Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows, Harold Ramis, Frankie Muniz, Jack Black (uncredited), Jonah Hill (uncredited), Justin Long (uncredited), Paul Rudd (uncredited), Jason Schwartzman (uncredited), Craig Robinson
Directed by: Jake Kasdan
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Music
2007

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Follows the story of Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) and his rise, fall, and rise again in the music industry.

Review:

Tim: I really appreciate this movie because it does an excellent job of lampooning the musical biopic. This subgenre has long been a staple of Hollywood, but in recent years, has become too formulaic. This film makes an interesting commentary about how ridiculous it is getting. Films like Ray and Walk the Line are good movies, but far too predictable. This film does a good job of having some fun with that.

Character actor John C. Reilly has a rare chance to shine in the spotlight. He makes the most of it. He's likeable, charismatic, and hilarious as Dewey Cox. Movies like this fail when the cast wanders too far into the ridiculous. Reilly intelligently keeps it absurd, but in a plausible way. This greatly helps the movie. I loved the casting of Jenna Fischer. I'm a huge fan of her from "The Office," and she's terrific here. I wish she had more screen time, but I'll take every second I can get. The cast also has a number of humorous uncredited cameos, specifically Jack Black, Justin Long, Paul Rudd, and Jason Schwartzman as The Beatles.

The movie has some funny lines, but like so many of these spoofs, the laughs aren't nearly as frequent or as funny as they need to be. My favorite line of the film, "You can take the kids... but you leave me my monkey" is hilarious, but only takes up a few seconds of screen time. Too much of the film tries to parody the musical biopic in a humorous way, but it ends up not being all that funny.

Walk Hard surprisingly has some decent music (I actually enjoyed the titular song) and the cast seems to really be enjoying themselves. The movie should have been funnier, but I completely am in favor of anything that pokes fun at a subgenre that has felt all too stale in recent years. This isn't a great movie, but it accomplishes its mission. Check it out.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Ray, Walk the Line, The Glenn Miller Story, Mo' Better Blues