The Good: Jack Black. enough said.

The Bad: middle school kids making you jealous of their musical talent

The Bottom Line: Combine these two things to create a feel-good, hilarious comedy

The name Jack Black brings up many words in ones head. Ridiculous, hilarious, crazy, very crazy, strange, very strange, ruthless. And after this film, well-respected. Although not oscar worthy, this film defines what a good movie should be: a invoking story line, hilarious one liners, great acting, and, obviously, a good soundtrack. This movie emits bolts of happiness into its viewer, which stick with you for quite some time after you turn the movie off.

This film is about a lazy bum named Dewey Finn, who has no job, no girlfriend, and no life after recently being kicked out of his band. Your typical “loser.” He mooches off of his roommate Ned Schneebly, and his controlling girlfriend Patty (played by Sarah Silverman- a great comedic edition to this movie). After taking the mooching to a new level, he steals his roommates identity to take a job teaching music at a nearby prep school. He becomes very close to his students and the rest of the faculty at the school, and creates a new life for himself. He turns his music class into his new band, and sends them on an adventure who’s ultimate goal is to win Battle of the Bands. Through many ups and downs, the viewer watches Dewey grow in many ways, and mature in more ways then the viewer could expect.

Although this plot sounds somewhat unrealistic, the director, Richard Linklater, has a way of making the story line seem very comfortable to the watcher and easy to relate to. Each of his characters hold very different personality traits polar opposite of each other, making them easy to relate to someone in the viewers own life. Everyone has that lazy friend, or the controlling girlfriend, or the bully pushing them around. By having a somewhat strange plot, the director compensates by his amazing characters, and great actors to play these characters. Jack Black, Sarah Silverman, Joan Cusack are a few of the well known actors in this film.

One of my favorite dynamics of the movie is the student-teacher relationships (or lack there of) in the film. Dewey does a great job of bonding with these great kids he got paired with, and his electric personality is magnetic. He is not a teacher to them, he is an inspiration and a friend. He treats them as people rather then his students, which somewhat works against him in the movie, but brings an interesting twist to the film. Without this in the movie, there would be a much more formal look to the film, and would take away from the comedy. Jack Black’s true personality comes out in the movie, which one could only imagine as a plus to the film.

The kids in the movie continue to impress me, even after my 13th time watching the film. They are musical prodigies, and incredible actors at the same time. I was skeptical about seeing the movie in the beginning because i wasn’t sure how Linklater could find such young kids that would be able to act and display musical talent, but found the best kids for the job.

The soundtrack to the movie is ideal. It incorporates many old rock legends (The Who, The Doors, Cream, Led Zeppelin) but like any good music-based movie, created music for the movie. Jack Black’s original band has a few songs in the movie, and also his band with the kids. The music is beautifully written and makes every viewer sing along.