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A Dissatisfied Customer Does Not Recommend That You WALK HARD!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
I keep waiting for the inevitable Judd Apatow backlash to begin. Will it happen on WALK HARD? Will it happen on FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL? I think PINEAPPLE EXPRESS sounds like it’ll do just fine for itself. But one of these movies is going to get the shit kicked out of it just because Apatow’s had such a hot streak lately.
I like the trailer for this one, and I’m looking forward to seeing it as soon as possible, but a review like this one reminds me that, as always, I should set my expectations low and then hope to be surprised.
This is Mullah Omar. After years of lurking at AICN and several months of posting in Talkbacks, I’m happy to actually have something to contribute – meager and obvious as it may be…
I was at the 7pm preview screening of WALK HARD off Times Square in NYC on November 1. Before the film, we were told by one of the managers that this was NOT the completely finished film, but aside from some minor editing issues and a few half-done special effects – and a few gratuitous shots of schlongs that will probably be relegated to the unrated DVD version – it looked like a finished film.
Straight to the point – WALK HARD was a boring movie. It was not awful, and nowhere near good, but just bland and forgettable. I think John C. Reilly is an okay actor, and he’s definitely one of the better guys they could have found to play a musician in a film (I liked his musical role in A PRARIE HOME COMPANION), but he can’t save this failure.
I did virtually no research on this film prior to seeing it, but one headline I saw compared it to AIRPLANE – which is just inaccurate and baffling. At least one major factor (out of many) shoots the analogy down – the question of whether it was essential to see the source material of the parodied subject prior to seeing the parody film.
With AIRPLANE, the main subject of parody was the airplane disaster film of the 1950s-1970s – especially ZERO HOUR, AIRPORT 1975, and other plane disaster dramas. Now honestly, how many of us ever saw ANY plane-themed disaster film prior to seeing AIRPLANE? How many of us loved AIRPLANE anyway? I count myself among those who grew up watching AIRPLANE without seeing the source material that it was mocking. And despite that fact, I have always loved AIRPLANE. It has so much happening in every shot, and all of it is so absurd, that it doesn’t matter if you’ve ever seen another movie in your life – it's a shotgun blast of comedy, and what is happening is so weird that it’s entertaining. The same could be said for HOT SHOTS, TOP SECRET!, THE NAKED GUN, AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON, or KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE.
Unfortunately, the same cannot really be said for WALK HARD. In this case, the primary source material appears to be WALK THE LINE, and Reilly’s story mirrors Johnny Cash (with a few doses of Bob Dylan, Jim Morrision, Brian Wilson aka Geico Caveman, and others). There is a lot in those time periods and using those influences that could add up to a lot of ambient laughs, but unfortunately, there is rarely anything inherently weird or funny happening at any given time in WALK HARD, and its humor seems to depend its references to other material. While I have not seen WALK THE LINE, I know much of the story of Johnny Cash and the early days of rock n’ roll. There are a few specifics that I didn’t know that I can now confidently guess based on the fact that the jokes were worn-out in WALK HARD. For example, I can guess that at some point in WALK THE LINE, Johnny Cash broke a sink, because the joke is repeated maybe a half-dozen times in WALK HARD, the final instance being a marathon attack of 6 sinks in a row. I suppose it might be entertaining if you just saw WALK THE LINE, but I thought it was tedious. In fact, the first half of the film is pretty tedious. Rather than a flood of jokes, there is the merest trickle.
The best section of WALK HARD – and to me, the only part I would recommend that anyone watches – happens after the title shows that it’s 1966. Mocking an interview that could be lifted straight from DON’T LOOK BACK, the film directly calls out Bob Dylan from about 1963-1966, a time when he was making protest music and eventually went into full surrealist gear. It’s funny stuff, partially because it perfectly captures Dylan’s elusiveness, partially because it seems so creatively ad-libbed. The song parodies from this era are excellent – one is a protest song calling for midget rights, the other is a whacked out Dylan fever dream to the nth degree. (The other good song parody is a double-entendre-laden number between Reilly and his Roseanne Cash stand-in soon after they meet.)
