Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

School of Rock, truly, is not that funny of a movie. Its a good movie, an enjoyable one, one that you wouldn't mind seeing again, but really... its not that funny. I think I really laughed about one or two times. I chuckled a bunch of times. I smiled the entire movie.

All of the characters work together to keep that big, fat smile on your face. You have Jack Black, who has some incredibly cheesy "sweet" moments in all of his films, but you somehow like his cheesy niceness, and love his weird coolness. What's funny to me about Jack's film appearance is how he's very "dirty and nasty" in his music appearance. Go out to any store with a large selection of music and take a look at Tenacious D's album. Turn it around, and look at the titles of the songs. Interesting, eh?

The kids charm me far more than Black. What's interesting about them is that actual musicians were picked for the movie, so when you hear them singing, that their voice, when you see them playing their instrument, the sound coming out is really dictated by their hands. They do well in playing cute/tough/to-be-homosexual 11 year-olds, and then, if you're a large rock fan, like I am, you sit back, listen to their solo's, and think, "Whoa, that was cool," like that chick in Cruel Intentions.

Jack Black plays Dewey Finn, a guy who just got kicked out of the band he created, which is obviously pretty sad (if there was a sequence for his being kicked out, I missed it, because my mom tends to make us late for our Tuesday night movies). He's not ENRAGED, but he's certainly kinda p*ssed, and later in the film we can kinda see there's more anger inside of him about it, but in a funny way... so yeah, through a series of events, Dewey Finn ends up being a long-term substitute teacher at the best school in New England, or something like that, where the parents pay $15,000 a year to have their kids go there. While the kids are in music class, Jack takes a peek and finds that they have really crazy musical talent, so while they're gone, he brings out of all the instruments from his punk-rocker-esque van, and when they come back, he tells them that they have a new project to work on, and its called "Rock Class" or something like that. They can't tell anyone about it, and all this complicated stuff, because of this and that, and they don't. And thus, the plot of the movie begins. And the kids' band becomes quite cool.

Yes, the music is indeed one of the big carriers for the film. We get to watch the kids rock, develop a lighting show, and all this neat stuff, and its just fun to see that with scripted little kids. Some of the classmates are even groupies. Cool, eh? And I guess.... yeah, thank God we have the music, because the acting could have at times destroyed the movie. While I like Black, as I said... the cheesiness... and Joan Cusack, who plays the principal, just has some... eh, moments... but the kids are awesome.

The end of the movie boils down to a Battles of the Bands competition, and its one of the best parts of the movie, because the direction involving the band's performance is incredibly cool, and plus, there's some fun involving making fun of the fake "appearance" bands of today.

"School of Rock" also contains good messages, one of which is to not just be a fake rocker, and really pursue the career, and do the thing, should you be one. This is really nice because of how it applies to all musicians of all ages, and kids can really take from that. While there's some drug references in the movie, most of it is cracking down on druggy rockers, which makes this movie okay for most kids.

School of Rock is a mostly appropriate musical-comedy that charms you enough so that you're smiling the entire movie, and rocks enough so that you want to go buy some Hendrix when you're done.

Rating: B-

Recommended: Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12