Review of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) by Kyle F — 02 Jan 2010

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is a American comedy film, written and produced by Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan, directed by Jake Kasdan and starring John C. Reilly. The Dewey Cox persona borrows from several prolific figures in rock history, but mainly Johnny Cash. The plot echoes the storyline of 2005's Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line; Walk Hard is also a parody of the biopic genre as a whole.

Fictional musician Dewey Cox begins his quest for stardom from humble beginnings in Springberry, Alabama in 1946. While playing with his brother Nate in a sequence of needlessly careless and dangerous acts, talking about the things he plans to do in his long life, Dewey accidentally cuts his brother in half at the waist with a machete. This leads Dewey's father to frequently repeat the phrase "The wrong kid died." It is this traumatic event that motivates Dewey to rise to stardom and "be double great for the both of us" as Nate made him promise. The trauma also causes Dewey to lose his sense of smell. After his brother's death is announced by a physician making a housecall, Dewey's mother sends him to the local store to buy a candle. There, he meets a blues guitarist, who lets Dewey play his guitar. Dewey is a natural.

After a successful, yet oddly controversial, talent show performance, then fourteen-year-old Dewey (now played by John C. Reilly) decides to leave Springberry with his newly-identified twelve-year-old girlfriend Edith (Kristen Wiig). They soon marry and have a baby. Edith begins to criticize Dewey and insist that his dream of being a musician will never happen. Dewey preaches to his wife that life is never easy; it's a long hard walk, but he will walk hard. While working at an all-African American nightclub, Dewey gets a break when he replaces singer Bobby Shad at the last minute, much to the delight of the Hasidic Jewish executives at the show.

Dewey then is brought to the studio where he is interrupted while recording a rendition of "That's Amore". The recording executive berates Dewey as talentless. Backed into a corner, Dewey makes the first recording of "Walk Hard", the song inspired by the speech Dewey gave to Edith. The song is an immediate success and launches Dewey's career.

I loved this movie and I watched it many times since it came out in '07 and the jokes never get funny. It manages to stick a joke into every line, and every joke is great. I laughed throughout the movie and the songs were great, almost makes you wish Dewey Cox was a real singer, now that would be a concert I would pay to see. Judd Apatow again shows us his comic genius with another pretty solid project. Reilly is the big draw here, finally starring in his own comedy role after co-starring with Will Ferrell, and a slew of others in random, recent comedies. He's pretty damn funny in this film. So if your looking for a good comedy I would recommand this one, because comedies are suppose to make you laugh throughout, and this film sure does. This ain't for no kiddies. 5 stars out of 5 for me on this one!!!!!