However, this otherwise pretty-good section of the film quickly devolves into an extended parody of the Beatles’ trip to India in 1968 (featuring a cameo by Jack Black as Paul McCartney and some pretty awful English accents all around). Reilly at this point turned into an observer while the Beatles sparred with one another. I smiled through this stuff, but I couldn’t help but think that not only is this an easy time period to satirize, but it’s been done better elsewhere. To be honest, the actual history of this time is probably more entertaining than what made it into WALK HARD.
Also entertaining was the cleavage on Jenna Fischer (as the Roseanne Cash stand-in). There is plenty of nudity in the earlier half of this film, but unfortunately it does not involve her. At any rate, I’m alternately pleased and sorry to say that Jenna Fischer’s cleavage was one of the few highlights of the screening.
As I mentioned before, this film appeared to be mostly-finished from a technical standpoint, and clocked in somewhere near 100 minutes. There were some obvious editing issues – when Reilly played catch with his son late in the film, the lines were obviously overdubbed while he stood there with his mouth closed. Editing also seemed to be an issue with the ending sequence – it appeared to be in a bit of flux, with some abrupt cuts and leaden jokes that should be trimmed out because they elicited more groans than laughs. There were also some unfinished special effects – the “force ghosts” that appeared at the end of the film looked complete, but Reilly’s ghostly brother (who appeared throughout the film) and a few of the kids during the catch game towards the end seemed airbrushed into the frames. Otherwise, this film appeared to be technically fine.
Something that the censors probably won’t find to be fine is the recurring joke of casually inserting the roadie’s package into the frame every now and then. It happened 3 times that I remember, and it got some of the biggest audience reaction (and not exactly positive – people next to me were looking away whenever it happened). I guess this is a “treat” for the future owners of the “unrated” DVD.
Something that happens when I go to a poor movie is that I recall better forms of entertainment, and WALK HARD was inspirational in this regard. My advice if you are interested in the subject matter and would like to be genuinely entertained is to check out Nick Tosches’ book UNSUNG HEROES OF ROCK N’ ROLL, a fairly slim volume which weaves webs of hilarity and drama out of (mostly) unknown figures at the dawn of pre-Elvis rock. It’s been years since I read that, but I remember laughing a lot while reading those stories.
I cannot say the same for WALK HARD, a pedestrian piece of movie-making that barely merits direct-to-DVD treatment. When the film was over, several of the audience members quietly groaned while others quickly got up and left; there was no applause and I heard nothing in the way of positive comments from anyone leaving the theater. As I walked out of the theater, a woman speaking to a friend of hers said “The best part of that movie was the songs, but I don’t think that was really the point.” I imagine a lot of viewers walked out with the same impression.
Bottom line – WALK HARD is a boring film and I recommend it to no one.
I was at the 7pm preview screening of WALK HARD off Times Square in NYC on November 1. Before the film, we were told by one of the managers that this was NOT the completely finished film, but aside from some minor editing issues and a few half-done special effects – and a few gratuitous shots of schlongs that will probably be relegated to the unrated DVD version – it looked like a finished film.
Straight to the point – WALK HARD was a boring movie. It was not awful, and nowhere near good, but just bland and forgettable. I think John C. Reilly is an okay actor, and he’s definitely one of the better guys they could have found to play a musician in a film (I liked his musical role in A PRARIE HOME COMPANION), but he can’t save this failure.
I did virtually no research on this film prior to seeing it, but one headline I saw compared it to AIRPLANE – which is just inaccurate and baffling. At least one major factor (out of many) shoots the analogy down – the question of whether it was essential to see the source material of the parodied subject prior to seeing the parody film.
With AIRPLANE, the main subject of parody was the airplane disaster film of the 1950s-1970s – especially ZERO HOUR, AIRPORT 1975, and other plane disaster dramas. Now honestly, how many of us ever saw ANY plane-themed disaster film prior to seeing AIRPLANE? How many of us loved AIRPLANE anyway? I count myself among those who grew up watching AIRPLANE without seeing the source material that it was mocking. And despite that fact, I have always loved AIRPLANE. It has so much happening in every shot, and all of it is so absurd, that it doesn’t matter if you’ve ever seen another movie in your life – it's a shotgun blast of comedy, and what is happening is so weird that it’s entertaining. The same could be said for HOT SHOTS, TOP SECRET!, THE NAKED GUN, AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON, or KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE.
