It had such potential

Rating: 4/10 (17 October 2010)

Someone wrote: "If you have no knowledge of Tenacious D, and their humor, do not watch it, because you will not like it.".
This was the root of the problems. I had no knowledge of Tenacious D and while I won't go as far as to say I hated the movie, it was made more for their fans than for the general public.
What gets me is that it had such a potential. It had a great concept, it had Jack Black and the chance to rock (literally) School of Rock preceded it so here was a blueprint of how to make a great movie and even improve on it. Instead they went downhill.
What went wrong other than being a movie for the T-D fans.
First: Kyle Gass may be in the real life band but he is totally wrong for the movie part. It would work much better with a younger rocker who was really good but down on his luck, then with the help of Jack Black he would get his chance and shine. Now this character was a soft bald overweight kid whom grew to be a soft bald overweight adult. Doesn't work for the movie in my humble opinion. For example, instead of being a total loser at the Sorority party, a more suited actor/performer could have his first revelation and totally rock the place. Then while the girls throw themselves at him he would remember his buddy and mission and go find him. Wouldn't that work better? Second: The music. They have a specific number of fans already loving it. For the rest of the people it just doesn't work. I mean even at the final showdown with the devil the music was an anticlimax for me.
Third: Humor or lack of it. It had its moments, after all you can't hide Jack Black's talent. I especially liked the chase scene being watched on live TV by Lee the car's owner. Other than that it was way below School Of Rock's.
Fourth: The plot should be tighter. Some points were explained at the deleted scenes. Like why would Gass try to evade the police? (Answer he was so into the video game that he was actually hallucinating). How come the club's announcer is the devil? (Answer, before they changed the plot it was actually Lee, their only fan. It then makes sense, that's why he was helping them)
And what about the mushroom induced hallucination with the Sascq... Saskua... oh Pooh, Bigfoot! Totally out of place, or was it a video clip within a movie?
Fifth: I suppose fans of the band go for lewd language, sexual innuendos and drug use/humor. I suppose this is the producer's and director's choice but alienating everyone below 16 (18 in my opinion) is not a good business decision. Such a pity I couldn't see the movie along with my kids.
Bottom line : Mildly entertaining but forgettable.