Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)
by Jake Kasdan
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: David Krumholtz, Jenna Fischer, John C. Reilly, Raymond J. Barry, Tim MeadowsDirector: Jake Kasdan
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: Uta Briesewitz
Composer: Michael Andrews
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.40:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-08
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Movie Review: Was surprised I liked it so much.
Summary: 5 Stars
Warning, mild spoilers ahead! (Very mild, don't think they will spoil anything)
I bought this (or rather the bilingual Japanese version) from Amazon.co.jp, which is why it doesn't list me as having purchased it through Amazon.com. I bought this in the hopes that I could share it with students in a university Media class that I teach. I didn't have much in the way of expectations, mainly because I knew next to nothing about it before buying it (I don't know if it was even released theatrically here), but I found that I really liked this movie. I never thought I would like a film where not 1, but 2 people get halved with machetes -- I never, ever, ever, ever, never, never thought I would say that. But there you go, never ever say never.
What is this movie? A parody of Walk the Line? A genre by genre comedic dance of the history of American popular music? A tour de force for John C. Reilly? I think it is a bit of all of these things. I think one of the most important things about this film is that it shows that Reilly is much, much more than a sidekick for Will Ferrell. He is a genuine talent. I loved the fact that after the elementary school aged Dewey Cox, it is always Reilly, with no intermediate stage actors, playing the character. Somehow I found it really funny when the 6 foot 4 , 40 something Reilly, was playing 14 year old Cox asking his mom not to embarrass him in front of his friends.
Much like Jerry Lee Lewis, Cox gets a twelve year old girlfriend, but she is played by a 30 something year old actress. Utterly absurd (but not in the derogatory sense). Like many good movies, the supporting cast makes a big difference. Tim Meadows, SNL alum (the Ladies Man) was very good as the drummer who was with Cox since the beginning of his career, and was his gateway into spiraling decline by enabling his drug use, running the gambit as enabler from pot in the 50s, to Viagra in the modern day. How about Harold Ramis (I didn't recognize him until his 2nd or 3rd appearance) as a Hasidic record producer, or David Krumolz (Charlie from Numb3rs) as long time agent. Jack Black as Paul McCartney? Frank Muniz (Malcolm, form Malcolm in the Middle) as Buddy Holiday? This film was fun from a "Who the hell is that!?!?" name that cameo, perspective. --Please don't complain that Jack Black has almost no physical resemblance to Paul McCartney, that and his accent is spoofalicious, it is part of the gag.
Speaking of which, one of the cool things about this film was its effective use of the running gag. It is so easy to overuse or misuse such things, but from Meadows continuous admonition of "You don't want any of this!", just before he pulls Cox into a new form of drug abuse, to Cox's tendency to tear sinks out of bathroom walls as a metaphor for despair, to his father's horrible mantra, "The wrong son died!", somehow they seemed to play all these jokes pretty well. This film was all about hyperbole. It really seemed to capture so much of American music, and troubled musicians, by showing intentionally exaggerated to the breaking point versions of different character types.
I can't understand the 1 star reviews given to this film, but I guess you can't argue taste, perhaps especially so in terms of humor. Either you get it or you don't. I think I got it. His wife, 13 or 14 years old at the time, already with a several kids (though remember, the actress is in her 30s), using as her telephone sign off, "I love you, you're going to fail!," or Cox not realizing that bigamy was illegal ("What, even if your famous?") was pretty genuinely funny.
I hope that this film makes a lot of money as a dvd, gains a following, and maybe cult status, because apparently it didn't get much notice in the theaters. I really want the powers that be to be encouraged to allow more, similarly creative stuff, and for John C. Reilly (and Harold Ramis, and Tim Meadows, and the other creative folks too numerous to mention) to be in a lot more things. This is not a Ferrell & Reilly comedy, minus Ferrell. This is its own, pretty cool thing that should be judged on its own (in my opinion) very high merits.
Summary of Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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