the tone as 10-year-old Lil' JB pisses off his right wing family with a pedal to the metal rendition of Kickapoo. Soon, at the urging of his rock hero Dio (who appears out of a wall poster in his room) he hits the road, grows into big JB (Black) and gets to Hollywood where he hooks up with the more "experienced" KG (Gass) by auditioning for his band. When KG is exposed as a fraud, the two actually do team up and start playing some less than encouraging gigs until they hear about a secret weapon, a legendary guitar pick that will make them superstars. The movie details their quest for the pick and an ultimate confrontation with the devil. Cameos along the way from Ben Stiller and a hysterical bit with Tim Robbins brighten things up, but it's Black and Gass who rock the house with hard raucous laughs and great songs. These guys clearly are first rate musicians as well as comedians and it's that rare combination that really makes Tenacious D your cinematic pick of destiny this holiday season.

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