Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
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| Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Liam Lynch |
| Written by | Jack Black Kyle Gass Liam Lynch |
| Produced by | Jack Black Kyle Gass Stuart Cornfeld |
| Starring | Jack Black Kyle Gass |
| Cinematography | Robert Brinkmann |
| Edited by | David Rennie |
| Music by | Soundtrack Tenacious D Score John King Andrew Gross |
Production companies | Red Hour Film MACRON Filmproduktion |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
Release date | November 22, 2006 |
Running time | 93 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million[1] |
| Box office | $13.91 million[1] |
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (also known as Kings of Rock: Tenacious D in Germany)[2] is a 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. The film was released on November 22, 2006. Publicity for the film involved a tagline "The Greatest Motion Picture of All Time".[3]
Plot
As a young man, JB leaves his religious family and oppressive town (Kickapoo, Missouri) for Hollywood on a quest to form the world's most awesome rock band. There he meets acoustic guitarist KG who is performing on the street, and begins worshipping him as a rock god because of his skills and attitude. KG feeds JB'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 JB learns that KG is actually unemployed and that he is living off rent checks from his mother, the two become equal, and KG apologizes to JB by giving him a brand-new guitar. They create their own band: Tenacious D, named for birthmarks found on their butt cheeks (JB has a birthmark which says: "Tenac", and KG 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, which has "supranatural" powers; a whole other level above "super". 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, 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 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).
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 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 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 supranatural 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 KG back to hell to be his sex slave. While JB and KG perform admirably, ultimately they lose (KG sings, "That was a masterpiece! / He rocks too hard because he's not a mortal man."), and Satan attempts to shoot KG with a bolt of lightning. JB jumps in the way, and the bolt bounces off his guitar, blowing off a piece of Satan's horn. JB is able to exploit Satan's "incompleteness" in order to banish him with a magical incantation: "From whence you came, you shall remain, until you are complete again (pronounced a-gane)".
The two turn Satan's horn into the "Bong of Destiny" and the film closes with the two smoking from it as they write new songs.
Cast
- Jack Black as JB
- Kyle Gass as KG
- Jason Reed as Lee
- Ronnie James Dio as Dio
- Dave Grohl as Satan
- Meat Loaf as JB's Father
- Ben Stiller as Guitar Center Guy
- Paul F. Tompkins as Open Mic Host
- Tim Robbins as The Stranger
- John C. Reilly as Sasquatch
- Troy Gentile as Lil' JB
Various actors have cameos, including Amy Poehler, Colin Hanks, Amy Adams and Fred Armisen.
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."[5]
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.[6] 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. They have made an original soundtrack from the movie also.
See also
References
- ^ a b "Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny (2006)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
- ^ "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006) - Release dates". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
- ^ Smith, Ethan (2006-10-27). "Can Jack Go Back?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Phillips, Michael (2006-11-24). "So-so story of a superband". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Holden, Stephen (2006-12-08). "Movie Guide and Film Series". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Rotten Tomatoes: Box Office Summary