School of Rock As AC/DC taught us, it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock 'n' roll. The latest from Richard Linklater – recently screened for some critics – illustrates this age-old struggle with Dewey Finn (Jack Black), a rocker who, after being booted from his band, finagles his way into a substitute-teaching gig by pretending to be his roommate (Mike White, whose script for Rock adds to a résumé that also includes Chuck and Buck and The Good Girl). To Dewey's amazement, several of the brainy fifth graders in his charge happen to be musical prodigies (i.e., ideal candidates to help him crush his former bandmates in a battle of the bands). Rock costars a pack of 10-year-olds, but this ain't no sappy piece of Disney junk; anyone who's a fan of Black's Tenacious D alter ego, or his work in High Fidelity, or who thinks it's a crime that today's kids haven't heard of Led Zep will enjoy this one. Oct. 3 (Cheryl Eddy)

Scary Movie 3 Shut up – you know you want to (especially if you've seen the Jacko-spearing trailer). With David Zucker (Airplane!) taking over from the Wayans brothers, and humorless fare like Signs, The Ring, and the Matrix films ready to be harpooned, this just-in-time-for-Halloween release looks to be a plotless string of parodies and dirty (well, PG-13) jokes. In other words, asses across America will be laughed off. Scary Movie series regular Anna Faris stars, along with a cast that's freakishly eclectic to Cannonball Run proportions: Charlie Sheen, Pamela Anderson, Queen Latifah, George Carlin, Ja Rule, Simon Cowell, William Forsythe, Leslie Nielsen (as the president of the United States), just to name a few. Oct. 24 (Eddy)