Home Entertainment Guilty Pleasures – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Guilty Pleasures – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

2 min read
2

“In my dreams, you’re blowing me…some kisses.” That’s one of my favourite lines from one of my favourite rock and/or roll films of all time. Even if the musician that the film is based on is more fabricated than reality TV.

The up-and-down-and-up-again story of musician Dewey Cox, whose songs would change a nation. On his rock ‘n roll spiral, Cox sleeps with 411 women, marries three times, has 36 kids, stars in his own 70s TV show, collects friends ranging from Elvis to the Beatles to a chimp, and gets addicted to – and then kicks – every drug known to man; but despite it all, Cox grows into a national icon and eventually earns the love of a good woman – longtime backup singer Darlene.

As much fun as a movie about a musical icon can be, the formula is pretty simple. Humble beginnings, ostracisation, struggle to reach the top of the charts, land a number one hit, meets the love of their life, booze/drugs/Pez addiction, low point, overcomes, comeback tour, lessons learnt and final single before death strikes.

Walk Hard has all of that, plus apes, machete fights, even more drugs and a ton more crazy as it skewers every single rock star that it could lay its hands on during that golden age for music.

John C Reilly as a 14 year old singing about the satanic practice of holding hands may be a stretch, even for a parody film, but everything else is perfect here.

The atmosphere is pitch perfect, the jokes are hilarious and don’t revolve around fart gags being blasted in your face, but most of all, the music man, the music.

For a film that parodies everything from Johnny Cash through to the Beatles and Bob Dylan, it’s actually a really damn good selection of tunes on offer. Who would have thought that John C Reilly had a great singing voice? Heck, if he stopped acting and started releasing albums like this, I’d gladly buy them.

But one actor alone does not a great movie make, and that’s why Walk Hard is crawling with great actors, even if they make a small cameo. Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin long and Jason Schwartzmann as the Beatles, Jonah Hill as the brother that should have lived, and of course, Raymond Barry as Pa”The wrong kid died” Cox.

And it works. Beautifully, as Cox lives a life if ups, downs, drugs and destroyed wash basins, uttering some of the greatest and funniest lines in movie history.

If you’re looking for a film that’s guaranteed to make you laugh, hit this one up. You can buy it for a steal on Blu-Ray DVD right now.

Last Updated: September 19, 2012

2 Comments

  1. This movie is tons of fun! love the lil “This is Acid/Weed/Cocaine… you don’t want none of this Dewey” scenes and of course the Beatles scene hahaha 🙂

    Reply

    • Darryn_Bonthuys

      September 20, 2012 at 13:51

      Doo yoo want some moar ell ess dee Deweeey?

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

That One Game….

There are certainly games out there that we can consider “generation-defining”, their impa…