Saturday, January 5, 2008

WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY




Comedy, musical

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Raymond J. Barry: Pa Cox
Margo Martindale: Ma Cox
Conner Rayburn: 8-year-old Dewford "Dewey" Cox
John C. Reilly: the older Dewey
Kristen Wiig: his wife Edith
Tim Meadows: the band’s drummer Sam
Jenna Fischer: backup singer Darlene

REVIEW
This is not a total write-off despite some serious shortcomings. As a spoof you have to expect some measure of exaggeration and over-the-top antics but repeating the same one-liner four times is going a bit too far, even though it was funny the first time. There are other funny moments but too few.

The nudity scenes fits with the general conception of what goes on during road trips but the close-up male frontal nudity makes no sense and is totally out of place. And it’s done twice.

Some of the original music is really quite good. In particular the one called “Let’s Duet” is replete with double entendres with bang on phrasing of the clever lyrics.

CLASSIFICATION
for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 The black guitar player has a silver slide on the small finger of his left hand while playing. He stops playing to pass the guitar over to Dewey but the slide is no longer on his finger.
 Dewey calls his wife from a hotel room and when she hangs up on him we hear the dial tone. The dial tone is there only when you pick up the phone to make a call not when it is terminated.
 Dewey was 6 years old in 1946 (and 14 years old in 1953) so he was born in 1939 or 1940 consequently in 2007 he would be 67 or 68 not 71 as he stated.
 His DOB is shown incorrectly on his tombstone as 1936.

P.S.
The title obviously is in reference to the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the line”.

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