WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY

Directed by: Jake Kasdan Written by: Judd Apatow, Jake Kasdan Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Raymond J. Barry, Margo Matindale, Kristen Wiig, Chip Hormess,Connor Rayburn, Tim Meadows, Distributed by Sony Pictures Available at Amazon for $18.99 RIGHT NOW. Available at Play.com for £10.99 from May 19th 2008! How can you base a spoof basically on one movie? Surely that'd be a really flimsy basis for a comedy. I mean yeah, you can all point out HOT SHOTS and the sequel but really they're only any good with hindsight, and in an age when we can call any piece of crap kitsch or retro and make it cool. At the end of the day these kind of movies pale next to the real zaniness of AIRPLANE, POLICE SQUAD and even the other Judd Apatow produced pieces of gimmickry. If you like Apatow, just watch ANCHORMAN or FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, don't just do what Hollywood wants and watch this because his name is attached. The film seems far too much like someone sat down and watched WALK THE LINE whilst making a list of all the things they didn't like, then had some actors recreate this list of grievances in over-the-top ways. Which really isn't that funny for an hour and a half. Every single caricature is obvious and uninspired, any one of us could create the same calibre of comedy after a few hours of drinking and that's really not what I feel like spending my money to see. Because I don't think there's anything else worth saying about this film I'm just going to talk about cheese for this paragraph before moving on to the extras, which pains me greatly. There are many types of cheese, one of the most popular is cheddar. I have a niggling feeling that cheddar is popular because it is normally kind of mild and, if you think about it, not really that cheesy. Strange cheeses like stilton or camembert which really stink are, I believe, far more representative of cheese in general but they are frequently considered an acquired taste, which strikes me as strange. What's more they are seen as primarily cheeses for middle class people, and I don't think that's fair at all. Why can't builders, plumbers and cashiers at supermarkets eat stilton? And also, does anyone know what goats cheese tastes like? I don't really want to try it but I am curious.

rating: 1.5

EXTRAS 'Director Commentary' was ok as far as I listened to it, a few little points of interest and it's a bit funny. But I couldn't bear to watch the whole movie again to be honest. 'Full Song Performances' are a bunch of comedy video for the lame spoof songs in the film. A nice little extra really, as long as you're into this kind of thing. 'Deleted & Extended scenes' are what they say. There are only 3, but they aren't too bad. 'Line-O-Rama' is a bunch of deleted gags, which I assume were separated from the deleted scenes to make it look like there are more extras, which are easily up to the quality of the rest of the movie. So if you liked it then this is a great extra. 'The Real Dewey Cox' is a 13 minute mockumentary about Dewey Cox. If the film had just been this it might have been bearable. A much wittier way of airing their grievances of the rock star worship that led to films like WAL THE LINE. It eventually just turns into a different way of incorporating crew interviews which are pretty funny, especially after sitting through the crappy feature. And the obligatory trailers.

rating: 3.5

WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY is released on DVD in the UK on 12th of May.