After being kicked out of a rock band, Dewey Finn becomes a substitute teacher of a strict elementary private school, only to try and turn it into a rock band.
To become the greatest band of all time, two slacker, wannabe-rockers set out on a quest to steal a legendary guitar pick that gives its holders incredible guitar skills, from a maximum security Rock and Roll museum.
After Homer accidentally pollutes the town's water supply, Springfield is encased in a gigantic dome by the EPA and the Simpson family are declared fugitives.
Director:
David Silverman
Stars:
Dan Castellaneta,
Julie Kavner,
Nancy Cartwright
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
A group of misfits enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament in order to save their cherished local gym from the onslaught of a corporate health fitness chain.
Director:
Rawson Marshall Thurber
Stars:
Ben Stiller,
Christine Taylor,
Vince Vaughn
In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to the mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with leading lady Ann Darrow.
In small-town Texas, an affable mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow, though when she starts to become controlling, he goes to great lengths to separate himself from her grasp.
Director:
Richard Linklater
Stars:
Jack Black,
Shirley MacLaine,
Matthew McConaughey
Ron Burgundy is San Diego's top-rated newsman in the male-dominated broadcasting of the 1970s, but that's all about to change for Ron and his cronies when an ambitious woman is hired as a new anchor.
Director:
Adam McKay
Stars:
Will Ferrell,
Christina Applegate,
Steve Carell
Dr. Evil is back and has invented a new time machine that allows him to go back to the 1960s and steal Austin Powers' mojo, inadvertently leaving him "shagless".
After being kicked out of a rock band, Dewey Finn who poses as a substitute teacher named Mr. Schneebly teaches kids in a private elementary school how to play and learn rock and roll music! The kids in school finally figure out that Mr Schneebly is a fraud and nearly gets arrested! Dewey Finn forms his own rock band with the kids and competes in the battle of the bands!Written by
Steve Shedloski
A DVD bonus feature reveals that the movie was originally going to be a musical. See more »
Goofs
In the beginning of the movie when Jack writes "Mr. S" on the board, it is slightly scratchy and pointed, a few shots later, "Mr. S" is written on the board in more legible, rounded handwriting. See more »
Quotes
Dewey Finn:
Look, the first thing you do when you start a band is talk about your influences. That's how you figure out what kind of band you want to be. So who do you like? Blondie?
Marta:
Christina Aguilera.
Dewey Finn:
Who? No. Come on. What? You, Shortstop.
Leonard:
Puff Daddy.
Dewey Finn:
Wrong. Billy?
Billy:
Liza Minnelli?
See more »
Crazy Credits
The "School Of Rock" band jams throughout the closing credits. See more »
After distinguishing himself in any number of memorable supporting roles, Jack Black finally comes into his own in "The School of Rock," a sporadically funny comedy that is part "Sister Act" and part genial spoof of all those movies about a "super teacher" who brings meaning and purpose to the lives of his students.
Black plays Dewey Finn, an aging rock'n'roller who is still awaiting that moment when he will "make it big" in the music world. He lives with Ned Schneebly, his longtime rocker buddy, who has traded in his dreams of musical glory for a nagging girlfriend and a job as a substitute teacher. Desperate for money to pay the rent, Dewey pretends to be Schneebly and takes a job as a sub at a snooty, tradition-bound prep school, where the last thing the administration and the parents would want is a Jimmy Hendricks knockoff teaching their kids. And since Dewey really only knows one thing, this uncredentialed professorial imposter decides to make rock'n'roll the sole focus of his curriculum, turning these inward, shy, nerdish kids into a viable rock band - all under the radar screen of the ever-watchful administrators and parents of course.
Although the storyline wends its way along a predictable path, writer Mike White and director Richard Linklater find a great deal of warmth and humor in the material. Dewey's utter obsession with rock music and rock history is reflected in the fact that he leads the band members in a prayer to the "god of rock" before a concert, and screams in frustration - "What have they been teaching you kids at this school?" - when he finds out his pupils have never been educated in the basics of Hendricks, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Dewey is so preposterously well-meaning and good-natured that the audience can't help but root for him and his students as they embark on their mad quest to appear at a local battle of the bands competition, unbeknownst to the powers-that-be at the school.
