Walk Hard-Americana Rocker Fantasy Parody Hits Too Close To Home?
Most of Hollywood’s increasingly crappy offerings make infinitely more money than they could deserve in any alternate universe possible. However, Walk Hard deserved a much better fate and should not have been a box-office failure. Walk Hard is really one of the funniest movies I have seen in years as the film absolutely rips apart the incredibly stale Hollywood “rags to riches” musician/band fantasy script and does so with a fair degree of style.
You are probably familiar with the script of Walk Hard in some fashion or another. Small town rocker defies his narrow-minded small town parents and through a string of accidents and luck the “Rocker” gets that first single played on the radio by a reluctant radio programmer. The Rocker, in this case Dewey Cox, finds his song racing up the charts and he then becomes a cliché of self-destruction through drug use and self-indulgence. So, you know the script that Walk Hard parodies. But how Walk Hard treats this parody is truly genius at times. Walk Hard is so funny, with its tackling of the Americana Rocker Fantasy Movie, that you are left wondering why on earth we haven’t seen this done well before and more often.
The jokes are aplenty and well paced, the songs and stage performances are unique and entertaining. The acting performances by John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer of The Office are also really quite impressive. In fact most of the performances are quite good, the direction by Jake Kasdan who co-wrote the witty and even insightful script with Judd Apatow, also delivers quality work. So what happened? The easiest culprit to point to is the lack of big name star. Had this film starred say Jim Carey, or to go another direction Tom Cruise, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story would probably have been a massive hit. Unfortunately, it seem both those actors take themselves too seriously to ever take a role such as Dewey Cox. That said, Reilly is really great as Cox, but he just isn’t a box-office draw. He has the talent but the name just isn’t there-yet.
The only other logical reason for the box-office failure of Walk Hard is how the film was marketed.
The film might have come across as poking fun at the North American Redneck a little too hard, but this is speculation. Then again Talladega Nights, which co-starred Reilly, does nothing but rip NASCAR and North American Rednecks a “new one” and they apparently loved it. So go figure. The marketing strategy might have made sense on paper, maybe tackling the mythology of Americana Rocker Fantasy head on, well, hit too close to home. Perhaps, striking down the stupidity of one of modern America’s most substantial myths-“poor boy from small town who becomes rich and famous overnight due to his 'rocking' prowess” might have hit too close to home. Just maybe. Regardless, Walk Hard is one of the funniest movies in years . While a complete flop at the box-office, Walk Hard is one of those truly rare major Hollywood releases that deserved so much better. A must see for music fans and movie fans looking for a different sort of laugh.
Story A (Good luck finding a funnier film than this one.)
Acting B (The acting is really good overall, however, a few too many Improvisers are scattered about and bring down the overall quality a bit. Dewey’s wife, Edith played by Kristen Wiig, was a pretty poor casting decision and brought her “Improv Acting Style” with her from Saturday Night Live, (which is amazingly still not been put out of its misery, but that is a different review. ) However, another SNL alumni, Tim Meadows does a fine job. Yet overall, too many improv folks running around hurt the film some, but anyone who follows the entertainment industry, even a bit, knows that a film like Walk Hard, well, the Improvisers think it belongs to them. And what the hell was Harold Ramis doing in this film? He should stick to making third-rate films and skip the acting. Talk about not even trying.) Visuals B+ (Walk Hard is well shot and many of the stage sequences are lots of fun.) Originality/Innovation A (Definitely original.)
Enjoyability Grade A
Home Theater/HD Factor B Overall Grade A (Walk Hard, despite some poor casting decisions and the sickly touch of improv, manages to hit a total home run. This film is a riot!)
