Walk Hard (Possible Spoilers)

Apatow. That name now means hilarious comedy. When I heard that he was doing a parody film of the musician biopic option, I was excited. Then the trailers came out, and I wasn't excited anymore. It looked average and fairly obvious. One day I was browin' around on youtube and stumbled upon r-rated clips/songs and I really wanted to see it.

Walk Hard is the "real life" story of Dewey Cox. A musician who has done everything from Blues to Disco. His ups and downs and all the drugs and wives and musical cameo's inbetween.

This film, while offering some very good laughs, ends up falling short. There are jokes that it repeats over and over and it uses some fairly obvious jokes throughout (you see a clearly not 12 year old John C. Riley say "Ma. I'm just a 12 year old."). This movie really shines though when there are songs though. If this was just a soundtrack, it would be hilarlious. With several legitamately good songs and some very funny ones, it really does save this movie.

Another inspired about this movie is the casting. John C. Riley has done musical befores, but he has never really carried a movie on his shoulders like this, but he really does a great job. He plays every scene as if it was a real biopic. Riley understands that for this movie to work, it had to mimic the movies it is trying to as closely as possible and being the very good serious actor he is, he does nail it. Hell, he pulls out tears for when he regains his sense of smell in one of the more funny parts of the movies. Jenna Fischer has always been cute from The Office, but in this she is downright hot and does the same as Riley. Though they maybe delivering some rediculous dialouge, they deliver it with a sence of seriousness. In fact, everybody, except the "real musicians" are cast as if it were a real movie.

The direction is also spot on. The cinematography and direction are exactly like a real biopic. You know that look? The deep gold/red that seems to punctuate both Walk the Line and Ray (which is this mostly aimed at, even though there is a segment that takes down Bob Dylan). It is replicated perfectly.

In fact, this could be the films biggest downfall: it is too real. It feels as if it is biopic trying to be comedy instead of a comedy trying to be a biopic. While there are admittedly enough comical parts to keep one going on (their jabs at actual musicians is hilarious), there are no really big laughs. In fact, the parts that are supposed to be rediculous are the funniest moments other than the song. These rediculous moments you ask? They are whenever we see a famous musician being played by somebody who totally shouldn't (even though, if they ever did a Buddy Holly movie, Frankie Munez could be a good choice) play them. The best is The Beatles moment where they begin fighting. Of course, these moments rely on you knowing each different musician and how they were supposed to be.

In all, this was a disappointing film, but it does have its moments. You could do worse than this (like any other parody movie that seems to come out nowadays. CAN'T WAIT FOR "MEET THE SPARTANS!") but with these people behind the movie, you would expect more.