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"Creativity"

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story Review

Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Tim Meadows

Director: Jake Kasdan

Year: 2007

Walk Hard is one of my type of comedies that I see a lot. Meaning it has this usual cast of characters, really funny, some vulgar humor, and there’s probably a dick joke somewhere. But for some reason this movie was never in my radar of these types of movies. Then when I saw it, and it was better than a lot of those movies, I wanted to know why. And I assume it’s because it lost money in the box office. Well the box office be damned! I love this movie, and I’ll tell you why. One, I love movies that go through an entire character’s life. Forrest Gump, Benjamin Button, you get the idea. But not often is it used for a comedy. But I think it worked. You feel for this character, and really like the story. Dewey Cox basically kills his brother with a machete, decides to live his life for the both of them, and takes on his music career. And so the adventure goes from there, and it’s funny. It parodies a lot of musicians, the ways celebrities act, and stuff like that. Instead of making Elvis Presley and the Beatles cool, they make guys like Jack Black and Paul Rudd play them with funny accents. And some of the jokes I didn’t catch, sorry, I didn’t grow up in this time period. But my mom watched with me once, and she laughed at parts I never really got. And I like about ninety percent of the jokes, and usually laugh at them. This was one movie I think the second time around was when I really laughed the most, and from there on it’s still worth watching ever now and then. But back to the ninety percent things, some jokes are just off. I saw the unrated version first, and let’s just say it didn’t show a dick joke. And yeah, it’s a pretty terrible dick joke. And a lot of jokes I feel more like I got the concept of the joke, and what they were going for, but it was badly executed, at all. There was no punchline or part where I felt like I was suppose to laugh. But trust me, a large majority of the jokes hit, and they hit hard on some really good ones. As for the story, I’ll bring that up again. You really get this character’s life, and this movie is his shell, just like a movie like Forrest Gump. Sure it’s illogical and much more occupied with being humorous than making important statements that can reflect on your own life, but comedies are suppose to make you feel good and happy in a sense. And movies like Forrest Gump make you feel happy, so two formulas like that are really good. And also, one thing I find annoying with comedies are their ending, because half the time they don’t seem to care. (See my 30 Minutes or Less Review for instance) But this movie’s ending did what endings should, and ended with a nice pretty ribbon, and made me feel good about the whole thing. Also, this is one of those movies that you have to see at least twice. Like maybe Anchorman, it’s probably funnier the second time. In fact, I think comedies are one of those things where the next experience, or maybe that experience with a friend or family member makes it better. And it helps more when the surprising message is about family and friends. And I think watching all the drug adventures, good one-liners, meeting past music idols, and so much more makes a nice little adventure. And to be honest, I think it makes fun of music in general more than it is honoring music. And I like when stories say "hey, this isn’t as big as some people make it.” I remember one part in this movie where a girl (or should I say a woman. People in their forties play fourteen and twelve year olds, it’ll make sense when you see the movie) But anyway, she was looking at his poster, just adoring him. And I found that funny when the other possible pictures he could have taken were him looking like the complete idiot he really is. And just little things like that I like. Anyway, I love this movie. It’s probably one of my top ten comedies in my collection at the time of this review, and one I will always come back to every some often. Walk hard!

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story gets 4/5

Spoilers: Let’s talk about the ending. I remember at one points not likely the fact that Dewey died right after he did his big masterpiece song. But it did make me laugh, and I’ll admit there was no reason to not have that. And it was a nice bitter sweetness. Also, the boner pill joke, I liked it. But I think that could have been a real part. I know those are few and far between in this movie, but I get the joke. It was "he has to say no to drugs in the end.” And then it was "What drug should he be offered, he’s already done everything.” Then "oh, he’s old, lets make it a boner pill.” Other parts, that dick joke, wow, that was terrible. Also, all the jokes with the chick from the office… a lot of them didn’t work for me. That guy at the record company that slandered his music, bring him back! But anyway, great movie, I personally love it.