Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. We ran a review of this one the other day by a guy who said that he hated parody, musical biopics, Judd Apatow comedies, and puppies and babies. Seems like an odd fit, then, for him to want to watch and review a parody of musical biopics that’s produced by Judd Apatow. This guy seemed a little more open to the experience in the first place, and his take on the film is a little different:
Hey Harry and Co., after the screening of "Joshua" a few weeks ago I was lucky enough to squeeze myself into a screening of "Walk Hard" tonight in Burbank and wanted to let you know my thoughts. I had heard about this project awhile ago and was extremely excited when I got an invite to the screening. I like Jake Kasdan's work and Judd Apatow is a God among men ("Knocked Up" is one of the best movies all year in my humble opinion) and when I heard John C. Reilly was playing the lead I was in. The movie is a spoof on musical biopics, namely "Walk the Line" and "Ray", a genre I personally do not like and thought was ripe for parody. While "Walk Hard" gets a lot right, it's not a complete success by any means. The film starts out perfectly, with the death of our hero's sibling in a tragic (and graphic) machete accident. While mourning his brother, young Dewey Cox stumbles upon some men playing the blues and from then on his life is about music. John C. Reilly plays Dewey from age 14 on, and without giving too much away, we follow him from his beginnings in the mid-west to super stardom. The movie nails all of the standard progressions of the main characters in these biopics, first wife then cheating and drugs. Second wife who redeems him until he falls apart again and so on. The lovely Jenna Fischer plays his second wife a la June Carter Cash and they have a hilarious duet called "Let's Duet" (sample lyric "I'm gonna beat off...all of my demons"). The recreations of the different era's and the music was also pretty spot-on from the Johnny Cash style beginnings in the 50's, to the ridiculous and hilarious protest songs of the '60's, the "Pet Sounds" style bombast of the early '70's and the ridiculous variety show disco stylings of the late '70's. The songs are the major strong suit of the movie. The theme "Walk Hard" isn't really a joke song and was stuck in my head for the rest of the night, and the joke songs that are sung are genuinely hilarious. Unfortunately, the film has plenty of lulls and flat jokes, there's plenty of times I simply shook my head instead of laughing. It has an "Airplane!" or "Scary Movie" amount of jokes, though, so the bad ones don't fester for too long before another one comes along. While John C. Reilly acquits himself admirably in his first starring comedic role, I couldn't help thinking that the role might have been in better hands with a true comedian. Don't get me wrong, he's funny but some of the material felt forced coming from him. The rest of the cast is pretty good and there are some great cameos (I'm sure they'll be ruined in the trailers or on IMDB so I won't do it here). All in all, "Walk Hard" is a success. It's overlong at 2 hours but that can be fixed this far ahead. It doesn't equal the other Apatow-produced films like "Anchorman" or "Talladega Nights" and can't even lick the boot of "40-Year-Old Virgin" or "Knocked Up" but it's a different style. Enjoyable to be sure but not as uproarious as one might expect considering the talent involved. If you use this, call me "Skellington"
