Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Rating: 2/10
Walk Hard is a portrayal of fictional music legend Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly). He’s slept with 411 women, married three of them, spawned 22 children and 14 stepchildren. He starred in his own 70’s TV show, befriended Elvis, The Beatles, a chimpanzee, has taken all drugs known to man, and has tried to get off all of them. Thanks to this mystique, or in spite of it, Cox has become a national idol.
Hollywood’s hottest comedy talent of the moment has struck again: this time, hit producer and screenwriter Judd Apatow (“Knocked Up
Walk Hard, which also features past and present Saturday Night Live cast members, is much like Cox’s career itself — at times things are looking up, other times they’re dreadful. In my opinion, the finest SNL feature film remains “A Night At The Roxbury” which never took itself seriously, but also managed to be dramatically believable. “Walk Hard” makes the mistake of taking topics which are not satire-worthy like Johhny Cash losing his older brother or Ray Charles his eyesight, and trying to cash in on jokes from them. Admittedly, Cox’s loss of smell does land a few jokes later on in the film, but for a clever man like Apatow, these gutter dunks are unforgiveable.
Though I thought the premise was a bit primitive, I was really looking forward to seeing Reilly in a starring role. I thorougly enjoyed his role as a monologue pick-me-up cop in Magnolia. I would have to say that he ties with William H. Macy as its finest feature. In a way, I can understand the allure of playing the starring role in a big Hollywood production. On the other hand, Reilly should take his fine acting chops to higher ground, and stay away from low-brow junk like “Walk Hard” and the garbage Will Ferrell collaborations (“Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Rick Bobby”, “Step Brothers”).
Buy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2-Disc Unrated Edition) [Blu-ray]
