Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

Infobox_Film
rated pg 13
name = Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny


director = Liam Lynch
writer = Jack Black
Kyle Gass
Liam Lynch
starring = Jack Black
Kyle Gass
Dave Grohl
music = Tenacious D
score by John King
Andrew Gross
editing = David Rennie
cinematographer = Robert Brinkman
producer = Jack Black
Kyle Gass
Stuart Cornfeld
Ben Stiller
distributor= New Line Cinema
budget = $20,000,000
released = November 22, 2006
runtime =
language = English
amg_id = 1:327465
imdb_id = 0365830|

"Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" is a rock musical set in the 1990s, starring Tenacious D, an American satirical rock duo that features Jack Black and Kyle Gass. It is directed.. by musician and puppeteer Liam Lynch. The film was released on November 22, 2006. Publicity for the film involved a tagline "The Greatest Motion Picture of All Time". [cite news | first=Ethan | last=Smith | coauthors= | title=Can Jack Go Back? | date=2006-10-27 | publisher=The Wall Street Journal | url =http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116191373176905571.html?mod=googlenews_wsj | work = | pages = | accessdate = 2008-04-04 | language = ]

Plot Summary

As a young man, Jack Black leaves his religious family and oppressive town (Kickapoo, MO) for Hollywood on a quest to form the world's most awesome rock band. There he meets acoustic guitarist Kyle Gass, who is performing on the street, and begins worshipping him as a rock god because of his skills and attitude. Kyle feeds Jack's fantasy by pretending to be famous with a self-named band ("The Kyle Gass Project"), and exploits him to do work such as cleaning his apartment and buying him weed with the promise of an audition for his fictitious band. After Jack learns Kyle is actually unemployed and living off his parents, the two become equal, and Kyle apologizes to Jack by giving him a brand-new guitar. They create their own band: Tenacious D, named for birthmarks on found on their behinds. (Jack has a birthmark which says: "Tenac", and Kyle has a mark which reads: "ious D".)

Soon Jack and Kyle learn the deepest secret of rock: all the rock legends used the same guitar pick, The Pick of Destiny, which has "supranatural" powers. It was created by a dark wizard from a piece of Satan's tooth, as a gift to a blacksmith who saved his life from the great demon. The pick gives its holder unnatural abilities with stringed instruments. Infatuated by the prospect of becoming the next great rock star, Jack immediately sets Tenacious D on a quest to steal the Pick of Destiny from a rock history museum. Along the way, the band briefly splits up when, invited by some coeds to perform at a party, Kyle decides that sex comes first in "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll", while Jack wants to stick to the mission at hand. The duo is reunited after Kyle's solo performance at the party ends up in failure and Jack has a mushroom-induced hallucinogen experience in which he encounters the Sasquatch and cavorts with him through the forest (actually risking his life several times).

The two manage to steal the Pick of Destiny due to incompetent (as they are high on marijuana) security at the rock museum. Armed with this supernatural pick, they plan to use the winnings from a local bar's talent contest to pay their rent, but before they can go on stage, greed overcomes them, and they fight over the pick, accidentally snapping it in half. After a pep-talk from the bar's owner, they decide they are good enough to go onto the contest without the pick, not knowing that the owner is Satan in human form, looking for his missing tooth piece. Coming back outside (deciding they can both use half of the pick), they are confronted by Satan, who is "made whole" when he places the Pick of Destiny back on his broken tooth, giving him the ability to use his supernatural powers on Earth. He threatens to take Tenacious D back to Hell.

To save their lives, Tenacious D challenge Satan to a "rock-off", which he is forced to accept according to the "Demon Code." The terms of the challenge are that if Tenacious D wins, Satan must return to hell and pay their rent, while if Satan wins, he gets to take Kyle back with him. Ultimately, they lose (Kyle sings, "That was a masterpiece! / He rocks too hard because he's not a mortal man."), and Satan attempts to shoot Kyle with a bolt of energy. Jack jumps in the way, and the bolt bounces off his guitar, blowing off a piece of Satan's horn. Jack is able to exploit Satan's "incompleteness" in order to banish him with a magical incantation.

The two turn Satan's horn into the "Bong of Destiny" and the movie closes with the two smoking from it as they write new songs.

