Movie Time

I saw the Jack Black movie "School of Rock" this Thursday. Although I have been hearing nothing but praise for it, I feel that it could have been much better. The first half of the movie was very slow, and many of the jokes simply did not work. I have always hated the "little kid who is gay" character in movies, television, etc. and School of Rock kept on coming back to it. "Hey look at me, I'm a little kid who is blatantly feminine and speaks with a lisp....man I'm sooo funny." The only problem was that it wasn't funny at all.

I can just imagine the writers:
Writer 1: "Hmm, we need some more weird, yet overdone characters for the class Jack teaches."
Writer 2: "Hey I have an idea, how about a gay kid who likes fashion, a nerdy Asian who is stiff and speaks broken English, and a rich overachiever who is the teacher's pet."
Writer 1: "Its brilliant, the audience will have already seen countless movies with these exact characters, so they will feel immediately drawn in."
Writer 2: "Yup, there's nothing that the American public eats up more than stereotypes and unoriginality."

Granted, the movie did pick up during the second half, and certain gags were simply great. I especially liked the overzealous fan rooting for the unpopular band during the battle of the bands. Overall I give the movie a B, Jack Black was able to carry the movie despite the script's shortcomings.