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Well someone with a name that could pull audience on the name alone. No one watched Kung fu panda because of jack black. The same way no one watched puss in boots because of antonio banderas. Jack black hasn't been lead man since the mid 2000s. He is solid B lister - always reliable, doesn't attach himself to shitty projects, works very good in ensemble cast, but doesn't have the gravitas to carry a project on his own the same way Jim Carrey did in days of old, or the Rock, Tom Cruise and (maybe)Chris Hemsworth can do now.
I like him a lot and I still can't forgive Tim Shaffer for fucking up Brutal Legend so tremendously with the absurdly idiotic strategy game instead of giving us straight up action adventure, but this wound will never heal.
I agree that he’s not a Jim Carrey level comedy star, but he clearly carried films such as School Of Rock and Nacho Libre, as well as the supremely underrated black comedy docudrama Bernie. (And if he’d stayed relatively thin, he could have had more everyman-style leading roles like Shallow Hal.)
Bernie is super underrated. By far Jack Black's best role, IMO.
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