The children playing the students are all winning and charming, and Joan Cusack cuts a sympathetic figure as the uptight school principal who harbors a little bit of Stevie Nicks under her prim and proper exterior. But it is Black who makes this film his own, turning what might have been a buffoonish caricature into a fully-rounded human being. Black is not afraid to cut loose and take over the screen when necessary, hitting heights of unbridled mania to rival the master, Jim Carrey. Yet, he also realizes that he is part of an ensemble effort here and understands the importance of integrating himself into the material and not always dominating it. As a result, even when certain elements of the film fall flat, as they frequently do, Black is always there to prop the movie back up.
"The School of Rock" is an entertaining little comedy, but unlike a real satire which would skewer the conventions of the genre it is attacking, this film loses its nerve and winds up endorsing those conventions. Dewey, for all his talk about defying "The Man," is really a rebel in name only, and the film reflects the kind of feel-good populism that no true hard line iconoclast would be caught dead supporting. I guess it's too much to expect a mainstream Hollywood comedy to launch a truly savage assault on mainstream values (in the way rock, at its best, often does). Still, it might be nice to come across the unexpected sometime (after all, movies like "Dr. Strangelove" and "MASH" were able to do it).
Until then, we'll settle for what we can get. And Jack Black is good enough for now.
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After distinguishing himself in any number of memorable supporting roles, Jack Black finally comes into his own in "The School of Rock," a sporadically funny comedy that is part "Sister Act" and part genial spoof of all those movies about a "super teacher" who brings meaning and purpose to the lives of his students.
Black plays Dewey Finn, an aging rock'n'roller who is still awaiting that moment when he will "make it big" in the music world. He lives with Ned Schneebly, his longtime rocker buddy, who has traded in his dreams of musical glory for a nagging girlfriend and a job as a substitute teacher. Desperate for money to pay the rent, Dewey pretends to be Schneebly and takes a job as a sub at a snooty, tradition-bound prep school, where the last thing the administration and the parents would want is a Jimmy Hendricks knockoff teaching their kids. And since Dewey really only knows one thing, this uncredentialed professorial imposter decides to make rock'n'roll the sole focus of his curriculum, turning these inward, shy, nerdish kids into a viable rock band - all under the radar screen of the ever-watchful administrators and parents of course.
Although the storyline wends its way along a predictable path, writer Mike White and director Richard Linklater find a great deal of warmth and humor in the material. Dewey's utter obsession with rock music and rock history is reflected in the fact that he leads the band members in a prayer to the "god of rock" before a concert, and screams in frustration - "What have they been teaching you kids at this school?" - when he finds out his pupils have never been educated in the basics of Hendricks, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Dewey is so preposterously well-meaning and good-natured that the audience can't help but root for him and his students as they embark on their mad quest to appear at a local battle of the bands competition, unbeknownst to the powers-that-be at the school.
The children playing the students are all winning and charming, and Joan Cusack cuts a sympathetic figure as the uptight school principal who harbors a little bit of Stevie Nicks under her prim and proper exterior. But it is Black who makes this film his own, turning what might have been a buffoonish caricature into a fully-rounded human being. Black is not afraid to cut loose and take over the screen when necessary, hitting heights of unbridled mania to rival the master, Jim Carrey. Yet, he also realizes that he is part of an ensemble effort here and understands the importance of integrating himself into the material and not always dominating it. As a result, even when certain elements of the film fall flat, as they frequently do, Black is always there to prop the movie back up.
"The School of Rock" is an entertaining little comedy, but unlike a real satire which would skewer the conventions of the genre it is attacking, this film loses its nerve and winds up endorsing those conventions. Dewey, for all his talk about defying "The Man," is really a rebel in name only, and the film reflects the kind of feel-good populism that no true hard line iconoclast would be caught dead supporting. I guess it's too much to expect a mainstream Hollywood comedy to launch a truly savage assault on mainstream values (in the way rock, at its best, often does). Still, it might be nice to come across the unexpected sometime (after all, movies like "Dr. Strangelove" and "MASH" were able to do it).
Until then, we'll settle for what we can get. And Jack Black is good enough for now.