He was Craig, younger brother of Matthew Poncelet (Sean Penn) in Dead Man Walking. First thing I ever noticed him in. He was good.
I don’t think he’s a particularly bad actor. When he’s required to go a bit deeper than usual, he’s shown that he can do so.
It is true that more often than not, his roles require little more of him than goofing around and doing his schtick. The thing is, though, his schtick is usually pretty darn funny, IMO. Clearly, Superhal doesn’t agree, which is fine, but not personally enjoying an actor’s performance doesn’t necessarily mean he’s bad at it.
He was practically invisible in Bob Roberts. (He played a security guy, very straight.)
I think he’s a very shallow one-dimensional actor! He is best when he just plays a bit part in a movie and is not the main character, like in Tropic Thunder.
And FTR, I was bored out of my mind during Nacho Libre. There were, like three jokes, and they were all in the trailer. Get that anaconda away from me.
I agree. Before he could get top billing, he did small, schtick-less roles. Now, he has a choice…big payday to play “Jack Black” or small roles whose paychecks are missing a 0 at the end where he can drop his schtick. And that’s assuming someone wants Jack Black for the smaller role.
Nothing wrong with cashing in while you can. I won’t necessarily watch, but I won’t begrudge an actor his paycheck.
Jack Black can handle low comedy just fine. I don’t like low comedy, hence don’t like most of his stuff. And opinions differ. I have always wondered how Alan Arkin gets cast. He’s got “deadpan” down cold, but the word that typically follows “deadpan” is “humor” and the man is humor-free. I only liked him in “Slums of Beverly Hills” but it was really Natasha Lyonne that carried the film.
He’s awesome when I’m in the mood for him. I laughed my ass of during Year One and am well aware of the horribleness of the movie. His “schtick” is to go where I dare not go, and to say what I dare not say. And he gets paid well for being the dumbass I can’t always allow myself to be. I don’t see him moving into serious drama like Robin Williams but if he doesn’t up and die like John Belushi, John Candy and Chris Farley I could see him living comfortably in his niche in much the same way Harrison Ford has done. Ford’s good, but he always seems to play the same character.
When I want a good brainrape I can always look up something with Leonardo DeCaprio or something directed by Quentin Tarantino.
You should find the excellent documentary Rock School and see the real person Paul Green that Black was playing.
You should also watch Tenacious D, because (inspiration aside) School of Rick was really just a kiddie version of it.
I like the idea of Titular Panda as a movie name.
He’s an idol to millions of men, and their women, sitting beside those men, braying with laughter. Chubby, homely, low-class, acting the fool and getting paid for it, yet not actively evil and in fact somewhat lovable. Like a comical brother-in-law who makes the kids laugh by making his belly button ‘talk’. There’s a place in the world for this kind of humor. Acting ability has little to do with it.
Thread from about two weeks ago:
Merged duplicate threads.
I like the idea of School of Rick as a movie name.
Any room for The Pock of Destiny? 
Watch the trailer for Rock School. Either Jack Black is actually a decent actor who can capture the essence of a real person, or it was just the best casting decision ever.
Note: The Hollywood version was toned down quite a bit. It’s rated “R” just for language. “You don’t fuck up! NOT ON REBEL YELL!!”
He still gets a lot of good will from me because of the Tenacious D TV show. I saw it in its original run, or very soon after, and was kind of obsessed with them. I bought bootlegs of some of their concerts, and a bootleg VHS of the show. I can forgive shit like Shallow Hal.
Joe
I thought it was entertaining, for kid’s fare. I mean, don’t go looking for Jonathan Swift.
Of course I haven’t seen a lot of Jack Black, so I can see if that is his schtick how that would get old.
Isn’t that pretty much what Gulliver’s Travels was?
I only know this because it’s a local story, and they filmed here, but in an upcoming movie, Jack Black’s playing the role of Bernie Tiede, an undertaker who befriended an old, rich widow in a town just down the road, then shot her, stuck her in her deep freeze, and spent her money. The victim is being played by Shirley MacLaine. The director is Richard Linklater.
If you were a fan of A&E’s “City Confidential,” they did an episode about it–Carthage, TX, and it appeared as “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas” in Texas Monthly and collection of Texas murder stories.
Anyway, the real life Bernie Tiede is about as far away from Black’s usual schtick as possible, and I think that it presents an interesting opportunity for him to expand his range. Of course, they’re playing it as a dark comedy (well, aside from the murder, the real episode is pretty comedic…the DA was a guy named Danny Buck and the defense attorney was named Scrappy. And because we’re in the sticks, they had to transport the body to Dallas for autopsy, but it had to remain frozen. So they put the deep freeze and a generator in the back of a pickup and drove the whole thing to Dallas.)
Should be interesting. Last I heard, they were calling the movie “Bernie.”
Too late to edit:
Damn, I forgot that Matthew McConaughey is playing Danny Buck, the prosecutor. Makes sense, though, as he’s from Longview, and Carthage is only about 40 miles from there.