This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

How I missed this hilarious comedy on the first trip around, I'll never know. Streamed it the other night. John C. Reilly is phenomenal as he portrays any number of Rock gods of the 1950' through the early 2000's. Chiefly, he plays Johnny Cash. I found the script and film-making wonderful, as a satire on rock cliches. Within it are takeoffs on The Beatles, Bob Dylan, June Carter Cash (Jenna Fischer) and many more. Even more amazing is that Reilly recorded 33 original songs for the movie with his backup band. And they are in varied styles. He handles all with aplomb. And so, it is a plum!

Very surprised to see the IMDB rating for this one. It definitely deserves a higher score. The humour is often crude might not be everyone's cup of tea but you can easily compare it other movies in a similar over the top comedy-type genre like Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step-Brothers etc. This one in my opinion is the best one out of all them. There were a few jokes that didn't land as great as they could but overall, this is was a non stop laugh out loud movie for me and all the people I have ever watched it with. -John C Reilly's performance is amazing. Despite the fact that his character is unimaginably out of touch with the world surrounding him, he makes it look so believable. He is the perfect fit for this type of character and you can see, he put a lot of improv in the scenes and made it his own thing.-The pacing of the movie is great. Its very clever in the way it depicts the cliches of music biography movies. It heavily underlines all the overused motifs in the genre (the neglecting father, the wife/lover perturbations, addiction to fame and money) but but makes them very genuine, in a way that the viewer doesn't get detached from the Dewie's story. -And the biggest star of the movie: The music. The songs are great, they're funny, catchy and really well performed. Each song captures the essence of its times and pushes the story forward. I would dare to say they could easily hang with some of the biggest scores from Hollywood musicals. This why this movie works so much better than the more recent "Popstar" with Adam Sandberg, which made a similar effort in mocking the perks of being a music star. In that movie, the songs are well written and funny, but never seem like the real deal. In "Walk Hard", you can actually see how the songs could be hits in the movie's universe. All of them have great replay value and make the movie very rewatchable. There's the career breaking song, the falling out of fame song, even a Bob Dylan parody witch is hilarious. Its just a clever and enjoyable commentary on the history of music.All in all you should just watch it, if you haven't. I often skip movies if I see a lower than 7 rating on IMDB. You should not skip this one if you enjoy other Jud Apatow style comedies. Even if you've never been a fan of them, this one might change that!

Some interesting decisions here from Judd Apatow and company. They start with just the essential choice to parody a modestly well-know music biography - "Walk the Line" which had come out only 2 years prior. Unlike "Spaceballs", the Mel Brooks parody of perhaps the most famous films of all time and one rife for satire likely the vast majority of film-goers won't even catch most of the allusions to Johnny Cash's story such as the death of his brother who haunted him his whole life. Also, Cash's name continues to carry artistic cache unlike a John Denver or even Elvis Presley so some viewers may have found themselves offended by the send-up of Cash's life story. Another interesting choice involves using a script made up of only jokes until the final 10-15 minutes of run-time when the film becomes very sentimental finishing on an incongrously uplifting final performance of a legitimate tune. The strategy seemed to be to launch one joke after another with the idea that enough will land to make the overall experience funny. While there is some sophisticated humor (Dewey's first wife played by Kristen Wiig promises to support his muscial career no matter what before nearly instantly trying to get a legitimate job for him in a slaughterhouse even after he has become wildly sucessful), for the most part - including the actual name of the film - it is a long series of racial, scatalogical, and genital jokes. There are many Python-esque absurdist moments as well particularly focused on fourth-wall breaking (much is made of John C. Reily playing Dewey at 14, 19, and 21). In short, probrably more of a party movie for groups enjoying some inerbriates.

