Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

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Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
Directed by	Liam Lynch
Produced by	Stuart Cornfield Ben Stiller
Written by	Jack Black Kyle Gass Liam Lynch Bob Odenkirk
Starring	Jack Black Kyle Gass Meat Loaf Dave Grohl Ronnie James Dio
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	November 22, 2006
Language	English
IMDb profile

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is a movie starring Tenacious D, a comedic band that features Jack Black and Kyle Gass. It is directed by musician and puppeteer Liam Lynch. The film was released on November 22, 2006.

It also stars Jason Reed reprising his role as Lee, Kirk Ward as a police officer from the TV show Tenacious D, and Ben Stiller (also one of the film's producers) as "Guitar Store Dude". The film also features Dave Grohl as the Devil, Ronnie James Dio as himself, rock legend Meat Loaf as Jack Black's father, Colin Hanks, Tim Robbins, SNL cast members Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen, and comedians Paul F. Tompkins, and Neil Hamburger. John C. Reilly also appears, in an uncredited role, as Sasquatch.

[edit] Plot

As a young man, Jack Black is the black sheep of his religious family in the fictional town of Kickapoo, Missouri. After his father (Meat Loaf) punishes him for his taste in rock music, Black runs away to Venice Beach, California where he meets Kyle Gass. Gass informs Black that he is already an experienced guitarist, but he eventually agrees to teach Black to play.

However, Gass is not actually an accomplished musician. It is revealed because his mother will no longer pay his rent, Black and Gass are forced to move out. After a brief argument, Black and Gass finally agree to form a band together, in order to gain fame and rent money. Black suggests the name "Tenac" in reference to a birthmark on his buttocks that forms the word. Gass reveals a similar birthmark on the opposite buttock that reads "ious D".

While Black and Gass stand next to each other, Lee (Jason Reed) sees that the birthmarks together form "Tenacious D", which Black and Gass name their band. During the process of studying successful rock musicians, Gass notices that many of those bands have used the same guitar pick. They learn that it is called the "Pick of Destiny", a pick forged from the tooth of the Devil, and they set out to find it.

The pick is hidden in a rock 'n' roll museum in Sacramento, and the two break in and manage to get away with the pick. On the way home, Gass is pulled over for a minor traffic violation, but he drives off, causing a high-speed police pursuit. After a lengthy car chase with the police, Black and Gass escape into a sewer as the car they had been driving explodes. Black and Gass still in possession of the Pick they find an open mic night show to earn the cash prize to pay their rent.

With the Pick of Destiny, they are guaranteed to play well; but while fighting over it outside the show, they break the pick. The open mic host (Paul F. Tompkins) convinces them that they don't need the pick to be great, but he then picks up the two parts of the pick and turns into the Devil (played by Dave Grohl), reprising his role from the Tribute video).

The band challenges the Devil to a "rock-off". They agree that if Black and and Gass win the battle, the Devil must "take [his] sorry ass back to Hell" on top of paying their rent. However, if the Devil is the victor, he may "take Gass back to Hell [...] to be [his] little bitch."

Despite great effort from both sides, the Devil insists that he won and shoots lightning at Gass. Black jumps in front of the lightning; it rebounds off of his guitar and hits the Devil in the horn, breaking it off. Remembering the method by which the Devil was originally defeated, Black takes the horn and banishes the Devil again, causing him to be sent back to Hell. Later, back at the apartment, Black and Gass turn the Devil's severed horn into a bong (called The Bong of Destiny).

[edit] Names

It is likely that the main characters of the film are actually named Jack Black and Kyle Gass. However, they are seldom referred to by these names in the film. Rather, Black's character is usually called "JB" or "Jables", while Gass' character is referred to as "KG" or "Kage". The characters' names appear in the credits as "JB" and "KG", as well.

However, the character of Black's father (Meat Loaf) is shown to be "Bud Black", indicating that Black's full name is probably the same as the actor's. The name of Gass' band at the beginning of the movie is "The Kyle Gass Project" and while singing Classico on Venice Beach there is the line "And you know his name is Kyle Gass". Both of these also indicate that he shares his name with his real-life counterpart.

