School of Rock (2003)

Elevator Pitch: Dewey Finn is a washed up rock and roller, who has been dropped by his band and is likely to be  evicted from the flat he shares with a friend. But when a phone call for his friend comes in asking for him to take a substitute teacher position at an upmarket prep school, Dewey takes the job. He only knows about rock, but it all comes together when he finds out that most of his class are talented musicians, and so he forms a band which he secretly enters in the Battle of the Bands competition. Can he blag it through parents evening and make it to the show?

Content: There is one scene when Dewey and the headmistress drink beer, and she lets her hair down a bit,but absolutely nothing to offend. He leaps about a lot, ansd teaches the kids how to adapt their musical skills to rock, apparently without alerting the school to what is going on. There are confrontations with his friend, difficulties with the parents and finally the competition. A lot of music is played and classic rock referenced.

A View: My wife and I watched this for the first time in the late evening while consuming a couple of glasss of wine, and found it really enjoyable, mainly because the kids are so good. I particularly liked the backing group (You would have to see it). It got over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and made money. Definitely worth the price of a download, particularly if you like classic rock, and since the tunes were classic in 2003 you might need to be over 50.

Additional Info: It was turnd into a stage musical penned by Andrew Lloyd Webber and a TV series ran for three seasons from 2012. A sequel was considered but never actually made it past the ideas stage.