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The Pixar-like roll of Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad) continues with another sure-fire hit. In charting the meteoric rise, catastrophic fall and Lazarus-like rise of rocker Dewey Cox, Walk Hard parodies the classic Hollywood bio-pic, cashing in mostly on Walk the Line. John C. Reilly, one of Hollywood's most solid character actors, makes the most of his Golden Globe-nominated star turn as Dewey, whose road to stardom is paved with a childhood tragedy that claims the life of his prodigiously talented brother ("The wrong kid died," is his father's mantra), instant stardom (his first record is a hit just 35 minutes after it was recorded), sex and drugs, and the inevitable "dark (effen) period" that leads him to rehab. Reilly gets solid backup from current and former Saturday Night Live alumni, including Kirsten Wiig as his incredibly fertile first wife who has no faith in his musical aspirations ("You're never going to make it," she cheerily ends one phone call); Tim Meadows, never better, as Dewey's drummer, who, in one of the film's best scenes, does a poor job of dissuading him from trying marijuana); and Chris Parnell as his bass player. Jenna Fischer leaves Pam back at The Office as Darlene, Dewey's virtuous duet partner. Hilarious cameos give Walk Hard a great "Hey!" factor: Hey, that's Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly. Hey, that's "Kenneth" from 30 Rock. Hey, there's Jack Black and Paul Rudd as--no kidding--Paul McCartney and John Lennon revealing "a rift in the Beatles." Some of the jokes are obvious (come on; the guy's last name is Cox), others inspired. But the decades-spanning music, echoing the styles of gritty Johnny Cash, romantic Roy Orbison, obtuse Bob Dylan, trippy Brian Wilson, and even a bit of anachronistic punk rock, is as pitch perfect and affectionately observed as in The Rutles, This Is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind. Walk Hard earns its R-rating, particularly for a sure-to-be-talked-about scene of hotel-room debauchery. But: Hilarious? Outrageous? Twisted? To quote the title of one of Dewey's hit songs, "Guilty as Charged." --Donald Liebenson
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (107 customer reviews)
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Showcase For Reilly, And Screamingly Funny To Boot!, May 29 2008
By Scot Carr "Film and book phanatic" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: NEW Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (DVD) (DVD)
Ya'd figure that classic zany comedy was dead. Sure, there have been ambitious stuff, but more often than not, a lot of today's "comedy" movies are either blatent "gross-out" fests written for 12-year-olds, or the tired "let's-make-a-satire-of-the-current-favorite-genre" formula. Truthfully, the last great American comedy for me was "There's Something About Mary." Sure, it was a stupid-humor film, but it had genuine laugh-out-loud surprises and, more importantly, heart. Basically, it was a sweet romantic comedy with slapstick thrown in for good measure.Judd Apatow, whether he's directing or producing, seems to be the guy who'll revive well-done dumb-guy humor. All by himself, judging by the list of hits he's thrown out. "Walk Hard," unfortunately, was the least commercially success ful of them, and for what reason I don't know. He did satire right, focussing on one character through a much-travelled formula, created a believable (and funny) body of work for the fictionally tributed, got a great director in Jake Kasden, and casted extremely well by putting veteran John C. Reilly in the lead.
This would be the most important thing, as few realize how talented and multifacited Mr. Reilly really is. Sincerity in character? He makes poor Dewey a sweetly believable guy who'd be really entertaining in any story he was plunked in. Creative? John C. can keep up with the rest of the brilliantly funny folks in the film. Most importantly, can he sing? Hell yeah! Reilly toured through Boston a few years back in a musical stage adaptation of the Ernest Borgnine everyman love story, "Marty," and carried a hell of a tune (even before "Chicago"), showing he has the singing chops. In a more sane universe, Reilly would be headlining more major films, rather than being relegated to "character actor" or "second banana" status.
As mentioned before, this is satire done right - built around a well-rounded comedy character, rather than a series of sight gags (although the film has those aplenty). Kasden and Apatow took every cliche about the recent musical biopic craze and ran them through the Dewey Cox prism. What made it even more funny was the character and their viewpoints. It looked like every biopic out there, and made most fun about that.
"Walk Hard" deserved more box-office love, but it will be a long-lived successful film because of home video. There are worse fates than that.
19 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Walk the Funny Line, April 19 2008
By "Rocky Raccoon" "Hey, Doc, It's Only ... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: NEW Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (DVD) (DVD)
(3.5 *'s) Judd Apatow's `Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story' is a familiar project. As the producer of `The Forty Old Virgin, 'Knocked Up,' and 'Superbad,' he takes another irreverent comedy, this time a parody of music biopics of popular music icons. Sometimes savvy, sometimes obvious, the movie is mostly an effective and witty trip through pop music history.One of the best decisions was to cast John C. Reilly in the title role. Watching the film, I kept thinking Will Ferrell could have been cast as Dewey Cox. As much as I like Ferrell, his overexposure to such familiar loopiness may have made the movie overwrought. With Reilly's fine performance as "Lefty" in 'A Prairie Home Companion,' they made the right choice. There's a certain restraint he brings to the role that's welcome and refreshing.
For those who have seen `Ray,' and, especially `Walk the Line' the referenced parody will be clear, but those who haven't undoubtedly will be in for a fun time, too. It's basically a rags to riches story about a man from the South who gets a recording contract much the way Elvis and Johnny Cash did.
On the down side, tragedy is given a lighter treatment. Anyone who's read Cash's autobiography or seen 'Walk the Line' will recognize when Dewey accidentally cuts his brother in half that it's a reference to Cash's brother who lost his life to an electric saw. Throughout the movie he's haunted that he was the "wrong one" to die. They don't exactly glamorize drug use, though, which shows Dewey always making the wrong informed choice. (Backstage he's tempted by a band mate who says, "You don't want to use this stuff." Dewey always asks, "What does it do?" "It takes away every negative thought..." as if he chides.)
The real pluses come as Dewey goes through his phases of music. He has his early rockabilly years. He rocks during the early sixties, gets cosmic and hippie later, and becomes the familiar casualty of substance abuse and ego (with the usual infidelities) in his life. Some of the best scenes include his meeting with the squabbling Fab Four and an interview where he tries to reach the mainstream with a comeback family TV show. Fumbling with questions, Dewey reveals that he's off PCP and his estranged children will be watching his program. Some family man.
While not a comedy classic, `Walk Hard...' is more often unpredictable than not with a witty script that is delivered with a brisk comedic pace. It had me laughing loud and often, and I'll bet you will, too.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
For the dreamers out there who also like to laugh, April 23 2008
By Ken Jensen "Smoky Jar Productions - our stren... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: NEW Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (DVD) (DVD)
I have never before been inspired by a satirical, fictional comedy. (Is that half redundant?) But by the end of Walk Hard, I felt fantastic! That was the unexpected curve. The comedy though, is what I was after and I got it by the fistfuls! Sight gags, the absurd, live action caricatures of famous people, plenty of drug humor, etc. There were aspects of Steve Martin being channeled by John C. Reilly. And, I feel you can't really go wrong with John. He's not Academy Award material, he's just a perfect character actor. I enjoyed immensely his will to succeed coupled with his faulty decision-making processes. He was an idiot, but an intensely focused idiot. They basically made fun of every "unknown boy from nowhere makes it big" movie that came before it. And they did it well. The beginning had me wondering if the level of comedy was going to be elemntary school or not. And maybe it was. Who cares? It got funnier to me the longer I watched. And it even had a moral to it.
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