Tenacious D In The Pick of Destiny

How much you will get out of Tenacious D: The Pick Of Destiny will largely depend on your mindset. If you are partial to a bit of rock (spelt r-ahhh-ck) and are not adverse to cock gags then it may well have you rolling about in the aisles, and while those of you who don’t will find it less funny, it is still not as bad as you might anticipate.

The plot initially involves Jack Black (who looks more like the strange offspring of Mickey Dolenz and early Keanu Reeves with every passing day) leaving behind his home and his bible-bashing dad (played to the hilt by a very slim-looking Meat Loaf) to go in search of his rock fortune in LA.

A chance meeting with uber slacker KG (Kyle Gass) on Venice Beach leads to an apprenticeship of rock, followed by a quest to find a legendary guitar plectrum (that’s pick, if you’re Stateside, folks) which will make its wielder the best rocker in the whole wide world.

Pick Of Destiny definitely owes more to Wayne’s World than This Is Spinal Tap and though it sets off at a gallop, it quickly loses steam and disintegrates into what is little more than a set of sketches strung along a plotline that is gossamer light.

There are Saturday Night Live-esque cameos by the likes of Black Sabbath’s Ronnie James Dio, Ben Stiller (also executive producer) and, unlikely as it may seem, Tim Robbins. Foo Fighter frontman David Grohl also pitches up as Satan – and possibly the best thing in the whole film.

As with many sketch shows, some parts work – JB’s faux eastern mystic training a la Kung Fu – while others – a very ill-advised magic mushroom sequence involving JB dressed as a Sasquatch – fall on their backsides so hard, you can hear the crunch.

There’s also too much reliance on the words ‘f**k’ and ‘cock’ which are bandied about as a ‘get out of having no punchline, free’ card. That said, the music is fun in a sub-sub-70s rock kind of way and the exuberance of KG and JB almost makes you forgive their short comings. The search is still on for the Pick Of Comedy, though fellas.