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Over the last few years, Judd Apatow has become the king of outrageous comedy in Hollywood. Almost everything he touches (whether he’s the writer, director, or producer) turns to gold—and he seems to have some sort of religious following. Still, for some reason, I haven’t quite jumped on the Apatow bandwagon.
Apatow’s latest writing credit comes on the Jake Kasdan directed biopic spoof, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. The film looks back on the troubled life of music legend Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly), starting with the tragic machete-fighting accident that resulted in his brother’s death. Determined to win back the love of his father (Raymond J. Barry), who’s convinced that the wrong son died that day, Dewey decides to be a famous musician. At the age of fourteen, Dewey heads out on his own, with his less-than-convinced wife, Edith (Kristen Wiig), at his side. And with the release of his first single, “Walk Hard,” he takes the world by storm.
Playing on common elements from recent music biopics, Walk Hard is all about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. It depicts the ups and downs of Dewey’s life as he struggles with infidelity, addiction, and incarceration in an attempt to make up for a tragic childhood mistake.
Before any of Apatow’s followers start gathering rotten eggs to throw at my house, I need to point out that Walk Hard did make me laugh. In fact, I’ll freely admit that it has some moments of comic genius. It includes a few great cameos, and it makes some hilarious observations. And when it’s on, it’s really on.
But then there are those other moments when the comedy falls flat and the jokes just aren’t all that funny. Sometimes, it feels as if Apatow and co-writer/director Kasdan built the whole story on four or five jokes, which are then played over and over and over until they’re more irritating than hilarious. I didn’t count how many times Dewey rips a sink off a wall in frustration—or how many times Dewey’s drummer, Sam (Tim Meadows), tries to keep Dewey from following in his drug-experimenting footsteps—but I can tell you that it was at least a time or two more than necessary.
While I’ve enjoyed most of Apatow’s comedies (like this summer’s Knocked Up), I’ve also found that many of them simply overstay their welcome—and that’s definitely the case with Walk Hard. Though the beginning is hilarious, it eventually unravels into little more than cheap, crude humor and overplayed jokes. Smart and funny make way for sloppy and stale. And while fans of the Apatow-produced teen slacker comedy, Superbad, will find plenty here to laugh about, Walk Hard is definitely not the comic king at his best.
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