Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
A spoof of every music film from The Doors to Walk The Line, producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, Anchorman) brings us the story of Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly), a struggling blues musician who makes it big, has troubles with the missus, ignores his kids, goes on a spiritual journey with the Beatles, and does all the stuff that guitar-strumming heroes usually do. The star-studded comedy features Jack White (The White Stripes) as Elvis Presley, Jason Schwartzman as Ringo Starr and Paul Rudd as John Lennon.
Reviews & comments
Village Voice
pressThis burlesque of biopic clichés flounders from one setup to the next without the engine that drives the genre: a strong central character.
Variety
pressStrums the genre for considerable laughs, with John C. Reilly playing the title balladeer from teen to senior citizen, generating enough goodwill to offset the flat sections and a decidedly juvenile streak.
The Guardian
pressHollywood's comedy king Judd Apatow has sadly brought his B-game to this moderate spoof.
New York Daily News
pressThis kind of parody is hard to sustain for an hour and a half, and "Walk Hard" does gets wearying at times. But the humor is so outrageous, the original music so much fun and Reilly so good - both while hamming it up in the role and in singing the songs - that it's irresistible.
Los Angeles Times
pressWalk Hard also benefits from being written for the exceptional John C. Reilly, one of the few serious dramatic actors who has a true gift for comedy. And he can sing, too, 15 monumental spoofs, as clever as they are melodic, that cover the musical waterfront from rockabilly to punk and include one last riff after the final credits roll.
Empire Magazine
pressJohn C Reilly just about holds together a funny but patchy comedy that puts a ten-megaton bomb under the cliched rock biopic – and never detonates it.
BBC
pressThere’s a certain emotion, thanks largely to the humanity of Reilly, one of our best supporting actors graduating to star status, finally bound for glory.
What could have been a truly funny film taking of Johnny Cash turned out to be a real waste of time and effort should have left this idea on the shelf
This is funny, a few times laugh out loud. And John C. Reilly is real likeable. But spoofs are boring. I reckon this would be better if they ditched all the homage/spoof stuff and just made a comedy about a musician. I find the spoof aspect predictable. The film ends in an annoyingly sappy way also. But considering all that, pretty good.
Village Voice
pressThis burlesque of biopic clichés flounders from one setup to the next without the engine that drives the genre: a strong central character.
Variety
pressStrums the genre for considerable laughs, with John C. Reilly playing the title balladeer from teen to senior citizen, generating enough goodwill to offset the flat sections and a decidedly juvenile streak.
The Guardian
pressHollywood's comedy king Judd Apatow has sadly brought his B-game to this moderate spoof.
New York Daily News
pressThis kind of parody is hard to sustain for an hour and a half, and "Walk Hard" does gets wearying at times. But the humor is so outrageous, the original music so much fun and Reilly so good - both while hamming it up in the role and in singing the songs - that it's irresistible.
Los Angeles Times
pressWalk Hard also benefits from being written for the exceptional John C. Reilly, one of the few serious dramatic actors who has a true gift for comedy. And he can sing, too, 15 monumental spoofs, as clever as they are melodic, that cover the musical waterfront from rockabilly to punk and include one last riff after the final credits roll.
Empire Magazine
pressJohn C Reilly just about holds together a funny but patchy comedy that puts a ten-megaton bomb under the cliched rock biopic – and never detonates it.
BBC
pressThere’s a certain emotion, thanks largely to the humanity of Reilly, one of our best supporting actors graduating to star status, finally bound for glory.
What could have been a truly funny film taking of Johnny Cash turned out to be a real waste of time and effort should have left this idea on the shelf
This is funny, a few times laugh out loud. And John C. Reilly is real likeable. But spoofs are boring. I reckon this would be better if they ditched all the homage/spoof stuff and just made a comedy about a musician. I find the spoof aspect predictable. The film ends in an annoyingly sappy way also. But considering all that, pretty good.
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