This movie has been around for awhile. It was one of the first movies I saw of Jack Black, and since then, I’ve always kept my eye out for anything he’s in and watched it automatically.
So, it wasn’t a surprise when I took a break last week from my Unschooled Master of Theology Program assignments and immediately got hooked on a blast from the past, The School of Rock!
Have you seen it? Did you like it as much as I did? Let me know in the comments what you think of this movie or any Jack Black movie as well.
So, let’s jump in and find out why The School of Rock should be required for any curriculum…
Who Doesn’t Love Rock and Roll?
In high school I was a maladjusted rock and roller, too. I took guitar lessons for a few years and had a band of misfits who would come over and we would turn our amps way up and jack the distortion until our eyes and ears were bleeding.
I remember one day someone brought a strobe light and we rocked out for hours playing our favorite songs and making a noise like the end of the world.
Everyone likes rock and roll, right? I don’t necessarily have people over and rock out like I did when I was a kid. In fact, I haven’t picked up a guitar in probably 30 years. It’s just as easy (easier actually) for me to put my favorite songs on my phone or my mp3 player on my laptop and just listen to my heart’s content (like I’m doing right now).
But, watching a movie like The School of Rock, with the angst, the hilarity, and the best jams, it just brings me back to those days when all we cared about was rockin!
A Shameless Principal
I actually never put two and two together, but the actress who played the principal in this movie is actually the same person to portray Frank’s girlfriend, Sheila, in the hit tv show, Shameless. Both characters are quite a bit uptight, maybe a little repressed (okay, alot), and by the end she ventures out and finds a new way of living.
Of course, Dewy doesn’t find a new way to live, but, instead, finds the respect he’s always wanted. He always wanted to be understood, wanted to be known for his music, and by the end, he’s not only respected, but he’s doing what he loves to do, teach kids.
Of course, the kids are growing up in a great environment and are having the time of their lives. Yes, it’s quite simplistic and unrealistic. But, hey! It’s a movie already. Relax!
A Rock and Roll Show for the Ages
In the end we find the kids banding together to put on, as Dewy puts it, “a kick ass show.” There are a lot of obstacles put in front of them, but they muddle their way through. Their parents are won over, so is the principal.
They don’t win the contest, but instead the winners are booed off the stage and the School of Rock is called back up to play an encore.
Then it’s time for the credits and you’re left with a sense of wonder and joy and the thrill of things working out in the end (like a good movie should).
I Watch This Movie Every Year
There’s probably about 50 movies on a short list in my mind that I watch at least once every year. Movies like The Adjustment Bureau and City of Ember and even the Twilight movies.
School of Rock is on that list, too. And I enjoy just kicking back, suspending reality for a few hours every now and then, and just really have a great experience. What are movies for if not that?
Until my next review….
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Excerpt from Our Daughter:
“Okay, mom,” Randy said.
“You behave yourself and be nice. You’re lucky to have company while you wait for the doctors.”
The woman turned and started back the way she came.
“The nurse said it would be twenty or thirty more minutes, so we’ll eat quick and be back up here before they take you in, okay?”
“Okay, mom.”
“Sorry for him,” the woman said to Katie as she walked by.
“He’s funny.”
Katie grinned.
As the woman left, Katie noticed the boy moving around again on the bed. Before she realized what was happening, the tiny lump disappeared and she could hear the faint sound of bare hands and feet on the tile floor.
He was low crawling under the beds toward her.
A moment later, Randy popped his head out from under the nearest hospital bed, craning his neck around to look up at her.
“Hello, there,” Katie said.
Randy disappeared back under the bed, the bed sheet draping down almost to the floor. Katie could still see three little fingers pressed to the tile.
“What are you here for?” Katie asked, readjusting her seat in the chair, trying to get the ache in her chest to lessen.
For whatever reason, the wheelchair was really uncomfortable.
“Why are – ”
Randy’s voice trailed off for a moment as he looked around.
“Why are you here?”
“I’m getting my leg fixed,” Katie said. “See?”
Randy poked his head back out from under the bed and looked at the leg she was pointing to.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“The doctor said it’s broken,” Katie said. “Shattered.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. Ouch.”
“Can you feel it?” Randy asked, able to stay out from his hiding place.
“I can feel it, but it’s not too bad,” Katie said, then tapped the IV in her arm. “This thing is giving me medicine of some kind for the pain. At least that’s what the nurses said.”
“Why are you – ”
Randy stopped mid-sentence.
He scooted out from under the bed entirely and slowly crept over to her on all fours.
“What are you, some kind of spider?” Katie asked, giggling a little.
“What are you?” Randy echoed.
He was now only about a foot away from her chair and sat there, his legs folded up under him, gawking up at her.
“What are you staring at me for?”
“I’ve never – ”
Randy put out a hesitant hand and ever so gently touched her arm.
“Are you some kind of ghost?”
He looked around again.
“Are you – ”
He leaned in, talking in a whisper.
“Are you dead?”
A nurse came around the corner and stopped abruptly, spotting the empty bed in the far corner where Randy should have been.
“Randy Andrews,” the nurse said, her hands now on her hips. “You get right back into the bed and you stop playing around, please. They are ready for you in surgery.”
Katie watched as Randy scrambled on all fours under the beds and back up onto his, pulling the sheet back over top of himself again.
She started to ask him about his question, but couldn’t get the words out before his parents appeared at the door.
Katie sat there quietly, watching Randy stare back at her from under his sheet. She glanced over at his parents and the nurse, noticed Randy’s dad had no hair on the top of his head.
Are you dead?
What kind of question was that?
The snap of the wheel locks being disengaged on Randy’s hospital bed jarred Katie out of the confusion she was in.
The doctor she’d first seen was now at the door, waiting for Randy.
He was his surgeon.
They wheeled Randy out of the room, his parents following right behind, disappearing to the left, heading for his operating room.
The pre-op room was empty again.
Dead.
Are you dead?
What kind of crazy question was that?
The nurse came back through the double doors.
“It won’t be long now,” she said.
“Okay.”
Katie tried not to think about the dull ache growing just behind her sternum.
The nurse disappeared around the corner as Katie watched the double doors to the operating rooms slowly shut.
Buy my book Our Daughter and begin the adventure of a lifetime, as you uncover the mysteries behind Katie Cadora’s new life after the horrible accident that stole her mother away from her. Will she find sure footing again? Will the pain ever stop? Will she discover the secrets her new foster family are keeping from her? Is the boy’s question right? Is Katie Cadora actually dead?
Click here and grab your copy today and jump into this Witch Gnostic Heresy trilogy with both feet!
But, trust me when I tell you, there are deceivers in our midsts! Get started in this bone chilling suspense novel right away and find out why….sometimes….you’re just better off DEAD!
ISAAC HUNTER 