Unfortunately, the same cannot really be said for WALK HARD. In this case, the primary source material appears to be WALK THE LINE, and Reilly’s story mirrors Johnny Cash (with a few doses of Bob Dylan, Jim Morrision, Brian Wilson aka Geico Caveman, and others). There is a lot in those time periods and using those influences that could add up to a lot of ambient laughs, but unfortunately, there is rarely anything inherently weird or funny happening at any given time in WALK HARD, and its humor seems to depend its references to other material. While I have not seen WALK THE LINE, I know much of the story of Johnny Cash and the early days of rock n’ roll. There are a few specifics that I didn’t know that I can now confidently guess based on the fact that the jokes were worn-out in WALK HARD. For example, I can guess that at some point in WALK THE LINE, Johnny Cash broke a sink, because the joke is repeated maybe a half-dozen times in WALK HARD, the final instance being a marathon attack of 6 sinks in a row. I suppose it might be entertaining if you just saw WALK THE LINE, but I thought it was tedious. In fact, the first half of the film is pretty tedious. Rather than a flood of jokes, there is the merest trickle.
The best section of WALK HARD – and to me, the only part I would recommend that anyone watches – happens after the title shows that it’s 1966. Mocking an interview that could be lifted straight from DON’T LOOK BACK, the film directly calls out Bob Dylan from about 1963-1966, a time when he was making protest music and eventually went into full surrealist gear. It’s funny stuff, partially because it perfectly captures Dylan’s elusiveness, partially because it seems so creatively ad-libbed. The song parodies from this era are excellent – one is a protest song calling for midget rights, the other is a whacked out Dylan fever dream to the nth degree. (The other good song parody is a double-entendre-laden number between Reilly and his Roseanne Cash stand-in soon after they meet.)
However, this otherwise pretty-good section of the film quickly devolves into an extended parody of the Beatles’ trip to India in 1968 (featuring a cameo by Jack Black as Paul McCartney and some pretty awful English accents all around). Reilly at this point turned into an observer while the Beatles sparred with one another. I smiled through this stuff, but I couldn’t help but think that not only is this an easy time period to satirize, but it’s been done better elsewhere. To be honest, the actual history of this time is probably more entertaining than what made it into WALK HARD.
Also entertaining was the cleavage on Jenna Fischer (as the Roseanne Cash stand-in). There is plenty of nudity in the earlier half of this film, but unfortunately it does not involve her. At any rate, I’m alternately pleased and sorry to say that Jenna Fischer’s cleavage was one of the few highlights of the screening.
As I mentioned before, this film appeared to be mostly-finished from a technical standpoint, and clocked in somewhere near 100 minutes. There were some obvious editing issues – when Reilly played catch with his son late in the film, the lines were obviously overdubbed while he stood there with his mouth closed. Editing also seemed to be an issue with the ending sequence – it appeared to be in a bit of flux, with some abrupt cuts and leaden jokes that should be trimmed out because they elicited more groans than laughs. There were also some unfinished special effects – the “force ghosts” that appeared at the end of the film looked complete, but Reilly’s ghostly brother (who appeared throughout the film) and a few of the kids during the catch game towards the end seemed airbrushed into the frames. Otherwise, this film appeared to be technically fine.
Something that the censors probably won’t find to be fine is the recurring joke of casually inserting the roadie’s package into the frame every now and then. It happened 3 times that I remember, and it got some of the biggest audience reaction (and not exactly positive – people next to me were looking away whenever it happened). I guess this is a “treat” for the future owners of the “unrated” DVD.
Something that happens when I go to a poor movie is that I recall better forms of entertainment, and WALK HARD was inspirational in this regard. My advice if you are interested in the subject matter and would like to be genuinely entertained is to check out Nick Tosches’ book UNSUNG HEROES OF ROCK N’ ROLL, a fairly slim volume which weaves webs of hilarity and drama out of (mostly) unknown figures at the dawn of pre-Elvis rock. It’s been years since I read that, but I remember laughing a lot while reading those stories.
