Starring: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer and Tim Meadows
Directed by: Jake Kasdan
Rated: R (sexual content, nudity, drug use and language)
Trailer: Click here!
Hmmm...kinda silly. I've looked very forward to this since seeing the trailer about two months ago (which made me laugh out loud). It has hits and misses, like a lot of these types of movies (that whole recent Will Ferrell/Judd Apatow/Stiller & Wilson spoof/tacky trend...put it this way: if you saw, and liked, "Anchorman", "Old School", "Talladega Nights", "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", "Knocked-Up", "Superbad", etc., I guess you'll like this. That's the sort of humor and tone this movie uses. It's not everyone's cup of tea; but some people eat that stuff up.
It wasn't bad, but not the laugh riot I was expecting/hoping for. But I did laugh out loud 4-5 times, and that's a tough thing to make me do at a movie, so...
About half a trillion cameos and appearances by people who seem to populate the above type movies (Paul Rudd, always-funny Jane Lynch, Justin Long, etc.), as well as some SNL ties (Tim Meadows, Chris Parnell and the supremely cute and funny Kristen Wiig). Even Jack Black! Honestly, all it was missing was Vince Vaughn and/or one of the Wilson brothers (Luke or Owen).
But hey, bonus points for Lyle Lovett and Jackson Browne appearances.
The thing I liked most about it was that it ripped to pieces every stock cliché you see in these big-budget musical biopics ("Walk the Line" and "Ray", chief among them...but also "The Buddy Holly Story", "La Bamba", "Great Balls of Fire", etc.). The actors all play it straight, which kinda makes it funnier. Reilly is a blockhead, but he's so good at earnest goofiness, I just laugh. He certainly carries the movie, and Tim Meadows has quite a few hilarious lines and scenes (a running gag throughout the movie is Meadows' character introducing Cox to increasingly harder drugs..."you don't want no part of this shit!", while simultaneously extolling all the fun parts of the drug in question, until Cox finally says "you know, I think I do want some part of that!"...the decades roll on: pot, cocaine, pills, LSD and, finally, the little blue pill).
Funny stuff, seen in context.
Funny performances by the sexy Kristen Wiig and mild-mannered Chris Parnell, as Cox's first wife (perpetually pregnant) and bassist, respectively.
It's pretty much wall-to-wall gags and "see 'em coming for miles" jokes, but some work.
As I said, it does a great job of spoofing all the conventions seen in movies like "Walk the Line" and "Ray"...the way they're shot, the pointing-out-the-obvious so the casual audience member makes connections, the childhood trauma or difficulty being the springboard (and nagging ghost) to the lead character, women troubles, drug and legal battles, hitting rock bottom and rising up again, the attention given to period-accurate sets, cars, musical instruments and equipment (this movie nailed that part as good as any I've ever seen, right up there with "That Thing You Do"), redemption, finally "realizing what's important", having certain events in life spark song titles or topics, etc.
Distilling down a long, complex life of someone like Johnny Cash or Ray Charles into a neatly-packaged two-hour movie aimed at the casual multiplex viewer is tough to do, and this movie kinda has fun pointing that out.
I saw it in a mostly-empty theater, which, looking back and hour or two later, might've had an impact on it. I'm thinking had I seen it with a nighttime, ready-to-laugh crowd, it might've seemed funnier somehow? I don't know. I still got several good, hard laughs and numerous chuckles. Some stuff falls flat - or tries too hard - but that's often the case with this type of movie. They tend to swing for the fences, every chance they get, and a lot of foul balls - or complete misses - are easy to get with that approach.
A decent, but not great, movie. See it with friends, especially those who like the movies and actors I've cited above. You'll get some laughs from some of the more out-of-nowhere, WTF?! lines or scenes. In a nutshell, take Reilly's character from "Talladega Nights" and have him - not Joaquin Phoenix - star in "Walk the Line"; that pretty much describes it: 6-out-of-10 stars
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The nitty-gritty (spoiler summary):
Spoiler (click to toggle):
Spoiler (click to toggle):
| Dewey is born, grows up, walks hard, becomes famous, loses it all, gets it back and is finally "rewarded" - 2007 fashion, via a "lifetime achievement" award at what looks to be some lame MTV-esque award show - and performs his latest song, a look back on his life. An on-screen text tag is added, letting us know that Dewey Cox died three minutes after performing the song. Doesn't sound funny, I know, but it was...again, context. Stick around after the credits, for some footage of the "real" Dewey Cox playing his signature tune from a 2002 performance in San Francisco. |