Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (rated R). Directed by Jake Kasden. Written by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasden. Starring John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Raymond J. Berry, Kristen Wiig, Tim Meadows, Harold Ramis & Chris Parnell. Running Time: 96 minutes. Originally appeared in LakewoodBuzz.com.

OVERVIEW:

Like the film Ray (2004), a young boy and his brother frolic in the bucolic wonderland of the American South of the 1930s. Like Walk the Line (2005), a young man leaves his loving mother and hateful father to find solace in his music. Like... well, you get the idea. This film is primarily a send-up of the musical bio-pic, as Dewey Cox (Riley) channels nearly every rock icon that ever took the stage... from Dylan, Cash, Orbison, and Presley to Brian Wilson. Like his fellow rock stars, Dewey is often tempted by drugs and sex. In a hilarious motif, he is constantly opening a door and finding his drummer, Sam (Meadows), behind it with sexy backup singers and the latest drug of choice. "You don't want any part of this s**t," Sam says, and proceeds to tell Dewey all of the drug's benefits. Despite their wayward ways, Dewey and his band are discovered by a trio of Hasidic Jews and begin to record a remarkable string of number-one hits. As he cruises the decades like Forrest Gump with a guitar, Dewey meets all of his legendary contemporaries, played by uncredited actors you are likely to recognize. Watch especially for Lennon, McCartney and Buddy Holly.

REVIEW: 3 out of 4 Java Mugs

What is remarkable about this movie is the way we feel about the main character, Dewey Cox. It's easy to find sympathy for the likes of Johnny Cash and Ray Charles because we knew them as real people. But why do we feel so strongly about a singer we know does not really exist? Some of the credit goes to the filmmakers, who know which emotional buttons to push, but mostly we have Riley to thank. In an amazing portrayal, he takes what could have been a spoof-worthy sap and turns him into a fully developed character we really care about. Riley actually becomes Dewey Cox, by singing his heart out and even helping to write many of the film's songs.

Other performances are also worthy of note, particularly Fischer's sultry Darlene, Wiig's ever-pregnant Edith and Meadows' drug-addled drummer.

Though Riley's singing is quite good, it is still nice to have the likes of Lyle Lovett, Jackson Browne, Jewel, Ghostface Killah and Eddie Vedder playing themselves and singing those Dewey Cox originals. But none of the music was as brilliant as an early scene with Honeyboy Edwards singing the blues.

I must admit that I went into this one already thinking it would be another home run by Apatow and the gang. And they did not disappoint. John C. Reily has turned in his most comedic performance to date which is something considering his roles in Talledega Nights and Boogie Nights.

Johnny Cash probably is rolling in his grave, but in laughter and not dismay. There are just too many classic moments in this film to label it as a long SNL skit as others have done. IT IS A MUST SEE!

I think any review can be summed by saying that this is a comedy rock biopic in the spirit of Spinal Tap with the biting wit of a Mel Brooks film. Just Classic.

Very surprised to see the IMDB rating for this one. It definitely deserves a higher score. The humour is often crude might not be everyone's cup of tea but you can easily compare it other movies in a similar over the top comedy-type genre like Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step-Brothers etc. This one in my opinion is the best one out of all them. There were a few jokes that didn't land as great as they could but overall, this is was a non stop laugh out loud movie for me and all the people I have ever watched it with.

-John C Reilly's performance is amazing. Despite the fact that his character is unimaginably out of touch with the world surrounding him, he makes it look so believable. He is the perfect fit for this type of character and you can see, he put a lot of improv in the scenes and made it his own thing.

-The pacing of the movie is great. Its very clever in the way it depicts the cliches of music biography movies. It heavily underlines all the overused motifs in the genre (the neglecting father, the wife/lover perturbations, addiction to fame and money) but but makes them very genuine, in a way that the viewer doesn't get detached from the Dewie's story. -And the biggest star of the movie: The music. The songs are great, they're funny, catchy and really well performed. Each song captures the essence of its times and pushes the story forward. I would dare to say they could easily hang with some of the biggest scores from Hollywood musicals. This why this movie works so much better than the more recent "Popstar" with Adam Sandberg, which made a similar effort in mocking the perks of being a music star. In that movie, the songs are well written and funny, but never seem like the real deal. In "Walk Hard", you can actually see how the songs could be hits in the movie's universe. All of them have great replay value and make the movie very rewatchable. There's the career breaking song, the falling out of fame song, even a Bob Dylan parody witch is hilarious. Its just a clever and enjoyable commentary on the history of music.

All in all you should just watch it, if you haven't. I often skip movies if I see a lower than 7 rating on IMDB. You should not skip this one if you enjoy other Jud Apatow style comedies. Even if you've never been a fan of them, this one might change that!

I've watched this movie around 50 times. Literally one of the funniest movies ever made. It would be great if it was a movie that kids could enjoy as well, but that is my only complaint. 100% adult themes and shows way too much for a responsible parent to allow children to watch.

When I was a kid we had Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Porky's. This is a hilarious movie, and I suggest watching it repeatedly since there will be a lot of things you will catch and fall over laughing at if you understand the movie at all. John C Reilly comes into a class A acting role with this one. And deserves it.

Great music as well as amazing acting. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. Love it.

As a huge fan of the previous Apatow movies, I drove recklessly through traffic to make it into an early screening of Walk Hard, and I'm happy I did. I think this movie is a different direction for Judd and his band, as it is more similar to Airplane in style than it is to Knocked Up. But that impressed me that they took that risk and made it work -- and it definitely worked as me and the rest of the theatre were laughing with regularity.

Without getting too much into the details of the movie because I hate spoilers, the thing that made this movie great to me was the unexpected humor. Like Airplane, there are a lot of times when you just don't see the next line coming, and those are the best laughs. Besides John C. Reilly in the lead role, who obviously got a lot of the funniest lines, Tim Meadows as Dewey Cox's drummer really cracked me up, and Paul Rudd as Jon Lennon cracked up the entire theatre.

It was definitely one of those movies where you're recalling a lot of funny parts a day later. So while it may be a different type of movie than the Apatow groups' other work, the sense of funny is still there, and I think this is up there with the best comedies of the year.