Friday, April 11, 2008

DVD Review: Walk Hard:The Dewey Cox Story




Comedy, more so than any other film genre, is subjective. No matter how many people say they laughed all the way through "Superbad", "Knocked Up", or "Talladega Nights", you'll find hordes that say they didn't. The following is only and opinion and not a recommendation. I learned to not recommend comedies years ago when I sent my parents to see Woody Allen's "Manhattan". Here is another comedy from the Judd Apatow assembly line. He served as co-writer on this project. I laughed consistently throughout this mostly dead-on parody of Musician Biography films. "Walk the Line" is the most obvious target here, and John C. Reily and Jenna Fischer mine comedic gold from their scenes together. Look closer and you'll see films such as "Ray", and "That Thing You Do", skewered with good results. Jake Kasdan directs in an almost "Airplane"-eque style, peppering the screen with quick fire visual humor, and milking each scene for every laugh available. He takes all the obvious route choices for humor, but also gets harder laughs by allowing his actors to develop their characters just a bit longer than most comedies of this ilk. About 65% of the jokes in this film "hit", making the clunkers easier to digest. Remember, by no means am I saying YOU will find this movie funny.

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