School of Rock

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Well, I got to see this on Sunday, and had a bloody good time.

I've now just made the mistake of reading the Guardian review:

The movie is loud and only intermittently funny, with its best joke coming in the final credits when in the list of musical acknowledgements T.S. Eliot (as author of 'Memory') appears between David Bowie and Joe Strummer.

― Jez (Jez), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 12:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

I liked it too. Very entertaining. I knew a guy in Philadelphia who had an actual school of rock called the Paul Green School of Rock and i noticed that since the movie he now calls it the "original" school of rock. And i thought it was weird how in the movie the school was named Green. I wonder if he sued them. I knew some of the kids that went to it and they were cool and dorky just like the kids in the movie. They got written up in Spin a couple years ago by James Iha. They play shows around philly where they will do a set program, like, "punk", "70's rock", "zappa". stuff like that.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 12:11 (9 years ago) Permalink

Bit rubbish actually, Jack Black simply cannot hold the movie togeather. In the end iti s the kids who are forced to carry the piece, and the writing is (thankfully) so fucussed on avoiding cuteness and schmaltz that their scope is limited. Black himself has to be 100% 'on' all the time. Since his manicness is neither as funny or as versatile as, for example Carrey or the late great Farley this becomes tiresome and monocrome. The sidelines about the principal (excelently played by Joan Cussack) and the room mate's relationship lack narrative significance, and ultimmately go unconcluded. Fucking weak dudes.

― lukey (Lukey G), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 12:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

But it's the first out-of-your-seat cheerer since the original "Rocky" where the underdogs don't win at the end!

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 14:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

Jack Black + little kids + rock n roll x Richard Linklater = a Milla Jovovich away from film perfection.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

I thought the film was great fun. My main reason for posting is the twattish Guardian review.

― Jez (Jez), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:44 (9 years ago) Permalink

Still haven't seen it, alas. A friend of mine swore that "The Wait" by Killing Joke gets a brief airing, which I find rather unlikely. True?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

it's the metallica version i think. i was actually in the bathroom when that was playing so i might be wrong.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:51 (9 years ago) Permalink

That sounds a wee bit more plausible.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:53 (9 years ago) Permalink

There are loads of video cameos during the 'history' lesson - it may be there.

― Jez (Jez), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

no, i'm almost certain that it was the metallica version. cuz i remember thinking in the bathroom that i needed those garage days songs again but that i didn't want to buy that bloated metallica covers cd and then i felt like an idiot cuz i sold my copy years ago for much less than it was worth, not knowing that it was going for like a hundred bucks on ebay at the time.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

and they only played the very beginning and then the end. it was edited together.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

Well, considering the crap films the Joke have leant their music to ("Weird Science", "Showgirls" and...er.."Mortal Kombat"), this would've been a step up.

"Weird Science" isn't that bad, I guess.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:57 (9 years ago) Permalink

what song was in Showgirls!?

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:01 (9 years ago) Permalink

"Hollywood Babylon"...avialable nowhere else but on the soundtrack of the film.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:02 (9 years ago) Permalink

weird.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:04 (9 years ago) Permalink

and you probably felt really weird buying the soundtrack. not that i remember what was on it. suitable stripper music i suppose.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

Not really. There were some other fine `choons on it, actually....including tracks by Prick, Possum Dixon, Toni Halliday's post-Curve band (forget the name) and...er...a "disco" tune by No Doubt.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

It's just that it seemed rather incongruous a place for a Killing Joke tune, no?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

A desperate film, what a silly premise. "LETS TEACH YOUNG KIDS HOW TO, LIKE "ROCK" BEFORE MTV SUCKS THEM IN, IMAGINE 7 YEAR OLDS DIGGING ZEPPELIN, AND HEY THE GIRLS CAN BE GROUPIES"

I'm amazed how few people I know thought it was lame.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

It's a smile. The soundtrack is way cooler than the songs played by Jack in the film, however.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

Ronan, you rock-hater!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:14 (9 years ago) Permalink

Quote from Ronan: A desperate film, what a silly premise. "LETS TEACH YOUNG KIDS HOW TO, LIKE "ROCK" BEFORE MTV SUCKS THEM IN, IMAGINE 7 YEAR OLDS DIGGING ZEPPELIN, AND HEY THE GIRLS CAN BE GROUPIES"

You really didn't get it, did you? I'm sure you thought the Behind The music "cowbell" Skit on SNL was a total failure, too. Don't worry, I kid because I love. Or, err, wait... you do understand the whole "we kid because we love" form of adulation riduculosity, right? No? Yes? No? Yes?

