It could have been better

Rating: 6/10 (24 March 2008)

Honestly i have very little patience with spoofs like this one. The kind of movie that is both a spoof and serious at the same time. Sure it's a spoof of movies like "Walk The Line", and at the same time it's not all comedy, but rather adapts the same sort of style as serious movies, but with scenes of comedy thrown in. I thought it worked better in "Walk Hard" than it usually does, but it's far from perfect.
Starting with the good i can say that i always enjoy John C. Reilly. His comical timing and ability to stay serious while doing hilarious things is just great. Letting him be the star rather than the sidekick (like he usually is) is not a bad idea. Undoubtedly he has the talent to pull it off. The second good thing is that there are some scenes in this movie that are hilarious. Especially the scenes where Reillys band-member played by Tim Meadows tries to talk him out of using drugs (usually by saying how good they make you feel). Also a few of the songs are really great, good enough to be taken seriously in their own right.
The major problem i had with this movie really is the sort of episode-like structure. This is not so strange considering it's something the movie inherited from Walk The Line. It starts out when Reilly's character is little, and then shows a bunch of scenes from his career. The problem is that those scenes are far too uneven in quality. Some of them are quite good (like the scene with The Beetles), while other scenes are just boring and lackluster (mostly the childhood-scenes). In some instances the movie feels more like a line of sketches rather than a complete movie.
In the end i think it's a very thin line to walk for a movie like this one. Finding the balance between comedy, music, and serious scenes is difficult. Sometimes this is almost pure slapstick, other times it's almost as serious as Walk The Line. I enjoyed this movie, but i can't help feeling it could have been done better. John C. Reilly frankly deserves better. I rate this 6/10.