It's okay, with reservations. . .

Rating: Null/10 (3 October 2003)

I suppose one could review this movie with a single sentence: If you like Jack Black, you'll like the movie. Of course the flip side is if you find Jack Black unbearable, you'd be better off avoiding this flick and catch The Rundown or some other lightweight time waster.
I'm on the fence. While I find Black humorous in a smaller supporting role, I don't enjoy him in large doses. The campy eyebrow athletics, exaggerated over enunciation and spastic physical movements wear thin quickly. For those of us old enough to remember John Belushi or even Chris Farley it's hard not to watch Black without a constant sense of deja-vu.
But, Jack Black not withstanding, this movie has a few other problems that kept me from enjoying it and has me baffled by the almost unanimously glowing reviews.
First, all of the characters are about as one-dimensional as you can get. Granted, this isn't a serious character study or a deep, dialogue driven set piece, but still, you could describe each character totally in one short sentence. Loser, slack off rocker with a dream. Mousy roommate who gave up the dream. Shrewish girlfriend. Uptight authority figure, etc.
Now here is where we get to the biggest frustrations, the wildly cliched and almost offensive stereotyping regarding the child actors.
Let's see, the Asian keyboard whiz (complete with glasses and accent), the portly 'soul singer', the rocker drummer, the brow-beat waspy guitarist, the pushy "A-type" manager and probably the most disturbing, the gay Liza Minelli loving fashion designer. The kids' performances were good, with little of the smarmy precociousness you'd expect.
The message of the movie is as well-worn as Columbo's trenchcoat. Screw authority, down with 'the man' who only wants to kill your dreams, rock will save the world. Of course, I couldn't help but notice how ironic is was that many of the examples Jack Black's character used as examples of rock's "true purpose" were either victim's of their own excessive lifestyles or became boring old institutions themselves. How can rock save the world if it can't save itself?
Of course, in true Hollywood fashion, everyone comes around in the end and embraces the loser and his posse of juvenile rockers. Well, everyone that is except the token villain (Sarah Silverman in a wasted role) who disappears without fanfare once her function is fulfilled.
Is it a horrible movie? No, in fact it's a cute movie to see with your family, which I suspect is the reason for the glowing reviews. (I have no idea why it's rated PG-17). The kids will identify with the students and probably enjoy Black's clownish performance and the adults will enjoy some of the rock references and soundtrack. But I wonder how much better it might have been with a little more thought and originality.