Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

For 45 minutes, it zings along on perfectly pitched overstatement.

Time Richard Schickel

Not since "This is Spinal Tap" have I had such a good time watching amiable idiocy stumble on toward uncertain glory.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

A pitch-perfect musical comedy that at long last moves the talented John C. Reilly up the billing ladder from second banana to top banana.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Smart and genial satire.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This kind of parody is hard to sustain for an hour and a half, and "Walk Hard" does gets wearying at times. But the humor is so outrageous, the original music so much fun and Reilly so good - both while hamming it up in the role and in singing the songs - that it's irresistible.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

For pure, uncomplicated enjoyment, it's the movie to see right now.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

John C. Reilly, with his homely face and mop of curly hair, has been the movies' second banana of choice since his debut in 1989's "Casualties o War." In the comedy, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," he finally gets a starring role and he rises to the challenge.

USA Today Claudia Puig

If you want to escape all the deadly serious fare of this pre-awards season, run to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.Why? Cox rocks. This rowdy spoof of music biopics is silly fun and often hilarious.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Reilly is required to walk a tightrope; is he suffering or kidding suffering, or kidding suffering about suffering? That we're not sure adds to the appeal.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie walks the line of surreal vulgarity (you will not, repeat not, expect the penis), yet most of it, intentionally, is less nutzoid than your average megaplex genre parody.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The first 30 or so minutes of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story condense the entire Hollywood biopic genre into a sweet chewable tablet. It's the Flintstones vitamin of spoofs.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

It should be noted that Walk Hard is aimed at a fairly specific sort of movie subgenre -- it's practically an extended "SNL" sketch -- and it doesn't produce belly laughs so much as steady smiles of recognition over how accurately it's nailing its target. But it really nails that target.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The film is more funny ha-ha than LOL; it’s a smarty-pants satire that mocks and embraces almost every cliché in the biography playbook.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Walk Hard offers a quantity of laughs that few comedies could match, yet it's likely to leave viewers vaguely unsatisfied, particularly when the closing minutes completely run out of steam. That's the danger of spoofs: You're only as good as your last laugh.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

It’s apparent that the sharp comic forces behind this epic are simply a couple of juvenile men who think it’s hilarious to show a man’s penis on screen just for the sake of itself. But the embarrassing truth is that, well, sometimes it is.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

When Cox is performing, the movie is firing on all cylinders.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

While it might not have the laughs-per-minute ratio of the "Naked Gun" movies (but then, what does?), it is a reliable titter generator for boomers and their echo boomlings.

Premiere Eric Alt

So you'll laugh, you'll groan, you'll leave the theater singing "I'm gonna beat off….all my demons/That's what lovin' Jesus is all about" -- and isn't that, ultimately, a good thing? Yes.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

I loved both "Walk the Line" and "Ray," but it will be hard to watch either one with a straight face again after the skewering they get in this Judd Apatow production, which quotes scene after scene to hilarious effect.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

The movie manages a couple of popcorn-spitting-funny jokes for each biographical decade the film covers, though typically it's no better than moderately clever.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

For those who enjoy the saturation style of humor and appreciate the way in which parody is not pushed too far into the absurd, Walk Hard is not without merit.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

The tunes are so good, you can’t believe the film itself doesn’t amount to more, especially with the rightness of the casting. Still, a few laughs are better than none.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The tricky thing about parody movies is that the jokes get old fast and they're hit-and-miss. Walk Hard, a spoof of every musical biopic from "Ray" to "Walk the Line," is guilty on both counts. How lucky that when the jokes do hit, they kick major ass.

Variety Brian Lowry

Strums the genre for considerable laughs, with John C. Reilly playing the title balladeer from teen to senior citizen, generating enough goodwill to offset the flat sections and a decidedly juvenile streak.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

Is Walk Hard” funny? Sure; very much so, in places. At least I think it is. It might just be the “Date Movie” talking.

Empire Damon Wise

John C Reilly just about holds together a funny but patchy comedy that puts a ten-megaton bomb under the cliched rock biopic – and never detonates it.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Funniest in its first half, when you're not quite sure where it's going, and drags in the second, by which time you realize it's going nowhere.

The New Yorker David Denby

Walk Hard runs down quickly, and suffers further from having the wide-eyed and weightless Reilly as its star.

Village Voice Jim Ridley

This burlesque of biopic clichés flounders from one setup to the next without the engine that drives the genre: a strong central character.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The best part of Walk Hard, oddl enough, is the music. I might not care to see Walk Hard" a second time, but I can't wait to hear it again.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Apatow and director Jake Kasdan deliver a fair number of laughs, though nearly every good idea is pressed into service as a running gag. The biggest disappointment is their survey of rock history, which has all the depth of a Time-Life book.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The film is a saggy, oddly mean-spirited takeoff of "Walk the Line."