| Tenacious D and The Pick of Destiny | |
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Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Liam Lynch |
| Produced by | Jack Black Kyle Gass Stuart Cornfeld Ben Stiller (Executive) |
| Written by | Jack Black Kyle Gass Liam Lynch |
| Narrated by | Jack Black |
| Starring | Jack Black Kyle Gass |
| Music by | Soundtrack Tenacious D Score John King Andrew Gross |
| Cinematography | Robert Brinkmann |
| Editing by | David Rennie |
| Studio | Red Hour Films MACRON Filmproduktion GmbH |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | November 22, 2006 |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million[1] |
| Box office | $13,908,762[1] |
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny is a 2006 American comedy/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. All three of them are also listed as the writers of the film. The film was released on November 22, 2006. Although publicity for the film included the tagline "The Greatest Motion Picture of All Time", the film was a box-office bomb; since then, the film has garnered a cult following.
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As a kid, Jack Black (JB or "Jables") leaves his strictly religious family in Kickapoo, Missouri for Hollywood on a quest to form the world's most awesome rock band. After going through every other Hollywood in the United States, a fullgrown Jables meets acoustic guitarist Kyle Gass (KG or "Kage") who is performing on the street, and begins worshipping him as a rock god because of his skills and attitude. While KG at first spurns JB, tossing his pick at him, he pretends to save him from a Clockwork Orange-esque gang that beat him up that night and takes him back to his "pad" (house), where he pretends 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. JB eventually learns that KG is actually unemployed and bald, living off rent checks from his mother (which she announces are going to stop). However the two become equal when Kage reveals he used the last of his rent money to buy JB a brand-new guitar decorated with religious symbols. Vowing to help his new friend, JB and KG create their own band: Tenacious D, named for birthmarks found on their buttocks (Jack Black has a birthmark which says: "Tenac", and Kyle Gass has a mark which reads: "ious D").
Soon JB and KG learn the deepest secret of rock: all the rock legends used the same guitar pick: The Pick of Destiny. It was created by a dark wizard from a piece of Satan's tooth, as a gift to a blacksmith who saved the wizard's life from the great demon. The pick gives its holder "supranatural" abilities with stringed instruments ('supranatural' being "a whole level above super"). Infatuated by the prospect of becoming the next great rock star, JB 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, KG decides that sex comes first in "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll", while JB wants to stick to the mission at hand. The duo is reunited after KG's solo performance at the party ends up in failure (he starts singing "History", but KG only sings his own parts, while muting out JB's) and JB has a mushroom-induced hallucinogen experience in which he encounters Sasquatch and cavorts with him through the forest (actually risking his life several times) e.g. going for a dip in the strawberry river: going down the rapids of a river.
The two manage to steal the Pick of Destiny due to the incompetent security guards at the rock museum. Armed with this 'supranatural' 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 open mic night host, they decide they are good enough to go onto the contest without the pick, not knowing that the host is Satan in human form, looking for his missing tooth. Coming back outside (deciding they can both use half of the pick), they are confronted by Satan (Dave Grohl), who is "complete" when he places the Pick of Destiny back on his broken tooth, regaining the ability to use his supernatural powers on Earth and intending to take everyone to Hell starting with Tenacious D.
To save their lives, Tenacious D challenge Satan to a "rock-off", which he is forced to accept according to the "Demon Code," terms being that he returns to Hell and pays their rent if Tenacious D wins and takes KG as his gay sex slave if they lose. While JB and KG perform admirably, ultimately they lose and Satan attempts to shoot KG with a bolt of lightning. JB jumps in the way, and the bolt bounces off of the mother of pearl inlays in his guitar, blowing off a piece of Satan's horn. JB is able to exploit Satan's "incompleteness" in order to banish him back to Hell, with the devil screaming his vow of vengeance on Tenacious D while being sucked back into Hell. Though the two forgot how to play what may be "The Greatest Song in the World", the two turn Satan's horn into the "Bong of Destiny" and smoke from it as they write new songs. A post credits scene shows the duo sitting, trying to think of a song. Kage thinks he has one, but instead farts.
Various actors have cameos, including Amy Poehler, Colin Hanks, David Krumholtz, Amy Adams, Fred Armisen, Neil Hamburger, Jay Johnston, and Cynthia Ettinger. Jason Segel appears in deleted scenes.
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 $22,000,000 the film is considered a financial failure and it was not able to gross half the cost of production. In the fifth week after its release, the movie only earned $500,000 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.[2] This movie is rated R for pervasive language, sexual content, and drug usage.
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny was released by New Line Home Video on February 27, 2007 on DVD. Select stores sold the DVD with a replica Pick of Destiny prop for a limited time in a pack of five. The pick can now be bought separately.
Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny received mixed reviews from critics with a 54% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with several commentators impressed by the film's low-brow humor; the site's consensus states [that any] "Tenacious D fan will find this movie hilarious."[3] Michael Phillips criticized the frequency of the drug-use by saying: "This may be the problem. Pot rarely helped anybody's comic timing."[4] 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."
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)", as Satan.
The score by Andrew Gross, John King and Trainwreck, More Rocktastic Music from the Film, was released in limited quantities to Wal-Mart stores. They have made an original soundtrack from the movie also. The score was orchestrated by Richard Bronskill and Tony Blondal, and recorded with a large orchestra and choir at the Sony Scoring Stage, in Culver City, Ca
In the scene where Jack first attempts to record the duo, Kyle faintly begins to play "From The Beginning" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
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