Laugh Hard

"Walk Hard" is just a silly movie, it is one of the silliest movies I've ever seen. Not once does it ask us to take it seriously, from the moment we see John C. Reilly play fictional singer Dewey Cox at 14, the tone of the movie is pretty well set up for us. "Walk Hard" is a nice send up of the musical biopic which has become a sort of sub-genre in that past years with "Walk the Line" and "Ray". The film follows Dewey Cox from his humble beginnings on the family farm where he accidentally chops his brother in half in a machete fight. His father will forever haunt him with the words "The wrong kid died".

As Dewey gets older, he goes through the usual rock star streamline, at 15 he quits school to marry his 12 year old girlfriend, he makes a hit record that sends him on the road, he gets addicted to every kind of drug there is (courtesy of his drummer played by Tim Meadows), and has a bunch of illegitimate children. The best part of the movie was when we see Dewey in the sixties where he makes protest songs about midgets, (a la Bob Dylan), becomes a schizophrenic recluse who's trying to make a musical masterpiece (Brian Wilson), and in the movie's single most hilarious scene goes to India and meets the Beatles.

So what are my thoughts about "Walk Hard"? After giving us films like "Superbad", and "Knocked Up" which are both funny, but have deeper messages about adolescence, and relationships, it seems Judd Apatow just wants to be silly with this film. There is no hidden message in this movie, it is here for ridiculous purposes. Whether it's the running gag of Tim Meadows not offering Dewey drugs only to get him hooked, or the hilarious facial expressions Paul Rudd does as John Lennon, this film is having fun all the time.

I laughed till I cried in some parts, but there were also some jokes that didn't work, the fact that they are trying every trick in the book to make us laugh is very endearing. It's a reminder that sometimes all a comedy wants to do is make us laugh.

3 stars out of 4