I cannot say the same for WALK HARD, a pedestrian piece of movie-making that barely merits direct-to-DVD treatment. When the film was over, several of the audience members quietly groaned while others quickly got up and left; there was no applause and I heard nothing in the way of positive comments from anyone leaving the theater. As I walked out of the theater, a woman speaking to a friend of hers said “The best part of that movie was the songs, but I don’t think that was really the point.” I imagine a lot of viewers walked out with the same impression.
Bottom line – WALK HARD is a boring film and I recommend it to no one.
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I'm definately seeing it.
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Sounds, well - Boring! like you say not exactly the kind of source material you would pick to make a spoof movie of!
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Did they also see the remake of Texas Chainsaw before the real TCM?
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Honest to God ... I knew nothing about this film and based on the title thought it was a parody of "Die Hard" and other action movies of that genre. Perhaps the producers should've gone with that idea instead.
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Airplane Rules!
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This review actually made me want to see the movie more.
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Really good review, and I will not be seeing this movie. Although to be honest I probably wouldn't have even before the review. I also haven't seen Walk the Line and don't intend to; I think I maybe chuckled once during the trailer- not a good sign. Take a trailer like the red-band one for Superbad, and I knew I was seeing that right away. Not Walk the Line one though.
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...but when my wife finished watching the trailer, she said "the jury's still out on this one". I thought it was hilarious. Perhaps Dr. Jazzhands (aka Omar) is right. Maybe the film makers are trying too hard to make it "Talladega Nights". I just wish he could have at least gotten "June Carter Cash" correct in his review - "Roseanne Cash" is Johnny's daughter fer crying out loud. That detail in his review made me wonder if Omar is clued in enough to get the joke, but, he did point out dismal audience reaction in the screening. Maybe the film makers will heed screener reactions. I'm still looking forward to this, even as a rental
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Or did the description of John C Reilly going awol on 6 consecutive sinks sound pretty funny? I don't remember that from WALK THE LINE though.
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Knowing Apatow, I'm sure they'll test screen the hell out of it. Shame about Jenna Fischer nudity, although I find myself looking forward to even the slightest cleavage...that woman is smokin'.
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Roseanne Cash is Johnny's daughter. June Carter Cash broke up Johnny Cash's first marriage to Vivian. Is the Jenna Fischer storyline a running incest joke?
I don't recall many sink breaking scenes in WALK THE LINE either. So, maybe the reviewer doesn't know what he's talking about. -
made me not want to see it.
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I just do not see him as funny. I love Tim and Eric and him on that show just isn't funny either. He is like a bad Ethan Suplee at best. Also parodies are a fine art, and the only people ever to perfect it are the Zuckers and Abrams. The only movie that comes close to being as good as them is Not Another Teen Movie. Even Scary Movie 4 was better then most parodies though the Zuckers worst. I just realized that the people behind Not Another Teen Movie had nother to Do with Epic, Date, or the up coming Spartan movie. So I was going to say they killed the parody, but it was those other guys. I want this movie to be good but I just don't see it. Plus as for Pam being hot?? You guys are boners, she is decent at best, I guess she is hot in that way that she is the only decent looking girl in a pool of ugly girls is hot, which is why she works so well in the Office. Because if she were really hot it would not make sense. Plus it has Tim Medows, and the only thing funny he has been associated with was Mean Girls. I don't really count him as an SNL member because like in all his time there he maybe has like a hour of screen time, he just isn't funny. Chris Parnell though is.
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...then I'm going to puke in the aisle of the theater. Or maybe somewhere on my floor, because I can see myself just renting this one someday. The trailer didn't make me laugh once, but there was lots of wincing. I adore Apatow and co., but not everything the guy is somewhat attached to is going to be gold. I already hated Talladega Nights, so I'm prepared for a laughless experience with this one. That's alright, though. Can't wait for Pineapple Express.
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Reilly is a lot better than ok. If this guy doesn't recognize this, I don't really care about his opnion on the rest of the film. I haven't seen it, but the songs are fantastic.
