Jack Black is well known to adults as the zany and often profane man in such R-rated comedies as Year One, or as half of the gonzo heavy metal duo Tenacious D. But as these films show, Black is more than capable of toning it down for the kids and family while keeping things hilarious. Descriptions below are from IMDB / the films’ production companies.
School of Rock (PG-13, 4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99 to rent in SD / $3.99 in HD, $6.99 to own in SD or HD)
Down and out rock star Dewey Finn gets fired from his band, and he faces a mountain of debts and depression.
He takes a job as a 4th grade substitute teacher at an uptight private school where his attitude and hijinx have a powerful effect on his students.
He also meets Zack, a 10-year-old guitar prodigy, who could help Dewey win a “battle of the bands” competition, which would solve his financial problems and put him back in the spotlight.
– Written by Anonymous
Goosebumps (PG, 4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $4.99 to rent in SD / $5.99 in HD, $13.99 to own in SD / $14.99 in HD)
Upset about moving from a big city to a small town, teenager Zach Cooper (Dylan Minnette) finds a silver lining when he meets the beautiful girl, Hannah (Odeya Rush), living right next door.
But every silver lining has a cloud, and Zach’s comes when he learns that Hannah has a mysterious dad who is revealed to be R. L. Stine (Jack Black), the author of the bestselling Goosebumps series.
It turns out that there is a reason why Stine is so strange… he is a prisoner of his own imagination – the monsters that his books made famous are real, and Stine protects his readers by keeping them locked up in their books. When Zach unintentionally unleashes the monsters from their manuscripts and they begin to terrorize the town, it’s suddenly up to Stine, Zach, Hannah, and Zach’s friend Champ (Ryan Lee) to get all of them back in the books where they belong.
Nacho Libre (PG, 4/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99 to rent in SD / $3.99 in HD, $9.99 to own in SD / $13.99 in HD)
The monk Ignacio loves the orphans in the monastery and dreams of becoming a wrestler.
He teams up with the bum Esqueleto and wears a mask to secretly fight in the arena for amateurs with the alias Nacho. They are losers but they receive money for the fight that Ignacio uses to buy better food for the orphans.
When the gorgeous Sister Encarnación comes to live in the monastery, Ignacio has feelings for her.
When the monks discover his secret, Ignacio is expelled from the monastery. Now he needs to win against the number one wrestler Ramses to become a professional fighter.
– Written by Claudio Carvalho
Gulliver’s Travels (PG, 3/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99 to rent in SD / $3.99 in HD, $13.99 to own in SD / $12.99 in HD)
Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) works in a mailroom at a city newspaper.
While he is on an assignment in the Bermuda Triangle, a vortex transports him to a magic land of tiny people.
His newfound comrades use his enormous size to help defend the land of Lilliput from warring rivals.
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