ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

Are you ready to RAWK? With a knee-grinding powerslide, Jack Black's comedy band Tenacious D makes its wobbly transition from TV to screen. The meandering plot sees Black and bandmate Kyle Gass searching for a guitar pick fashioned from the tooth of Satan, which will grant them the guitar skills of hair-metal gods Van Halen and Dio. It's a stop-start affair, but there are enough gags to keep stoners - the film's primary audience - from nodding off.

We've seen Jack Black's maniacal musician schtick in School of Rock, and it makes more sense here when set against the phlegmatic innocence of Kyle Gass. The other half of 'the D', as they insist on being known, is a bald, overweight, charmingly sweet natured man - the very opposite of the sinewy rockers that dominated MTV in the 90s. The Pick of Destiny takes a while to get going, but once these two have joined forces, their combined comic momentum keeps you barrelling through the formulaic story with a smile.

"STEADY STREAM OF CELEBRITY CAMEOS"

Enjoyment will depend, of course, on your tolerance for Black himself: there's enough anguished gurning here to fill a yearly subscription to Kerrang!. For fans, the script offers a steady stream of celebrity cameos to spot, best of which is Meatloaf as Black's bible-bashing father. It all comes to a rousing climax in a rock battle with the devil himself, played in a neat bit of casting by Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. The Pick of Destiny ain't going to win any awards, and the girls don't get much of a look-in, but it will strike a few power chords with a certain generation that is too old to disco and too young to die.