I did not recognize Paul Rudd as John Lennon.
I also didn’t expect to see such an emotional ending.
That is all.
Dying to see it - dying I tell you! But date night was Juno (entirely worth it) and I am sure this will end up in my Netflix queue, since spousal alignment will be tough…
I haven’t seen it yet but my husband did (on a business trip), and he said it was hilarious, and he wants to see it again so we’ll go when he gets back. I don’t think the trailer looks very good, and if I didn’t know any of the participants I might have thought to skip it, but since I do know how good John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up) and Jake Kasdan (Zero Effect) can be, I’m definitely going.
It was actually better than I expected. I’m not really that big of an Apatow fan–I can do without the genitally-based jokes. I guess they’re part of the package (so to speak) when he’s involved. I don’t mind drug jokes, though, and I got a kick out his introduction to the evil weed.
John C. Reilly does a great job, and Jenna Fischer really sparkles as Darlene. The Jack Black-led Beatles were pretty funny, but The Rutles remain the definitive Pre-Fab Four. The songs are quite good actually. I wish I had seen one of the promotional gigs; they got some pretty decent reviews.
Eddie Vedder is well on his way to being the go-to guy when someone needs a talking head for a music doc.
The humor is not very similar to, say, Knocked Up.
Which is to say that I thought Walk Hard was excellent in a satire-sort of way, and a far more enjoyable experience than the previous Judd Apatow movies I’ve seen.
This is the funniest fucking movie I’ve seen in like the last five years. I howled the whole way through. Man, Apatow never fails to deliver a great movie. I loved how Cox’s story basically represented the history of American rock music, and I loved the recurring gags (drugs, sinks, etc.) The penis in the hotel room was also pretty funny.
Saw it tonight, on the traditional Jewish movie and Chinese food holiday. GREAT movie. Lots of the jokes were really obvious, but I thought the best ones were the more subtle moments that either fans of Johnny Cash, rock history in general, or actual musicians would pick up on but probably went over a lot of people’s heads.
The original songs were actually GOOD SONGS rather than just joke songs, and I’ve been singing them all night since I got home. I’d call them the best bunch of songs done by a fictional musician since This is Spinal Tap, but I’m already a big fan of Johnny Cash and rockabilly, so that helps. John C. Reilly sang the hell out of them and did a fantastic job selling the Dewey Cox character. Like Amy Adams in Enchanted (another movie I loved this year), the movie simply would not have worked if Reilly or a lesser actor gave anything less than 100% in becoming this other person, but he succeeded. He was talented and clueless, selfish and poignant, all at once, and experienced a full, dynamic character arc where he redeemed himself in the end. While I hate awards shows, I’d love to see Reilly and Adams take home Golden Globes for their performances, just because they went above and beyond for these roles that not anyone could have pulled off.
The supporting cast was great. Jenna Fischer (my #1 TV crush as Pam on The Office) was sexier than I ever dreamed possible as Darlene, the love of Dewey’s life. It was nice to see Tim Meadows and Chris Parnell, two underrated Saturday Night Live talents, as the drummer and bassist, respectively. I love all the cameos, especially Jack White as Elvis, Craig Robinson (Daryl from The Office) as a Louis Jordan-style jump blues singer, Harold Ramis as a Jewish record executive, the Fab Four, and of course, the Temptations (in one of the greatest moments of the entire movie). Of course, it’s always a treat to see Jonah Hill in anything, especially a Judd Apatow production.
Speaking of which, here’s a funny Walk Hard promo with Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, Justin Long, Craig Robinson, and Apatow himself:
Not Work Safe due to language
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/8020a47e1b
Not Work Safe due to language
I’m avoiding this one for now. The trailer made it look like a bunch of low-brow glurge to me. The “jokes” (“tastes like Cox”, the cliched preacher-gets-punched thing and the real eye-roller, the guy puking into his hands afterwards) that had the rest of the preview audience in tears had me in :rolleyes:.
I’m willing to be convinced, but if the whole movie is like the preview, I’ll be skipping it.
I was worried about this one going in, but it turned out to be pretty funny. The best moments, to me, were the they parodied those “oh, that inspired a song!” moments that musician bio-pics always have. Like when he begs his first wife not to leave him, and she says something like “You’d better not make that into the title of a song!” And he sobs something like “That actually would be a pretty good song title, but please don’t go!”
Oh, and there was that funny “mid-period Dewey” sequence. “Damn, thing is a dark period!”
As a music geek, I liked the song he sang to the black audience in the night club. And there were a couple of Tap-worthy moments, like the lyric “I’d like you to blow me/Some kisses.”
Apatow movies tend to be a little deeper than you’d expect from the previews. I don’t really like the previews fro Walk Hard, either, but I’ve been watching his stuff since Undeclared and have enjoyed everything he’s done, so I have faith in him at this point.
OMG- YES!
A few observations-
Don’t expect to see a LOT of rock biopics evenly parodied. While it may touch on different ones, it’s primarily a WALK THE LINE parody. But it’s a GREAT WTL parody!
There aren’t that many cameos from real rock performers. The ones that are will be obvious. Don’t strain yourself- especially when trying to figure out who’s playing Buddy Holly.
The 70s-era part is not as strong as the bulk of the film, but it picks up again.
There is a recurring sight gag which may offend but also has inspired a possible band name- “Floating Penis.”
The long-time manager who seems to appear out of nowhere is one of the Three Who Control Show Business, just with a haircut, shave & modern attire. (And I STILL can’t believe they did that joke!)
I really loved the framing device. “You gotta give him a minute, son. He gotta think 'bout his whole life before he plays!”
I liked it quite a bit. Though primarily a Walk the Line parody, as Friar Ted noted, they also managed to hit quite a few other targets along the way – like the two-and-a-half minutes on punk.
Not crazy about the ending, which I thought was rather glurgy, though I was in awe that they got Lyle Lovett and Jackson Brown to appear in the tribute concert.