Walk Hard:
The Dewey Cox Story

Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 36 minutes
Directed by: Jake Kasdan

Starring:
John C. Reilly - Dewey Cox
Jenna Fischer - Darlene Madison
Tim Meadows - Sam
Chris Parnell - Theo
Matt Besser - Dave
Kristen Wiig - Edith
Raymond J. Barry - Pa Cox

Just like knowing that one day Creed and Limp Bizkit would run out their fifteen minutes of fame, Walk Hard is a glorious foregone conclusion. The spoof sub-genre has been sullied over the past years by the anti-laughter created by the Scary Movies, Date Movie, and Epic Movie (anti-laughter: a black hole from which no humor can escape) so it was overdue for someone to come along and do it right. John C. Reilly is a tremendous, untapped comic talent, only showing us glimpses of his ability in Talladega Nights. Recent Oscar-bait music biopics have been so stale and uninspired that they were ripe for parody. Walk Hard may not re-invent the spoof genre or attempt real emotion like other comedies this year, but there's no shame in just making people laugh for 100 minutes, especially if you do it damn well.

If you've seen Ray or Walk the Line, you'll already know the plot of a popular icon who must defeat the demons of his past in order to overcome the drugs and selfishness of his past. He does this through the power of a good woman and clean living. Walk Hard may be a little too on-the-nose in its lampooning, but most of the time, it's like the good friend joining in our mockery of these simplistic biopics. And yet, despite the pitch-perfect story beats and character development, the film never feels predictable or stale. It's a film where everyone will walk away with different favorite scenes, all of which play on familiar moments of music biopics, but all pushed beyond the easy and obvious joke, and none of which I will spoil here.

So while Walk Hard may seem like an obvious accomplishment and one that shouldn't be rewarded for an easy victory, but there's nothing wrong in acknowledging a spoof that excels in its sub-genre, even if it doesn't exceed the sub-genre's pre-conceived limitations.

Words by
Matt Goldberg
11.28.07

Rating: 8.9 out of 10