Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story | Jacquie Kubin saw, Comedy | DONNE TEMPO
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
April/20/08 08:33 PM Filed in: Jacquie Kubin
saw | Comedy
My personal favorites being the rendition of Bowie’s "Starman" (1972) and the 1974 Paper Lace classic "Billy Don’t Be A Hero."
But that is about where my interests in the movie ended.
Accepting that the films goal is not to retell Walk The Line, but to make fun of the movie music biopic, the unending sophomoric humor takes the fun out of the film with regularity.
I truly believe the film could have been more cleverly fashioned to bring out the pop culture history and music influences instead of relying on the same old tired sex and drugs joke.
For example, the scene in which Dewey begins his descent into the drugs and sex synonymous with rock n’ roll, there is a hotel scene with more full frontal nudity than I needed to see, including one “roadie” who had the most peculiar, lemon-shaped single testicle.
And while the nudity did not bother me, after the first few seconds, it began to tire me.
There were quite a few things that caused me to laugh out loud, including when Dewey Cox and his band Sam (Tim Meadows), Dave (Matt Besser) and Theo (Chris Parnell) all meet the Yogi Maharishi with the Beatles (Jack Black as Paul McCartney, Paul Rudd as John Lennon, Justin Long as George Harrison and Jason Schwartzman as Ringo.) The essence of The Beatles, as a band and as individuals, is captured with just enough sincerity to allow the comedy to be brilliant.
A bit more editing, some stronger pop-culture references, and a little less self-indulgence and reliance on the same quickly tiring joke on the part of writers Judd Apatow (producer) and Jake Kasdan (director) and The Dewey Cox story could have been a lot more.
The oxymoron is that while there is a lot to like about this film, just when things begins to get interesting, such as Dewey’s lament to being an outlaw in Guilty As Charged, out comes the 600 lb gorilla of sex and drugs. It got to be like the 6 year old telling the same knock-knock joke over and over.
After a while, it seemed that the movie was an unending revolution, not unlike a skipping 45rpm. It really felt as though I were being hit over the head over and over with Dewey’s big secret (he macheted his brother in two), his fathers hate and the temptations of being a musician – drugs, sex and more drugs and sex.
Personally, I would have liked to see Riley in a vehicle that would have allowed him to develop himself as a talent, verses rehashing much of Will Farrell’s “schtick” including running through the streets in his underwear and the hang dog blank star – with and without a bit of drool.
Riley’s talent as a leading actor with chameleon like ability to convince the audience of his age, be it be teen or geriatric, along with his extremely fine vocal talents deserves another chance.
The movie had a few moments, such as when an again Dewey Cox, preparing to accept his final Lifetime Achievement award walks past The Temptations singing “My Girl,” grabs his head and wails, “Oh The Temptations.”
A bit more of that quality humor, and a bit less reliance on double entendres, bawdy behavior, and full frontal nudity, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story might have been worth the two hours.
Unfortunately it wasn’t.
The Goods: The Music. An extra on the second disk offers sixteen full length music videos of the songs, some never even shown in the movie. Watching the series showing Reilly in action is great fun. Better Yet, a pair of faux documentaries are better than the movie.
The Mandatory extras: A good buddy commentary track with writer Judd Apatow, director Jake Kasdan, producer Lew Morton, and John C. Reilly along with the obligatory behind the scenes featurettes
Above and Beyond: "American Cox: The Unbearably Long, Self-Indulgent Directors Cut" along with song demos by the composers. Of course, Marshal Crenshaw's "Walk Hard" is the stand out.