If you were at Comic-Con a couple of weeks ago, you might have been one of the lucky few people who got a glimpse at the trailer for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the Judd Apatow-written-and-produced spoof of musical biopics starring late-blooming comedy king, John C. Reilly. And you would have laughed. A lot.
But if you weren’t at Comic-Con, and you weren’t one of the lucky few people who got a glimpse at the trailer for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the Judd Apatow-written-and-produced spoof of musical biopics starring late-blooming comedy king, John C. Reilly, well it’s just gone online, so now’s your chance to laugh. A lot.
We won’t give it all away, except to say that it looks very good, with some great laughs that appear to be much more in the vein of a Zucker Abrahams Zucker movie than anything Apatow has been involved with on the big screen thus far (and we include Anchorman).
And it looks set to give Reilly – whose Dewey Cox is loosely based on Johnny Cash (or at least, the Cash biopic Walk The Line), but also just about every musician who’s had their story committed to celluloid, great big rollickin’ clichés and all – a cracking lead role as the ever-so-slightly dense Cox, as he embarks on a life journey that takes him from playing the blues as a kid, through to inventing rock music, meeting the Beatles, and becoming a superstar.
Favourite moments? Glimpses of fantastic cameos from – surprisingly – Jack White as a chop-socky Elvis, and – unsurprisingly – the Godlike Paul Rudd as John Lennon; a moment of inspiration as Dewey comes up with his signature tune (and the title of the movie); and Dewey’s enthusiastic endorsement of his very own range of… well, you’ll see.
It’s always good to see pompous music biopics – most of which blend into one after a while – get a right old kick in the swingers, and Walk Hard – directed by Jake Kasdan – looks set to do just that. And it’s also nice to see someone other than, say, Will Ferrell (although we still love ya, Will!) get a lead role in a movie of this type. Looks like Reilly’s supporting turn in Talladega Nights may have opened the door to a new career path for him.
The only concern is: can the gag last for 90 minutes? Well, we mentioned Zucker Abrahams Zucker earlier on, and they had no problems with Airplane!, The Naked Gun! and Top Secret!, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.
To check out the trailer, click here.