The School of Rock

School of Rock is about a wannabe rocker (Jack Black) who spends a few weeks with a bunch of kids at Horace Green Prep. He discovers that they are hugely talented musically, and recruits them to compete in Battle of the Bands, all in the name of getting back at his old band that kicked him out.

Much of the comedy stems from Black’s face, or rather, his very malleable face (Rowan Atkinson, look out). The eyebrow-powered Mexican wave is particularly impressive. I giggled and made faces throughout the viewing.

This is not a smart movie. It is not a movie that makes you screw up your face and wonder what the hell that was all about. It’s a good kids movie with only a little bit of swearing. Nothing worse than what kids use these days, anyway.

And more importantly, it was a far better movie than either Formula 51 or Snowboarder. Neil claims he selected this movie in his mind several weeks ago but never picked it out, so he should claim it and thus break his streak of poor film choices. I disagree: I physically picked it out and said I wanted to get it. It was my choice. Neil continues as King Picker (Plucker? Fisher?) of Bad Films.

• 17 Jun 2004