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Walk Hard -The Dewey Cox Story (2007) Certificate 15

Walk Hard -The Dewey Cox Story
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Rated 3.0 stars
Average rating
(58%)
 
Starring: Kristen Wiig | Jenna Fischer | Tim Meadows | John C. Reilly | Jonah Hill | Ed Helms | Jack McBrayer
Director: Jake Kasdan
Studio: SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 92 mins
Genres: Audio Descriptive | Comedy
Languages: English, English Audio Description
Dubbed: Polish, Hungarian, Czech
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: Croatian, Icelandic, Dutch, Lithuanian, Finnish, Romanian, Slovene, Danish, Slovak, Estonian, Greek, Hindi, Czech, Norwegian, Serbian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, English, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish
Released: May 12, 2008

Somewhere between pitch-perfect parodies from Christopher Guest and Co. (such as THIS IS SPINAL TAP and A MIGHTY WIND) and slapstick spoofs (such as AIRPLANE and NAKED GUN) resides the farcical biopic WALK HARD - THE DEWEY COX STORY. Taking the critically lauded Johnny Cash biopic WALK THE LINE as its most obvious inspiration, WALK HARD plows its way through every rock star cliche--from drug use and rampant sex to artistic self-indulgence and spiritual redemption--laying waste to all of them with unremitting blasts of brilliantly lowbrow comedy. Written by Judd Apatow and starring Jon C. Reilly in the title role, WALK HARD is a deliciously basic synthesis of any number of ponderous biographical narratives with the poetic raunchiness of Apatow films, such as SUPERBAD and KNOCKED UP, and the most lovably inane aspects of Reilly's role as Cal Naughton Jr. in TALLEDEGA NIGHTS. In fact, fans will have a blast spotting the endless array of cameos by the gifted comic actors who pepper all of those films, including Jonah Hill, Kristin Wiig, Ed Helms, and Jack McBrayer, among many others. Although Reilly (whose comedic chops are on par with his skills as a dramatic player) is hilarious as the hapless rock n' roll icon Cox, and Jenna Fischer is utterly charming and slyly multifaceted as Darlene Madison (June to Dewey's Johnny), it's the ensemble cast that makes the film so much fun.

Screenshots

Rating of 3 stars out of 5
Time Out

James Mangolds 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line receives a thorough horsewhipping from Judd Apatow and...

Highest rated reviews

22 out of 22 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 0.0 stars
walk hard

A Customer from Bristol, 24th January, 2008

this is truly the worst film i have ever seen. so poor you wanna leave the cinema to go home and do the ironing. hugely disappointing.

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19 out of 21 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
I laughed....HARD !

PaulaWestwood from , 28th January, 2008

I can't see where bad reviews of this come from, its an almost carbon copy spoof of the more than decent Walk the Line, and with some very tongue in cheek gags, daft humour and intentionally hammed up acting, this played my ribcage like a xylophone, maybe the weak reviews are because you just need a certain sense of humour for this, and all in my screening of this seemed to have it because the cinema was in uproar. A good bit of riotous rock n roll that is guaranteed to chase away the blues. A complete gigglefest that I would not hesitate to recommend.

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12 out of 12 people found the following review helpful:

*** May contain spoilers ***


Rated 3.0 stars
Apatows latest fials to hit the mark

Meako from , 14th January, 2008

Judd Apatow has been behind a fair number of comedies over the past couple of years. He had a hand in 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad, amongst others. So, with such a fine quota of work behind him this years films are hotly anticipated. First out the gate is Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox story. The film is a parody of those music biographies that have become so cliche in recent years, such as Ray, The Doors, and Walk The Line. Starring John C Reilly as Dewey Cox, a musician who seeks to be the best after the tragic death of his brother, the film mines all the aforementioned biogs (and a few more) to lampoon the nature of those films, not the musicians themselves. Such material should provide plenty of opportunity for laughs, but sadly the film falls short. The problems in this film are many. Some gags are funny at first (such as how people playing other real-life celebs such as Elvis or Big Boppa look nothing like them) but wear out a bit as the film drags out another poor casting decision, prompting us to recognize them by constantly repeating their name. The smattering of jokes around Cox's name are obvious gags, and also wear thin pretty fast. In fact, quite a substantial number of gags are repeated so much that they begin to irritate more than entertain. The comic timing of Reilly, which has been proven when he plays second fiddle to more skilled comics such as Will Ferrell (Talledega Nights) lacks punch, although this could be down to the director not knowing when to call cut or do a reshoot. For the first 45 minutes the film can't decide what type of parody it want to be, a farce, a gross out, or subtle, and also takes itself a bit too seriously to be comfortable watching. With all this against it the film sits uneasy. Thankfully the second half of the film picks up a bit, with an amusing encounter with The Beatles being a highlight, or a Bob Dylan comparison, or a song about midgets which should bust a few guts in the audience. Sadly these high point come too late, and are too few to lift the film above an average overall experience. Not quite a flop, but the first Apatow film which seems to be struggling for material.

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11 out of 12 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 0.0 stars
Abysmal!!

mikeyj47 from , 8th February, 2008

This is quite possibly the worst film I have ever seen. I can't believe I wasted an hour and a half of my life watching this garbage. Everyone involved with this 'comedy' should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. Abysmal!

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Most recent reviews

Rated 4.0 stars
Legend!

CoxyF from from Chester, England, 26th February, 2010

Comedy genius, this is one funny as F*** film, just love it!

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Rated 0.0 stars
Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story

benwelling from from London, 9th February, 2010

A star would suggest that a movie has some kind of shining glimmer of light to it's merit. The more stars, the brighter the light. Any possible hope of Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story brightening up your day is well and truly smothered by the massive dollop of turd the sits over the entire film. The jokes are not predictable, no one could predict they could be that bad, the 'acting' implies these people are oblivious to the camera and are just that stupid. The script, after being butchered by rubbish gags, slowly and painfully flakes away like a mild skin irritation and would leave a bad taste in the mouth of those repeating it. Please do not waste your time with this movie, it's really not worth it. Seriously, you could do better, you might as well?

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Rated 4.0 stars
Walk Hard, Laugh Hard

MrXStitch from , 30th January, 2010

I've never given John C Reilly his dues - he's played second fiddle to Will Ferrell many times, so it's nice to see him take centre stage. If you want something to tickle your funny bones without too much effort, Walk Hard hits the spot nicely. A good dose of humour throughout the film with some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. Sure, it's not the most intellectually challenging film, but it never takes itself seriously, and there are some well-observed music/comedy touches. Definitely worth a watch.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 3.0 stars
Quite funny.

Goonersaurus from , 17th August, 2009

Quite funny. Nothing more and nothing less.

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