Cast

* Jack Black as himself: lead vocals and rhythm guitar of Tenacious D.
* Kyle Gass as himself: lead guitar of Tenacious D.
* Jason Reed as Lee: Tenacious D's biggest fan.
* Ronnie James Dio as himself: heavy metal singer and JB's hero.
* Dave Grohl as Beelzeboss: the band's nemesis in the final scene
* Meat Loaf as Jack Blacks father
* Ben Stiller as Guitar Center Guy: Educates KG and JB on the history of the Pick of Destiny.
* Paul F. Tompkins as Open Mic Host.
* Tim Robbins as The Stranger: A mysterious stranger who tries to steal the Pick of Destiny.
* Meat Loaf as JB's father.ohn C. R
* John C. Reilly as Sasquatch

Various actors have cameos, including Amy Poehler, Colin Hanks, Amy Adams and Fred Armisen.

Reception

The film received lukewarm reviews. The average was 52% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, [cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tenacious_d_in_the_pick_of_destiny/|title="Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" at Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Rotten Tomatoes|accessdate=2008-07-01] and earned a score of 55 from Metacritic. [cite web|url=http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/tenaciousdinthepickofdestiny|title="Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" at MetaCritic|publisher=Metacritic|accessdate=2008-07-01] After the film's premiere, the duo appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Both expressed happiness over the film's good critical response, and claimed they were "shooting for cult film status".

Kevin Crust of the "Los Angeles Times" said " [The movie] might best be enjoyed in an enhanced state of consciousness, a herbal supplement, and we aren't talking ginko biloba."cite news | first=Kevin | last=Crust | coauthors= | title='Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny' | date=2006-11-22 | publisher= | url =http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-et-tenacious22nov22,0,5923936.story | work =Los Angeles Times | pages = | accessdate = 2007-01-27 | language = ] Stephen Rae of "The Philadelphia Inquirer" said that the frequent drug-use in the film gives "the term "potty humor" a new meaning."cite news | first=Steven | last=Rea | coauthors= | title= 'Tenacious D': Lots of hits (wink, wink), and misses, too | date=2006-11-22 | publisher= | url =http://ae.philly.com/entertainment/ui/philly/movie.html?id=757335&reviewId=21859 | work =The Philadelphia Inquirer | pages = | accessdate = 2007-01-27 | language = ]

Michael Phillips criticized the frequency of the drug-use by saying: "This may be the problem. Pot rarely helped anybody's comic timing."cite news | first=Michael | last=Phillips | coauthors= | title=So-so story of a superband | date=2006-11-24 | publisher= | url =http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0611240283nov24,1,1518523.story?coll=chi-entertainment-utl&ctrack=1&cset=true | work =Chicago Tribune | pages = | accessdate = 2007-01-27 | language = ] Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" suggested that the film could be viewed as a "jolly rock 'n' roll comedy", but he also described the progression of the film as being a "garish mess."cite news | first=Stephen | last=Holden | coauthors= | title=Movie Guide and Film Series | date=2006-12-08 | publisher= | url =http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/08/movies/08movie.html?ei=5088&en=b33ee352343d3441&ex=1323234000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print | work =New York Times | pages = | accessdate = 2007-01-27 | language = ]

Box Office

The film performed poorly at the box office, only grossing a total of $8.2 million in the United States. It debuted with a mere $3 million during its opening weekend at number eleven. With a budget of $20,000,000 the film is considered a financial failure because it was not able to gross half the cost of production. In the fifth week after its release, the movie only earned $50,000 and virtually vanished from theaters. DVD sales outnumbered the box office receipts, totaling over $9 million. Prior to filming, Black and Gass each received $500.000 and were to share 10% of the total revenue of the film. This means that each of them earned about $865,000 from the project. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tenacious_d_in_the_pick_of_destiny/numbers.php Rotten Tomatoes: Box Office Summary] ] This movie is rated R for pervasive language, sexual content, and drug usage.

Music

The soundtrack, the band's second album, includes vocals by Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf. Dave Grohl plays drums on the album, as he did on their first album, "Tenacious D" (2001). Grohl also contributes his vocals on "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)".

The score by Andrew Gross, John King and Trainwreck, "More Rocktastic Music from the Film", was released in limited quantities to Wal-Mart stores.

References

External links

* [http://www.tenaciousdmovie.com/ Official film website]
*
* [http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000721156 "Billboard" - Tenacious D's 'Destiny' In Sight]
* [http://star-talk-live-interview-archive.blogspot.com/2006/11/interview-jack-black-and-kyle-glass.html Interview: Jack Black and Kyle Glass "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny"]
*rotten-tomatoes|id=tenacious_d_in_the_pick_of_destiny|title=Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny