Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Jake Kasdan

Writers (WGA):

Judd Apatow (written by) &
Jake Kasdan (written by)

Release Date:

21 December 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Music

Tagline:

Life made him tough. Love made him strong. Music made him hard.

Plot:

Singer Dewey Cox overcomes adversity to become a musical legend.

Plot Keywords:

Singer | Musician | Elvis | Drugs | Fratricide

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Nat Faxon	...	Awards Show Stage Manager
John C. Reilly	...	Dewey Cox
Tim Meadows	...	Sam
Conner Rayburn	...	Dewey - Age 8
Chip Hormess	...	Nate
Raymond J. Barry	...	Pa Cox
Terrence Beasor	...	Country Doctor
Margo Martindale	...	Ma Cox
Honeyboy Edwards	...	Old Bluesman (as David Honeyboy Edwards)
Gerry Black	...	Harmonica Player
Aron Johnson	...	Teenage Band
Jack Donovan Saperstein	...	Teenage Band (as Jack Saperstein)
Taylor Hubert	...	Teenage Band (as Taylor Jamison Hubert)
Christopher Hurt	...	Teenage Band
Matt Price	...	MC

Also Known As:

Walk Hard (USA) (short title)
Walk Hard: American Cox, the Unbearably Long, Self-Indulgent Director's Cut (USA) (director's cut)

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.

Runtime:

96 min | 120 min (extended edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

USA:R | Canada:13+ (Québec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Ontario) | Ireland:16 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R13 | Netherlands:16 | UK:15 | Germany:12 | Italy:VM14 | Sweden:11 | Philippines:R-18 | South Africa:16 | Singapore:R21 | Ireland:15 (DVD rating) | Argentina:16 | Iceland:12 (DVD rating) | Iceland:14

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Apatow Productions

Trivia:

Dewey Cox breaks six sinks throughout the entire movie.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: In the scene right after Dewey and Darlene get married, before Edith walks in, a boom microphone can be seen in the upper right corner.

Quotes:

[Dewey is singing a very bad version of "That's Amore"]
Record Producer: Alright! Oh please, stop that! Stop your singing! Stop your singing this instant, young man! I will not have this in my studio! That's just a terrible, terrible, terrible... terrible "That's Amore."
Dewey Cox: Um, maybe it was the wrong song choice. If you'd just let me play one of my songs that I wrote, I think you'd like it a whole lot better.
Record Producer: You have failed conclusively! It's over! And there is nothing that you can do, here in this room... that can turn that around. Nothing you can do that can make up for what you just did to "That's Amore."
[...]

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Great Balls of Fire! (1989)

Soundtrack:

Royal Jelly

Cal Naughton Jr. no longer finishing second

Oh yes this movie was funny. I didn't have many expectations, if any, of this movie, but it certainly delivered. I knew from the trailers and ads that the movie was going to parallel if not parody "Walk the Line", but there were also several references to "Ray". I would say one of the funniest references to "Ray" was Dewey Cox losing his sense of smell.

Initially it looked like the movie would be very cheesy with punchlines being telegraphed well ahead of time. But, even with the punchlines being blatantly set up, it was better to go with the transparent set up instead of the thinly veiled set ups that a lot of comedies use.

Interestingly enough there was not much profanity which made its usage that much funnier. Now, I certainly could've done without the male nudity, but maybe that was only in the unrated version. Even still, by and large John C. Reily held his own and the movie was terrific.