Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny turned out to be one of the best comedies of 2006, but there was hardly a buzz about it. It's chock-full of Jack Black's signature swearing (I wish I could say the f-word like he does), and appearances from Amy Poehler, Tim Robbins, Fred Armisen, plus John C. Reilly as Sasquatch in a mushroom tripping sequence!
A review I wrote is copied below...
How Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny was overlooked by the Academy last year isn’t clear. It’s “The Greatest Motion Picture of All Time”—it’s in the movie’s tagline. If it is not the #1 film of 2006 (very painful to admit), or even the second best, it ought to be awarded at least a cool third place finish. Tenacious D takes the Musical genre to a new level, snaking together the raucous mindset of metal music and the raw comedy of Jack Black, revving us up to live vicariously through their rock fantasy.
Jack Black and fellow Tenacious D band member (the movie is based on their actual band) Kyle Gass are themselves living a rock fantasy in the film. In real life, their songs are more funny than head-rocking (though they are awesome musical talents), and the same is true in the film—but not according to their on-screen personas, JB (Jack Black) and KG (Kyle Gass). Think of it as a mock-Rockumentary, with a lot of mullets (Ben Stiller), beat up waitresses (Amy Poehler), and homeless murderer types with one leg and a Russian accent (Tim Robbins).
Little JB (Troy Gentile—an uncanny Jack Black look-alike) leaves home in Kickapoo, MO where his outraged old dad (played by Meat Loaf—in his first onscreen singing appearance since 1975’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show) forbids him from playing heavy metal, which propels JB out into the cold world—but not before an exhorting speech from the talking poster of former Black Sabbath front man, James Dio, a.k.a. the Devil of rock himself.
Once in Hollywood JB meets soul mate, KG whose $200.00 “royalty checks” roll in under the guise of stipend check from his mom. “At the break of noon” they begin training for rock superstardom. Practicing “power slides,” (a maneuver where epic rockers glide across the stage on their knees, guitar at full-throttle) and playing video games—it’s the mundane stoner life, and probably the real back-story for most rockers; the dream life-against-the-man demythicized.
Their first jam “Master Exploder,” brings new meaning to the phrase “blow your mind,” as Black and Gass are supra versions of themselves in Tenacious D: louder, rock-ier, and in their greatest test of strength of all, able to do more “cock push-ups.” (Strangely, that’s never more than one—you do the math.)
They're on a mission: to get the “Pick of Destiny,” a guitar pick made from a chipped tooth of Satan. It is your destiny to see how they will defeat Satan in a rock-off and go through groovy mushroom trip with Sasquatch (John C. Reilly) to do it.
The Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny DVD extras, to put it aptly, rock. Listening to them, one might wet them self with laughter, rather than be lulled to sleep by tepid interviews with actors who praise the director—which is common practice on DVD extras these days. Instead, director Liam Lynch addresses us directly, unabashedly: “we have the most kick-ass deleted scenes ever,” he says, “I only got through making this movie knowing I could show you this stuff on the DVD . . . the precious golden nuggets, the deleted scenes.”
Tenacious D has a deleted scenes selection so well crafted as to be another movie in itself. In fact, a number of the scenes star single instances of comedians like David Koechner (of The Naked Trucker and T-Bones series on Comedy Central), who would have otherwise been left on the cutting room floor. A car chase sequence mimics KG’s video game, with point value graphics over pedestrians’ heads and a blippy analogue computer soundtrack; this had to be cut from the final film too.
The extras, which include a mess of outtakes, a “making of” feature for the film and music video; an “In The Studio” session with Black and Gass laying down tracks and being jackasses; plus a segment of trailers, have not even hit their pinnacle until the Feature Commentaries begin: one with director Liam Lynch, another with Jack Black and Kyle Gass. The latter version serving as a veritable improv act with Black, who says the f-word with such fluidity, such style, as to be an inspiration; the f-word is a revelation. Swearing never sounded so good.
Don’t forget to look at the credits, because there's a long list of names in comedy contributed to Tenacious D. Black and Gass had high ambitions: “We wanted to make the Citizen Kane of Comedy,” they say, “Citizen D, if you will.”
Tenacious D joins the likes of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Dodgeball, and TV show 30 Rock as a way to showcase all of comedy's best. It’s like a club of comedians riffing off one other for two hours; they mock stereotypes and pop culture—which of course includes themselves: the chubby middle-aged rockers they know they could never be, but awesomely and un-self-consciously pursue anyway.
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