Walk Hard

PASSING THOUGHTS
I think this is the first time that a movie has been upstaged by a penis. With two brief cameos, the male genitalia created the only lasting impression I have of this film. Granted, there was plenty of nudity from both sexes during the scene, but for some reason the phallic shots were particularly obtrusive. It wasn’t like I was in a locker room with a bunch of naked guys milling about on their way to and from the shower. It was like I was kneeling down to tie my shoe and a naked man turned around and just stood in front of me for no reason.

What’s worse is that I had the distinct feeling that for some reason this man thought himself terribly funny for doing so.

Apparently the filmmakers weren’t content with their ceaseless exploitation of the word “Cox” and decided we needed a visual as well. To each his own, I suppose.

That bit of tomfoolery aside, “Walk Hard” proved to be an interesting exploration of parody. I have never seen “Walk the Line”, but after watching this spoof I think I can piece most of the plot together. Usually parodies will simply tap into familiar imagery from other movies and pick on nuances of the genre. The stories are a series of disjointed scenes that exist only to provide the set-up for a joke. The “Scary Movie” series is a good example of this. While the films are able to mock many different titles, they do so at the cost of a coherent plot. “Walk Hard” adheres to its source material all the way through the film, allowing it to accurately borrow the plot and use it to drive the action forward.

It’s the difference between merely speaking the lyrics of a song parody and actually singing them with the original music. Speaking the lyrics can be humorous in much the same way a stand-up routine can be humorous. If the lines are funny by themselves, they’ll get laughs regardless of whether they are placed in the context of a song. The benefit to this is that the audience doesn’t need to know the source material the song is mocking because the humor stands alone. The downside is that the true essence of parody is missed and there’s nothing to carry the material towards a conclusion.

Singing the spoof lyrics with the original music puts the jokes in context and highlights the genius and insight of the writers; the production value and familiarity of the original song helps to sustain interest and underscore the punch-lines. It’s an added bonus if the satirical lyrics actually mock the subject of the original song instead of going off on their own tangent. The only drawback to this is that the audience needs to know the source material to really appreciate what is being done to it.

“Walk Hard” is definitely a parody that sings the lyrics with the original music, so after the first few minutes I figured I wouldn’t get the humor because I’d never seen “Walk the Line”. However, most of the jokes are so overt and specific that I began to see the original story (and its apparent flaws) beneath them. This created a three-step process in which I recognized the joke, inferred what the original movie must have been like based on that joke, and then examined the joke again in light of my inference.

On the whole, this movie didn’t come off as terribly humorous. I don’t know whether to blame the rigors of my extensive examination or the quality of the jokes, but somehow the mark was missed. There were crass moments aplenty and no shortage of sexual innuendos, but there was very little in the way of brilliant comedy. The songs and scenes were performed with the utmost integrity, which is crucial in pulling off a spoof, but they still came up lacking the necessary punch.

To be on the safe side, make sure you’ve seen “Walk the Line” before taking a gander at this film, and have your finger poised over the FF button at the 29 minute mark. (Or just skip Chapter 9 altogether.)

BASICS

Your Cup O’ Tea:
If you gravitate towards physical and sex-related comedy that has a tendency to go over-the-top, or if you enjoy movies that straddle the line between “edgy” and “poor taste”.

Steer Clear:
If you prefer understated or relatively clean humor, you’re looking for a family comedy, or you haven’t seen “Walk the Line” yet.

Nothing New Under the Sun:
As a parody of “Walk the Line”, the plot and events are very similar. John C. Reilly running around in his abbreviated wardrobe is reminiscent of almost every Will Ferrell movie, and the humorous quality is very much akin to “Talladega Nights”, “Half Baked”, and “Good Luck Chuck”. The parody style is closer to something like “Spaceballs” than it is to “Scary Movie”.

Buy or Rent:
BUY. If this sort of thing is your cup o’ tea, you’ll enjoy revisiting it from time to time. The production values are rather good, which means the moments are well-done—and there are many of them. If you aren’t a big fan of movies like this, you’d probably be advised to skip a rental.

FEATURES

-Languages

-Scene Selection

-Previews (12 total)

-Commentary with Jake Kasdan, Judd Apatow, John C. Reilly and Lew Morton

-Full Song Performances
8 total. These are the songs from the movie performed in their entirety as extended scenes. (Walk Hard, A Life Without You, Guilty as Charged, Dear Mr. President, Royal Jelly, Starman, You Make Me So (Hard), Walk Hard—All Star Band.)

-Deleted and Extended Scenes
4 scenes, approx 11 minutes. The first scene adds a minute to the beginning of the drug deal scene, the second scene is another version of Dewey’s rehab, the third scene is an extension to the Beatles interaction, and the final scene is an alternate acid trip done with live action and FX instead of animation.

-Line-O-Rama
Approx 6 minutes. A series of ad-libs that weren’t used in the film. These are not outtakes or goofs, but rather improv lines from the actors during the course of shooting.

-The Music of “Walk Hard”
Approx 16.5 minutes. A featurette that explores how each song in the movie was conceived, developed and performed. It features a lot of behind-the-scenes footage as well as interviews with the songwriters, composers and the director. John C. Reilly is in most of the shots as he did the actual singing and guitar playing for most of the songs.
DUH! FACTOR: 3 out of 10

-The Real Dewey Cox
Approx 14 minutes. This is a spoof of the featurettes done about real people. Just as the film itself faithfully mimics the source material, this faux biography imitates the mood and material found in a documentary. It is, for all intents and purposes, a mocumentary. Features interviews with John C. Reilly, Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett, John Meyer, Sheryl Crow, Sarah Evans, and Jewel, among others.

Would Been Nice: If the filmmakers would have chosen to take the higher route regarding their brand of comedy. Obviously you can’t please everyone, but there were brief moments of potential mixed with the innuendos and lewdness.