I knew this film was a film about the music industry, and I knew the leading actor, but that it is really, it sounded like a biography kind of film, maybe with some laughs in it, but I was pleasantly surprised when I watched and found out it was both. Basically singer Dewey Cox (Golden Globe nominated John C. Reilly) since childhood has no sense of smell, this is due to the trauma of accidentally cutting his brother Nate with a machete, and since then his father Pa Cox (Raymond J. Barry) constantly tells him "the wrong son died", but one day sent out by his mother Ma Cox (Margo Martindale) he finds something to aspire to. Meeting an Old Bluesman (David 'Honeyboy' Edwards) he plays a guitar and is a natural, and he wants to be a professional singer, at fourteen years old he gets his first break with a controversial song outside of Springberry, and he meets twelve year old girlfriend Edith (Kristen Wiig). The couple soon marry and have a baby together, she criticises Dewey that he will not achieve his dream to make it big, but he gets his chance when replacing singer Bobby Shad (Craig Robinson) at the last minute on stage, and he meets Hasidic Jewish record executives who want him to join them. He records a rockabilly version of "That's Amore", but one of them brands him talentless, but he has a brainwave when having a conversation with Edith, and he writes and performs his own song "Walk Hard", and it quickly becomes a big hit, and he enjoys the newfound rock and roll lifestyle. Dewey does also get introduced to marijuana by drummer Sam (Tim Meadows), and every time we see him with a new drug that he says he "doesn't want to be part of", he takes it, and through his excessive drug taking his attitude changes, and he is unfaithful to his wife, and worse comes when his Pa tells him that his Ma has died, and he gets him to believe it was his fault. He still has his personal demons to battle with, including cocaine consumption, and tries changing music styles, but then he meets backup singer Darlene Madison (Jenna Fischer), and together they make songs that become big hits, and in the process that become attracted to each other, and still married to Edith the new couple marry, of course this makes women leave him. Dewey ends up arrested for the purchase of drugs from an undercover cop, serves his time in jail, and goes through rehabilitation, and reformed at the beginning of the 1960's he starts making protest songs for campaigns such as the discrimination of dwarfs, and his new style is compared to Bob Dylan, he angrily denies his. Visiting India Dewey and his band take LSD with The Beatles - John Lennon (Paul Rudd), Paul McCartney (Jack Black), Ringo Starr (Jason Schwartzman) and George Harrison (Justin Long), which causes Dewey to experience a Yellow Submarine style hallucination, and he becomes obsessed with creating a music masterpiece, and the others despise his consistent abusive behaviour, so they break up, and Darlene leaves him again. He goes through rehab again, and there he is visited by the ghost of his brother Older Nate (Jonah Hill) who tells him to stop pitying himself and write songs again, and in the 1970's hosting a variety show, and doesn't get on with writing any songs, but Nate returns to tell him he needs to tell Pa he loves him. Pa and him look like they are reconciling, but it turns into a fight with machetes, and his father ends up cutting himself in half, but he forgives his son before he dies, and the death causes a breakdown, but when he gets over it he knows he must spend time with his numerous children. In 1992 Darlene returns to Dewey, and realising the importance of family rather than musical success he suddenly gains back his sense of smell, and moving to the year 2007 he has gained a new fan base with "Walk Hard" being sampled by a rapper, he is at first upset by this, but he is made with receiving a lifetime achievement award, and he finally fulfils his dream of a masterpiece song, "Beautiful Ride", apparently Dewey died three minutes after performing it. Also starring Harold Ramis as L'Chaim, Chris Parnell as Theo, Jack White as Elvis Presley, David Krumholtz as Schwartzberg, Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly, The Hangover's Ed Helms as Stage Manager and Jane Lynch as Gail the Television Reporter. Reilly gives a really funny performance as the up and down and up again singer in numerous genres, mostly country, folk and rock, but he also proves he can actually sing and belts out some catchy tunes, the supporting cast members mock the stereotypical characters well also. This was obviously made after the last few years bringing out well received and awarded music based biopic films, such as Ray and Walk the Line, so this both celebrates and mocks those true life based stories, with some jokey songs and a well-crafted script mocking typical dialogue and moments in those dramas, a really funny and enjoyable musical comedy. It was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for the title song, also nominated the Grammy for Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Very good!