[edit] Box office

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The film opened to poor box office results. The film was released on November 22, 2006 and earned $8,334,575 domestically. The film has also earned $3,957,7655 in the United Kingdom, giving it a worldwide total of $12,292,340. It will also be released in Argentina, Australia, Austria and Germany in February 2007. It opened in 11th place for both the standard three day weekend as well as the five day Thanksgiving weekend, followed by a 15th place performance the following week. The poor opening may be attributed to the fact that it coincided with showings of the eagerly awaited movies Casino Royale and Borat.

[edit] Critical response

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, claimed to be the true story of how Gass and Black met, had mixed reviews by the critics.

Kevin Crust, 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."^[1]

Stephen Rae, The Philadelphia Inquirer said that the frequent drug-use in the film gives "the term potty humor a new meaning."^[2]

Michael Phillips criticized the frequency of the drug-use by saying: "This may be the problem. Pot rarely helped anybody's comic timing." ^[3]

Stephen Holden in the New York Times suggests that the film could be viewed as a "jolly rock 'n' roll comedy." He describes the progression of the film as being a "garish mess."^[4]

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: The Pick of Destiny

The soundtrack, which doubled as the band's second album, includes vocals by Ronnie James Dio and Meat Loaf. Dave Grohl also returns to provide drums on the album, as he did on their first album, Tenacious D (2001). Grohl also contributes his singing talent on the track "Beelzeboss" on the new record.

[edit] References to other Tenacious D work

The following Tenacious D songs and comedy bits, while not appearing in the movie, are referenced:

• Dio
• Rock Your Socks
• Cock Push Ups
• Lee
• Double Team
• Sasquatch
• Two Kings
• Fuck Her Gently
• Tribute
• Rocket Sauce
• Jesus Ranch

[edit] Trivia

• The guitar used by the Devil is a recreation of the famous "Dean from hell" guitar used by Dimebag Darrell, by Washburn
• When Master Exploder is played it had been pre-recorded so the use of two guitars not possible to play were used (Legs, 3 Necked Axe).
• Production on the movie was delayed by nearly a year due to Jack Black being cast in Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong
• Before entering the bar for open mic the first time, the music played is the same that is played at the beginning of every HBO episode (except the "Greatest Song in the World" episode), but with an electric guitar.
• Colin Hanks has a cameo in the film as a drunken frat-boy. This is probably due to his friendship with Orange County and King Kong co-star Jack Black.
• Throughout the majority of the movie, KG wears a shirt that says "Trainwreck", a band that he (as well as Jason Reed) perform in when Tenacious D is on hiatus, usually due to Jack Black's unavailability because of his busy film career.
• On the back of Tenacious D's DVD The Complete Masterworks, there is a picture of a green guitar pick in a case labeled "The Pick", which is in fact the said "Pick of Destiny".
• According to Variety, an advance screening was held in late December 2005, but audience reaction was poor. The ending — a tribute to The Blues Brothers — was "misunderstood" by the audience members who disliked it, and was re-filmed.
• Jack Black's attackers in the park are direct references to the gang from A Clockwork Orange.
• Despite being an accomplished actor/singer, this is only the second film in which Meatloaf has sung, the first being the cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
• Andrew Gross, a classmate of Jack Black, penned the orchestral score for the film.^[5]
• According to an interview with Jack Black, the Pick of Destiny is currently held by Silverchair.^[6]
• Originally before editing the scene at the "Halfway House" was exactly the halfway point in the movie.
• Jack Black's production company "Electric Dynamite", responsible for producing the VH1 show "Acceptable.TV" was named after a line in the movie.
• A scene staring Dave "Gruber" Allen was removed from the final cut of the movie. This scene explained how Kage and Jables obtained the walkie-talkie shown during the break-in and features a song that was ultimately included in the soundtrack. The scene can be seen(along with several different takes of Allen's lines) on the DVD.

[edit] Mistakes

• Near the beginning of the film, a map of the USA scrolls by with an animated line showing young JB's travels. The only city in South Carolina with a label is Charlotte. There is no Charlotte, South Carolina, it is in North Carolina. It is marked about where Greenville, South Carolina should be. Charlotte, North Carolina is labeled properly right above this, making it appear as if the label was simply copied to make the map seem less empty. This goes by rather fast, most likely requiring the movie to be paused or slowed to catch.

[edit] References

[edit] External links