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Does anyone remember how funny that guy is in Boogie Nights? And he can sing too, he was pretty good in Chicago. Tim Meadows is the fucking man! Leon Phelps baby! This movie is gonna be great....I hope.
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Watch the bonus material on the Boogie Nights DVD when he's coked out of his mind and you'll be singing a different tune.
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Nov 07, 2007 11:23:43 AM CST
'there is rarely anything inherently weird or funny happening at
by vanderhorst
this is the same for Apatow movies, and it's the reason they are so popular: You have to get it to get it. The jokes will not be oviously explained to you. This is postmodern comedy for the postmodern world.
That said, the ads do look weaker than Apatow's previous efforts, so this review may well be valid, but I question its credibility when Apatow's very conceit is what seems to be misunderstood, here. -
If you like silly parody comedy. I'm willing to be 5 bucks on it. If you think the trailer is stupid, you probably won't like the movie, I'm betting.
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Nov 07, 2007 11:38:53 AM CST
I've never seen an Airport movie, they should remake it...
by the dum guy
And, somehow tie-in the post 9/11 mentality... I have no idea what that means.
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has the touch..he's got the po-wer..HE'S A WIN-NER!!!
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You're so right! Talladega Nights was some of the subtlest comedies I've seen in ages!
Douchebag. -
Going AWOL on a sink doesn't make any sense if you know what AWOL means. Please don't try to use words you don't understand. By the way, there is a scene in Walk the Line where a pissed-off Johnny Cash rips a metal sink off a wall, although I don't think he rips it off completely. I believe it occurs after he has a fight with June.
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I stopped reading at about that point. Not that I consider knowledge of the source material to be integral to the enjoyment of its parody, but when someone goes on at length about how much they know about Johnny Cash, and then mix up his daughter (Roseanne) and his wife (June Carter), I feel no need to bother with their piece.
That having been said, I wasn't much of a fan of Talladega Nights, and am hoping this ends up less...not funny. -
roadie's 'packages' have been known to be 'casually inserted' into many more things than shots in a movie... consider it a nod to tradition
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I clearly meant LINDA Carter...
No really, Jenna Fischer is the June Carter Cash stand-in.
I sent this review to AICN within a few hours of getting back home from the theater (yeah, it's that old) and felt that it would be more pure if it I didn't sit on it to check the facts. It was a quick snapshot of a review, not a doctoral thesis. But damn, I wish I'd have remembered the right Carter when it counted. -
Yeah, some of the managers at the screening mentioned in a conversation that "this company likes to run a lot of test screenings." I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot more in coming weeks, especially since they announced that this wasn't the final version.
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Yes, some of the songs ARE fantastic. Some are only slightly funny and are very close to being straight-ahead rock or country - like the title song, which I admit has been stuck in my head all week. Still, this was supposed to be a comedy, and since the film wasn't very funny, some nice music tossed in among the sparse jokes doesn't really make it less of a disappointment.
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In this version, Jack White had an extended cameo of probably just over a minute. It happened maybe 30 minutes into the film. It's after he - as Elvis - comes off the stage and meets Reilly's character. White was pretty good doing a psycho kung fu Elvis. I would have liked to see him pop up every now and then in different eras, to be honest. At the end of the film, he shows up again in a very quick flashback during the final song and pulled, I think, a switchblade on Reilly back when they were at the stage sequence earlier in the film. I don't know what will happen to the switchblade scene for the final version, because as I said, the last scene (a big montage) was in need of some work.
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Very well, "ape shit". Better?
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I know what it means, my father was in the military. I'd heard "awol" also used in terms of saying someone went crazy, that's why I used it. Guess I was wrong, my bad.
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Yes, until I found the film's poster online, I thought the same thing - I thought a film with this name would be a parody of DIE HARD.
I think there is definitely room for a parody of biopics, but I thought that this didn't do much with the material. There were a lot of slow and too-serious parts of this film, and it only occasionally ever went into high gear (like the Dylan section). -
Yes, Reilly can definitely sing. And something he does well here is sing in a lot of different styles, adapting to each era. Unfortunately, Reilly's technically good performance can't hide that most of the songs and jokes aren't very funny.
