Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

Singer Dewey Cox overcomes adversity to become a musical legend.

Director:

Jake Kasdan

Writers:

Judd Apatow, Jake Kasdan

Stars:

John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, David Krumholtz

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nat Faxon	...	Awards Show Stage Manager
John C. Reilly	...	Dewey Cox
Tim Meadows	...	Sam
Conner Rayburn	...	Dewey Age 8
Chip Hormess	...	Nate
Raymond J. Barry	...	Pa Cox
Terrence Beasor	...	Country Doctor
Margo Martindale	...	Ma Cox
Honeyboy Edwards	...	Old Bluesman (as David Honeyboy Edwards)
Gerry Black	...	Harmonica Player
Aron Johnson	...	Teenage Band
Jack Donovan Saperstein	...	Teenage Band (as Jack Saperstein)
Taylor Hubert	...	Teenage Band (as Taylor Jamison Hubert)
Christopher Hurt	...	Teenage Band
Matt Price	...	MC (Teacher)

Storyline

The up-and-down-and-up-again story of musician Dewey Cox, whose songs would change a nation. On his rock 'n roll spiral, Cox sleeps with 411 women, marries three times, has 36 kids, stars in his own 70s TV show, collects friends ranging from Elvis to the Beatles to a chimp, and gets addicted to - and then kicks - every drug known to man; but despite it all, Cox grows into a national icon and eventually earns the love of a good woman - longtime backup singer Darlene.

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Plot Keywords:

elvis presley character | paul mccartney character | john lennon character | george harrison character | woman on top | 

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Taglines:

Life made him tough. Love made him strong. Music made him hard.

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Genres:

Comedy | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language

Details

Official Sites:

Dewey Cox - Unofficial Facebook 2015 Sony Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 December 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Walk Hard

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$6,257,174, 23 December 2007, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$18,317,151, 13 January 2008

Company Credits

Production Co:

Apatow Productions,Columbia Pictures Corporation,GH Three

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min 120 min (extended edition)

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2006 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.

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Goofs

At the end it says Dewey Cox was born in 1936. However in 1953 Deweys mother calls him her favorite fourteen year old son and it is mentioned several more times that he is fourteen. That would have made his birth-year 1939.

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Quotes

[singing while moving hay]
Pa Cox: The wrong kid died / The wrong kid died...

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Crazy Credits

After the credits there is a black&white clip of Dewey Cox performing Walk Hard in 2002, with the words "The actual Dewey Cox"

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Alternate Versions

The extended version released on home video, "American Cox: The Unbearably Long Self-Indulging Director's Cut", runs at 2 hours long.

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Connections

Spoofs Walk the Line (2005)

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Soundtracks

A Life Without You (Is No Life At All)
Written by Mike Viola
Produced by Michael Andrews
Performed by John C. Reilly (as Dewey Cox)

User Reviews

Different style but another great one from Apatow gang

As a huge fan of the previous Apatow movies, I drove recklessly through traffic to make it into an early screening of Walk Hard, and I'm happy I did. I think this movie is a different direction for Judd and his band, as it is more similar to Airplane in style than it is to Knocked Up. But that impressed me that they took that risk and made it work -- and it definitely worked as me and the rest of the theatre were laughing with regularity.

Without getting too much into the details of the movie because I hate spoilers, the thing that made this movie great to me was the unexpected humor. Like Airplane, there are a lot of times when you just don't see the next line coming, and those are the best laughs. Besides John C. Reilly in the lead role, who obviously got a lot of the funniest lines, Tim Meadows as Dewey Cox's drummer really cracked me up, and Paul Rudd as Jon Lennon cracked up the entire theatre.

It was definitely one of those movies where you're recalling a lot of funny parts a day later. So while it may be a different type of movie than the Apatow groups' other work, the sense of funny is still there, and I think this is up there with the best comedies of the year.