― musto, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

This can't be the Michael Musto, can it?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:23 (9 years ago) Permalink

!!!!!

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

I have no idea what SNL is.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

Where's the movie where M. Musto teaches the kids how to be fabulous and stay up really late drinking martinis with the beautiful people. I'd pay to see that!

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

heh heh.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

If I get you right then I'm not sure you get me right, it's the whole "i kid because i love" part that I found so stupid.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:28 (9 years ago) Permalink

wtf Ronan! It's a comedy!

But it's the first out-of-your-seat cheerer since the original "Rocky" where the underdogs don't win at the end!

'Bring it On' excepted, of course.

― Strachey, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

The film capitalizes on a winning Hollywood formula:
Jack Black plus a Cusack= mirth and merriment.

― avery schreiber, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

(I haven't seen it for fear I will react exactly like Ronan.)

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:35 (9 years ago) Permalink

It's a cute little movie, nothing special though.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

I have no idea what SNL is.

(psst, Saturday Night Live)

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 16:54 (9 years ago) Permalink

It's so NOT a comedy, there are few jokes so much as the whole vague coolness of TEACHING THOSE DAMN KIDS TO ROCK.

It is a "comedy" about adults teaching kids what things were like WHEN THEY WERE GROWING UP.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think you paid too much attention to that part and not enough to Jack Black making an ass of himself in front of smart-ass kids.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

I wonder what the difference in the ratio of people who didn't like this film vs. people who did looks like in relation to viewers who are parents vs. viewers who aren't?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:18 (9 years ago) Permalink

D'oh.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:18 (9 years ago) Permalink

"It is a "comedy" about adults teaching kids what things were like WHEN THEY WERE GROWING UP."

-listen to this man, people, he speaks the truth. It is reactionary and lame. And Black lacks the common decency to stay out of the frame at the final rockout where you might expect the kids to finally take centre stage for themselves.

― Conor (Conor), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:20 (9 years ago) Permalink

Yeah I mean all my analysis is probably made irrelevent by the fact that Black just isn't funny. I don't think it's possible to like School of Rock without having some vague "ah the kids nowadays tut tut" thing going on in your head.

Alot of it actually isn't your standard idea of what constitutes a joke, in fact a great deal of it is just really basic rockist polemic, shoehorned into a classroom situation to make it seem as if this is something teachable or logical or that everyone should know, a given.

I mean I don't think I've ever seen a geekier film in my life, and I'd seldom use the word, but jesus! It was so lame!

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:25 (9 years ago) Permalink

(I'll stick to the darkness) If they ever make school of dance then we'll know the genre is really dead, when it becomes the stuff of family comedy slapstick, that's how long rock has been around, it should disgust people who like rock that this School of Rock is popular.

(furthermore if the actual band existed every rock fan I know who likes the film would think they were shit)

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

How about School of House starring John Simm?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

Or School of Singer-Songwriters with Jasper Carrott.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:33 (9 years ago) Permalink

I will never be able to shake the image of the demonic Jack Black doing immigrant song in that van. Nor would I want to.

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

I don't think it's possible to like School of Rock without having some vague "ah the kids nowadays tut tut" thing going on in your head.

I actually thought the reason this film worked was because the kids obviously had their shit together far far more than Dewey.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

The rockism really has so little to do with this film except as evidence of how much of a has-been the Dewey Finn character is.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:52 (9 years ago) Permalink

I actually thought the reason this film worked was because the kids obviously had their shit together far far more than Dewey.

I read this as "Downey" and my mind had trouble grasping the greatness of an impossibly coked up Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role rather than Jack Black..

― bill stevens (bscrubbins), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:10 (9 years ago) Permalink

God I hate Jack Black

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

I mean has anyone done as much damage to the music and comedy worlds simultaneously?