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It looks better than the rut of bad spoof movies we've gotten lately - Date Movie, Epic Movie, Comebacks, Scary Movie 2,3,4 - but not even anywhere near close to classics like Airplane. Probably worth seeing - also, these movies get funnier each time you watch them, so that's a plus too.
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this has cameos by Jack White and Jack Black? I knew the Jack White as Elvis, but I had no idea about Jack Black as Paul, that is funny. anyways yeah Aptow will probably test screen this in every market, big and small, until only about 20% of the population hasn't seen it Mullah well written review, I don't know if I AGREE because it looks funny as all get out to me, but it was still a well written reviewas for the sink ripping scene I'd assume it calls back Johnny's trashing scenes, however I would take a look at it as all the infamous rock stars who trash hotel rooms/houses (not just Johnny, but Elvis, et al) in history
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I didn't say shit about Talladega Nights, except possibly that Walk Hard looks like it could be better or worse than Walk Hard. Really. Do you sit on here waiting to refer to someone as some variety of cumcatcher? I mean, douchebag, sure, funny word, but being an asshole for no reason, that's just what is is, innit. Cheers
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First of all, I don't understand any reviewer who knows JCR from A Prairy Home Companion. Even more disturbing is the notion that JCR isn't funny. Have none of you seen Boogie Nights? His performance in that film alone is enough reason to consider him a comic genious. Also, the comment about Zucker/Abrams is pretty on target, but I find it hard to believe that Mel Brooks can't be considered good at parody. Spaceballs? Young Frankenstein? Blazing Saddles? Don't these count? Anyway, here are some good parodies in my opinion that those who enjoyed Airplane might like:
Airplane II - not quite as good as the orginal but still solid.
Police Squad - the precursor to The Naked Gun trilogy. Brilliant
The Naked Gun (I - III) - All pretty solid.
Top Secret - Val Kilmer? Sure, why not.
Hot Shots Part Deux - superior to the first incarnation.
National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 - a rare hit from their camp. Dennis Leary, William Shatner, and Tim Curry split time as over-the-top villains. What happened to the titularly indicated sequels? -
Nice syntax in your post, and interesting word usements. "Even Scary Movie 4 was better then most parodies though the Zuckers worst." Jesus...
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I mentioned Reilly's performance from "A Prairie Home Companion" because it involved him doing musical comedy. It's been a much longer time since I saw "Boogie Nights" and I can't remember if he did any musical comedy in that role.
And yeah, Mel Brooks was great up until he shat out "Robin Hood: Men in Tights." But in Mel Brooks films, I never felt like it was essential to know the source material - he seemed to use it more as an outline to set up his own wacked-out stories rather than rely on other films to generate laughs in his. "Spaceballs" - which I did like - seemed to be a turning point, though, since it had a lot of direct references. That's what my memory tells me, though, since I haven't watched any of those films in quite a while. -
...is for one of the dozen people who thought Taledega Nights was funny to say that this movie isn't. Then I will have faith in this film's hilarity.
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The time has come!
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If any role was tailor-made for Will Ferrell, this was it, but I suppose doing an "Airplane!/Naked Gun" -type parody was too low-rent even for him. Reilly's is a good character actor, but I don't think he can carry a film. Why didn't they use Seth Rogen? He's similarly uncharismatic and unattractive, but the kids all seem to love him.
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And I'm going to call it Die The Line.
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Nor does the review. Like Jim Curry, when they showed this trailer in a theater it was mostly met with silence.
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but I just watched an extended one on comingsoon.net, and it looks pretty funny to me. Of course, I've actually seen Walk the Line, so I know what they're parodying.
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The title will remain unchanged.
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what are you the grammar police?
