Jack Black's The Sub? Screw Skipping Class!

Rating: 8/10 (22 February 2006)

With the so-called "music" that fuels people to buying CDs and downloading songs, the genre that seems to be slowly dying is rock. After the emergence of the rap, pop and emo genres the rock genre sees a slow but steady decline in popularity. But before the genre does die away there's one movie that will shine as rock's last stand, a movie that isn't afraid to speak the truth about economy and provide a good laugh. Ladies and gentlemen, I give the School of Rock! In School of Rock, Jack Black plays Dewy Finn; a die-hard and overzealous rocker stuck in the 70's and 80's music era. After being knocked out of his band by the other members he seeks out people to be a part of his new band. However, word of his "excellence" has spread already, and people aren't exactly hot about him trying to form another band. Along with no success to his new band attempt he's also stuck with having to pay a rent for the apartment he shares with his long-time friend Ned, who is practically bossed by his girlfriend. The problem here, Dewy has no money and no job. After failing to sell one of his guitars to get the rent money he gets a call saying that a private elementary school needs a substitute for a class, and Dewy takes it upon himself to take the job.
As the name of the movie might imply, Dewy eventually finds out the fifth grade students he's teaching actually have some musical talent, enough for his band. And behold, the fifth graders become Dewy's new "band", and the movie builds up from there. The one thing that School of Rock of course stands with is classic rock music, which the movie's soundtrack is composed of, all-time classic songs. Not only does the movie play songs from bands such as Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Jimi Hendrix but it also mentions them as bands that you have to know if you have any clue of what music is.
However, School of Rock stands against more than what it stands for. Jack Black works his magic amazingly to emphasize this with one of my all-time favorite quotes: "Stick it to da man!" The movie also talks about how rock n' roll was the way to give "The Man" hell and how it reached a downfall with one of my favorite jokes (but it's an honest one), the creation of MTV. School of Rock also mentions a few terms used during the era of rock n' roll such as groupies, but it doesn't emphasize these terms that much. This also seems odd in the favor of School of Rock's PG-13 rating, which seems more than misplaced after watching the movie.
As if a movie that stands for true rock music and against the crap that makes up the majority of today's music there's also plenty of laughs to be found. Pretty much every moment of laughter that School of Rock creates is brought up by Jack Black's outrageous personality. With so many classic quotes and jokes brought that show Black's true potential as a comedian, it's almost impossible not to at least chuckle at School of Rock. The fifth grade performers in School of Rock are also very likable characters that get the attention they deserve. The movie does seem to focus on mostly the same young actors/actresses but by the end of the movie the viewer has gotten acquainted with each "band member" of the movie.
If you like rock n' roll or just comedies in general I'd highly recommend School of Rock. In fact, I'd recommend this to most any movie viewer, unless you actually enjoy watching the music that this movie is easily against (rap, pop, emo) obviously. Yet, I'd have to say that anyone should enjoy this movie, even my grandmother liked this movie and went as far as to say that it "rocked", and she was able to tell almost everything that would happen. Now that, is what I call a true family film!