Walk Hard

© Columbia Pictures

Walk Hard is a film spoof of the recent run of music bio-pics (Ray, Walk The Line). Starring the previously under-used John C. Reilly, this comedy is truly hit or miss. Reilly does a very good job here and it's nice to see him with a starring role. However, the movie itself is a bit too silly and over the top. At times this pays off but mostly causes even entire scenes to fall flat. As soon as a comedy decides it will not have any emotional resonance or endearing characters, it needs to be damn funny. This is Walk Hard's fatal flaw. It completely relies on it's jokes, which half the time do not generate a laugh. Fortunately there are so many jokes that you find yourself laughing often. But barely any belly laughs or super quotable parts. The real saving grace are the marvelous cameos which I will not spoil. One particualar scene with the Beatles is truly memorable. Perhaps if released at the beginning of the year, or better yet a couple years ago, Walk Hard would be very satisfying. But the bar has been raised in comedy, thanks to recent classics like Little Miss Sunshine and Judd Apatow's other works (The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up) and this year's best in Juno and Superbad. A bold new standard has been set, and when considering this it is apparent that "just for laughs" flicks don't quite cut it anymore.