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Nov 07, 2007 6:34:17 PM CST
I saw a test screening a month and some change back...
by monster a go-go
...and this guy's a little on, mostly off the money. The Beatles stuff is terrible (it's a cute sight gag, but then it goes nowhere, for way too long), but the ripping out sinks gag is hilarious, as is a recurring Tim Meadows drug gag (which I hope they didn't cut from your version, because I even wrote on the audience card it was my favorite part of the film). But unless they continue to flesh them out, many of the recurring gags either don't make sense or have too weak a pay-off. You definitely need a certain knowledge-base to enjoy this film, but it's not of WALK THE LINE (which I haven't seen), but rather American music history in general (one entire sequence spoofs both Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" and "We Are The World"). But Appatow is a mature comedian writing for a mature audience (even if he does it in an immature fashion, if that makes sense), that just makes it that much more satisfying when you get the jokes. The film is definitely too long - drags a lot in the midsection, and there's a lot of scenes in the trailer that I didn't even see (or remember seeing) in my cut. It's not Appatow's worst, but only because TALLADEGA NIGHTS was so bad.
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I'm more of a deputy. When I read shit like that, I have the power to make a citizen's grammar arrest under the "Questionable Credibility Act." It states that posts that are nonsensical and cause headaches in readers can be openly mocked.
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...like nuts need grapes. In other words ah shoot... D'oh!
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...I completely bungled Apatow's last name. It's that double "d" in his first name. Throws me off.
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....being dished out at Talladega Nights. I thought it was freakin' great!
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I'm not sure why I felt the need to capitalize the 'h' in 'hatred'. Maybe I'm just a little stoned, but I still thought Talladega Nights was magical.
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Sorry to hear you didn't like it, but it still looks a hell of a lot funnier than Friedberg and Seltzer's slop, like "Epic Movie" or "Date Movie," or, well, pretty much everything they've done.
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You are right that the Tim Meadows recurring drug gag was one of the better sequences of the film - and by far the best recurring gag. The very long first sequence dealing with marijuana was the best by a mile (the rest were a LOT shorter and it seemed to lose a little energy). If I could go back and add one thing to the review (other than to get the right Carter in there), it would be to mention this gag, because this part got some of the best responses from the crowd.
I don't recall any sequences spoofing either "We are the World" or Spector's "Wall of Sound." If they were extended sequences, then they were completely gone (unless you meant the one with Reilly using the aboriginal choir and the overwrought mix of musicians, which I took as more of a dig at Brian Wilson), but if they were extremely short, maybe I somehow missed them, though I never left the theater during the screening.
As far as recurring gags that have no payoff, I agree. I thought the "I lost my sense of smell" was probably the weakest. It really has no recurrence or payoff other than the "Smell that shit, honey!" episode in the last quarter of the film. The whole dad storyline was pretty lame, too. If those disappointed you before, then rest assured hen they are probably just as disappointing.
And as for dragging, I'd say the earliest section dragged the most (I guess aside from the psycho Elvis interlude). Until his film made it to 1966, I was really just sort of stunned by boredom, but as you even mentioned, the too-long Beatles section really squandered the energy that came out of nowhere with the Dylan section.
Also, we didn't get any chance to fill out comment cards. The overall lack of enthusiasm, especially at the end of the film, probably sent a message, though. -
... was the very first one. Tim Meadows: "Hang on a minute, son. Dewey Cox needs to think about his whoole life before he plays." Perfect parody of "Walk the Line" in one succinct sentence.
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Though that first one would have been pretty funny had I been going for irony.
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No amount of bad reviews will keep me away from seeing Reilly play Dewey Cox as a high school kid. And of course Jenna Fischer and all of her sexy-hotness.
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Nov 08, 2007 12:12:27 PM CST
stopped reading at marathon session of sink destruction
by slappy jones
because that sounds fucking funny to me. this review has made me want to see this film more than I did before.
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I saw it a few months back at a test screening and I thought it was fucking hilarious. The trailer does not do the film justice, nor does this review. Granted, it has been a few months now and my aging brain has grown foggy on a lot of the finer details, but I do remember laughing my ass off. Unless they've completely gutted the film in the last three months (which may have happened) I have to disagree strongly with this reviewer. Yes, there were some parts that dragged and a few of the running gags were kind of soft, but overall I thought it was great. Wayyyy better than the horrible parody films we've been stuck with for the last ten to fifteen years. so what if you have to know the source material to get some of the jokes, the same can be said of The Simpsons, or any other referential comedy.
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