Laughs, good music for all ages, much better than promos!

Rating: 8/10 (1 October 2003)

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure that I would have seen this movie had I not won tickets to see a preview last night. The promos I've seen just didn't appeal to me. I thought of Jack Black and Joan Cusack as over-exposed and probably would have avoided it for those reasons alone.

However, after a bit of a slow start, I thoroughly enjoyed all the music, all the great kids in this picture. and yes, even Jack Black, who was both funny and endearing as the lovable loser. By the end I was rooting for him and all the kids. The theatre had a very mixed audience and while I'm sure some did not "get" many of the music references, there were plenty of other laughs.