[DVD Review (R2)] WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY

Another month, another Judd Apatow movie release. It seems that there’s one released pretty much every month, either on DVD or in the cinema, so are we in danger of getting “Apatow-fatigue”? Or is this another comedy goldmine?

Plot

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story tells the tale of the life of Rock & Roll star Dewey Cox, as he overcomes the tragedy of slicing his older brother in half with a machete and becomes an overnight success at the age of 14, marries 3 times, sleeps with 411 women, fathers 22 children (and has another 14 step-children), makes friends with everyone from The Beatles to Elvis and a chimp, gets addicted to every drug known to man - and kicks all of them, and has his own TV show.

Along the way Dewey makes some of the best songs ever recorded and conquers pretty much all musical genres from the blues to hip hop, learns some hard life lessons and eventually tries to redeem himself with anyone he has ever let down and becomes a national icon.

And that’s pretty much it! This is obviously a parody of movies like Walk The Line, and almost every other biopic ever made, and as such it does follow the same kind of formula as the movies it’s parodying as in Dewey gets success, gets sucked into drugs, enters rehab and then makes a successful comeback - but the brilliance of it is that Judd Apatow & Jake Kasdan, who wrote the movie together with Kasdan directing, manage to convince you that Dewey isn’t a fictional character! They truly do manage to convince you that you are watching a “real” story, which just makes it even more funny and moving.

Yes, this is a funny movie. The jokes come so thick and fast that, while some do fall flat, you can pretty much guarantee that if something doesn’t make you laugh, ten seconds later you will be! And some of the things that would normally make you wince, or squirm, are handled in such a way that it makes them funny, believable & moving all at the same time - like when the young Dewey slices his brother in half with a machete. How do you make something like that funny? Well, Apatow & Kasdan manage it!

The star of the show, quite rightly, is John C Reilly as Dewey Cox. He is absolutely brilliant. He starts playing Dewy at the age of 14 (which should be quite off putting but for some reason isn’t!) right through to his old age and never once does he come out of character - trust me, I am going to find it hard to watch Reilly in anything else and not think of him as Dewey Cox!

Reilly is ably supported by the rest of the cast, especially the drummer Sam (played by Tim Meadows), who is mainly responsible for poor Dewey getting into all the drugs and the love of Dewy’s life, Darlene, played by Jenna Fischer.

But then there are all the cameos - and there are a lot of them - from the likes of Jack Black, Frankie Muniz, Jack White, Jason Schwartzman and Apatow regulars Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill. The amount of people they have gotten to take part in this is pretty amazing! And they all work. I mean, who in their right mind would cast Jack Black and Paul Rudd as Paul McCartney & John Lennon? Or Jack White as Elvis Presley? But they work!

So, lets forget about the brilliant script and wonderful cast for a moment. There is one other, very important, part of this movie. And that is the music. Dewey Cox is meant to have been an amazing recording artist, responsible for a lot of hit records and as such the music in the movie really had to be spot on. And it is! Michael Andrews, who is responsible for the soundtrack, has absolutely excelled himself. Not only are the songs toe-tappingly great (I still am struggling to get “Walk Hard” out of my head!) they’re also damn funny!

Special Features

Commentary with John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, and Director Jake Kasdan: I love interesting commentary tracks. You know the ones, where the director and cast talk about the movie totally honestly. And I am happy to say that this chat track was a joy to listen to as it’s not only interesting but also funny!

Full Song Performances: What musical biopic DVD would be complete without a set of full song performances? And that’s just what you get here!

Deleted and Extended Scenes: These extended and deleted scenes exist in that strange category where they could easily have been included in the finished movie, and they would have been just as good as the ones that were included.

Line-O-Rama: Just as a musical biopic DVD release isn’t complete without a set of full song performances neither would a Judd Apatow release be complete without a “Line-o-Rama”. So it’s a good job they included one!

The Music of Walk Hard: The cast and crew talk about the writing and recording process for the songs. Did you know John C Reilly could sing and play guitar? Well, he can! And very well indeed!

The Real Dewey Cox (Talkin’ Bout Cox): Watching this, you really do begin to wonder if you have somehow not heard about Dewey Cox and if he actually is real! There are so many stars in this talking about how much they love Cox, and how it’s because of Cox they got into the music industry etc and John C Reilly talks about how thrilled he is to play Cox as he looks so much like Cox etc. Yeah, the Cox jokes are easy, but also pretty funny!

I’ll be honest, I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get a little sick of Judd Apatow produced/written/directed comedies. Yes, I loved Knocked Up. Yes, Superbad is wonderful. And yes, I want to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall but I couldn’t help thinking that I was going to get sick and tired of his comedy. Well, I’m happy to say, that hasn’t happened yet. This is a fantastically funny movie, with great performances, wonderful direction from Jake Kasdan and brilliant songs. I’ve seen people comparing this to This Is Spinal Tap, as they both exist in the same genre of musical biopic parody, and this is easily as good as ..Tap. Forget about renting. Get down the shops and buy it!

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is released on Region 2 DVD on the 12th of May 2008.

Posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 2:52 pm under DVD Reviews (R2) by Gareth.
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