― Colin Beckett (Colin Beckett), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:17 (9 years ago) Permalink

"damage"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:19 (9 years ago) Permalink

Shockingly, no one has brought up the footage on the DVD with Jim O'Rourke acting as behind the scenes "music consultant," jamming with Jack Black, and teaching the kid actors cliche rock moves.

But now I have!

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 19:59 (9 years ago) Permalink

back to Paul Green. there was a story about this in the NYTimes late last year. he claims that the studio that produced School of Rock had approached him about a reality TV series based on his rock school. might have even been for VH1. a camera crew came down to Philly, shot a few cans of footage, then disappeared. no phone calls, no answers to Green's inquiries. no nothin'. then, within the year, School of Rock came out. the producers, Richard Linklater, and Mike White all say they'd never heard of Green's program, so it's really a he said/they said. from the article, it sounded like he intended to pursue legal action. but if it's really as cut-and-dried and a case of infringement as he makes it out to be, why haven't we heard more about this? School of Rock was a huge hit here. even if they'd settled with Green out of court, it should have warranted ink somewhere. anyone know how the story has played out?

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

Thats' wild. There is even a kid named Zev in the movie, and one of Paul Green's star pupils is named Zev.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:24 (9 years ago) Permalink

and the school at the end of the movie looks similar to Paul's set-up. (sorta)

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:30 (9 years ago) Permalink

dude they totally jacked that guys life!!

― Pablo Cruise (chaki), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 21:05 (9 years ago) Permalink

"I don't think it's possible to like School of Rock without having some vague "ah the kids nowadays tut tut" thing going on in your head."

Ronan, what do you mean? Do you think this film was *actually* an indictment of kids today not knowing their rock history??

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 22:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

This movie makes rock seem lovably lame -- it works much more against rockism than for it, in that it makes the point that kids today don't know their 70s rock gods, and goes out of its way to present rock as something whose prime is past and which can be taught in a school. I mean, that was like the main premise of the movie! And how is it not a comedy? Not enough dick jokes or something?

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 22:49 (9 years ago) Permalink

I Hate Yes.

― Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 00:46 (9 years ago) Permalink

Sweetest movie I've seen in ages. My only problems with it (aside from the gratuitousness of the "parents finding out" drama) was the lack of that girl getting a bass solo - everybody else got one! - and the removal of the bagpipe part from "It's A Long Way To The Top." I assumed that since this film is set in a prep school that they'd find a kid that played the instrument! Wouldn't it have made the movie funnier and the song more apropos?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 00:56 (9 years ago) Permalink

Clarke: yes.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 02:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

to all the above.

school of dance should have terry christian, shudder.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 15:09 (9 years ago) Permalink

I don't think it's possible to like School of Rock without having some vague "ah the kids nowadays tut tut" thing going on in your head.

And that would be TERRIBLE because it's so obviously NOT THE CASE!!! ILX science has proven that DESPITE the fact that the charts are full of shit things are JUST AS GOOD NOW so SHADDUPYA FACE GRANDAD.

― Strachey, Wednesday, 17 March 2004 16:45 (9 years ago) Permalink

Err...that's not quite true, actually.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 17:55 (9 years ago) Permalink

6 years pass...

― Death Cabron For Cutie (admrl), Sunday, 19 December 2010 22:04 (2 years ago) Permalink

'Bring it On' excepted, of course.

the East Compton Clovers DO win at the end

― Stay J0rdan Fresh (sic), Monday, 20 December 2010 01:00 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

As with Dazed and Confused, I stop on this every time I stumble over it on TV, and I like it more than I did when I came out. Jack Black should have absolutely been nominated for an Academy Award. Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that the "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" montage is one of the most moving two minutes of pop music in any film ever.

― clemenza, Sunday, 26 August 2012 05:42 (8 months ago) Permalink

Should always check YouTube first--I may have posted this in a Ramones thread once.

― clemenza, Sunday, 26 August 2012 05:45 (8 months ago) Permalink

― Chris S, Sunday, 26 August 2012 06:35 (8 months ago) Permalink

I like it more than I did when I came out.

I remember it well--it was a Tuesday. I came out, and my first thought was, "I was wrong, School of Rock is actually quite good."

― clemenza, Sunday, 26 August 2012 13:48 (8 months ago) Permalink

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