Sunday, December 23, 2007

Limp ‘Cox’

I’m surprised to see that “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” – from Judd Apatow, the hottest comedy writer in Hollywood – is having a horrible opening weekend. It’s the only comedy out there, and it ranks only No. 7 on the box-office Top 10.

I saw “Walk Hard” yesterday. I was amused by the first half of it, bored by the second half. And the songs are nowhere close to “Spinal Tap” standards.

Apatow and co-writer/director Jake Kasdan do have some fun with music-bio racial tropes; there’s a benevolent old bluesman and a couple of “juke joint” scenes.

I don’t know... maybe people just don’t wanna look at John C. Reilly for that long.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw it today and enjoyed it, but it felt awfully disjointed. Like it was lurching from scene to scene, the writers throwing anything at the wall and hoping it would stick. And I disliked the way they just glossed over the 80s and 90s. I bet there was a lot on the cutting room floor.

Still, there are some gut-busting moments. Hearing Eddie Vedder (Eddie Vedder!) say "What can we say about Cox?" is pretty damn funny.

I don't think that poster of a naked Reilly helped to bring audiences in.

Undercover Black Man said...

I don't think that poster of a naked Reilly helped to bring audiences in.

Yeah, there'll be some second-guessing going on. It might all fall on Reilly.

I started losing interest after the Beatles scene.

Loved the first "bathroom" moment with Tim Meadows... then they beat that gag into the ground.