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Mmm, Tasty Crow
Dec. 3rd, 2006 11:22 amI believe that I owe Jack Black an apology.
I've always avoided his movies, figuring that he was just another practitioner of the lowbrow, slapstick/insult school of humor. I loved him in 'King Kong,' I'll admit, but I truly believed that was just the exception that proved the rule that the rest of his movies were crap. Friends had told me that 'School of Rock' was good, but I didn't believe them. I have fairly particular tastes when it comes to comedy, and I had absolutely no interest in watching it.
Last night, however, I had a heck of a lot of crafty-work to do, and nothing to watch. It's hiatus time for the few shows I follow, and I've watched just about all the shows we have on DVD. I'm not a TV junkie, but I do like having something to listen to while I'm crocheting, or stitching, or sorting through recipes. So my sweetie and I went to Hollywood Video, and the lack of anything else we could both agree on drove us to rent 'School of Rock.'
I hate to admit it, but it was pretty darn good. Funny, and cute, and the music was impressive, and the interaction between Mr. Black and the kids was wonderful to watch. It has all the appeal of a feel-good, underdog-powered high school movie, without quite as much of the moral sledgehammer. Plus, Joan Cusack is almost always marvelous.
I'm not quite about to reconsider my opinion of his other movies - I sincerely doubt there's anything that could ever convince me to watch 'Shallow Hal.' But I'll at least pay attention to movies he makes in the future.
Oh, and while I'm talking about movies, go see 'Happy Feet.' Today, if possible. It's not quite the feel-good hit of the year, but it's still amazing. It's cute, and clever, and there's enough of a story and a moral to make it slightly more socially relevant than your average animated-tap-dancing-social-misfit-penguin movie. And that's aside from the fact that watching Hugh Jackman as an animated penguin doing Elvis impersonations is worth the price of admission alone....
I've always avoided his movies, figuring that he was just another practitioner of the lowbrow, slapstick/insult school of humor. I loved him in 'King Kong,' I'll admit, but I truly believed that was just the exception that proved the rule that the rest of his movies were crap. Friends had told me that 'School of Rock' was good, but I didn't believe them. I have fairly particular tastes when it comes to comedy, and I had absolutely no interest in watching it.
Last night, however, I had a heck of a lot of crafty-work to do, and nothing to watch. It's hiatus time for the few shows I follow, and I've watched just about all the shows we have on DVD. I'm not a TV junkie, but I do like having something to listen to while I'm crocheting, or stitching, or sorting through recipes. So my sweetie and I went to Hollywood Video, and the lack of anything else we could both agree on drove us to rent 'School of Rock.'
I hate to admit it, but it was pretty darn good. Funny, and cute, and the music was impressive, and the interaction between Mr. Black and the kids was wonderful to watch. It has all the appeal of a feel-good, underdog-powered high school movie, without quite as much of the moral sledgehammer. Plus, Joan Cusack is almost always marvelous.
I'm not quite about to reconsider my opinion of his other movies - I sincerely doubt there's anything that could ever convince me to watch 'Shallow Hal.' But I'll at least pay attention to movies he makes in the future.
Oh, and while I'm talking about movies, go see 'Happy Feet.' Today, if possible. It's not quite the feel-good hit of the year, but it's still amazing. It's cute, and clever, and there's enough of a story and a moral to make it slightly more socially relevant than your average animated-tap-dancing-social-misfit-penguin movie. And that's aside from the fact that watching Hugh Jackman as an animated penguin doing Elvis impersonations is worth the price of admission alone....
