Satire with a leaky front tire still runs okay

Rating: 7/10 (16 June 2008)

From the wiseass mind that brought you Knocked Up, Balls of Fury, and the 40-Year-Old Virgin comes this parody biopic that's mostly based on the recent Johnny cash movie Walk the Line. With a whimsical, winning performance by John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow's mock tribute to hard and fast livin' rockers is a knowing smackdown (albeit gently) of the tried-and-true, rags-to-riches Horatio Alger story. Hey, they mock because they love.
Dewey Cox (Reilly) grows up in the Deep South, and owing to a family tragedy (not unlike Cash's, only much, much funnier), finds himself with a paw who doesn't believe in him (and, uh, no brother). So off to cut a record with his bandmates, played by Chris Parnell, Tim Meadows, and Matt Besser. (Meadows' character in particular is a hoot, always getting hooked on the next big drug). And then get married and father five or so kids. And then fall in love with a backup singer named Darlene (Jenna Fischer, who's a complete doppleganger for Amy Adams, I swear), who he naturally marries. While still married to the first one. And so on.
He even meets Elvis (poorly impersonated by Jack White of the White Stripes), The Big Bopper, and even Buddy Holly (an improbable Frankie Muniz). Oh, and he goes to India to rap with the Maharishi along with the Beatles, who are played by four recognizable names - but they're so unrecognizable that they need to refer to each other (along with Dewey) by their full names. (Seriously. The impressions are so bad that they sound like they were written by someone who'd merely heard mention of the Fab Four at some point and never read anything about them.) There's plenty of drug references and some nudity, but what I like most are the running jokes. As with the Cash flick, Dewey destroys a sink when he gets upset. Okay, make that six sinks. And he steps in as a last-minute replacement for an established act - in an all-black exotic club. Imagine a good ol' boy on a stage, cracking wise to rowdy black folk, and then he steps right into a race-laced tune! Reilly himself sings a lot of the songs (he even co-wrote some of them), and the man has some singing chops (remember Chicago?). He really has to, in order for the film to work at all. Sure, it's a comedy, but a movie about a bad musician isn't entertaining - kind of like a movie about a bad comedian. Such a movie would be funny in parts, but whenever the performer was on the stage, you'd just cringe and hope for the best. So Reilly, as Dewey, has to be spot on, and he is.
Despite a slowish first half, this is what you'd call an agreeable waste of time. The closing musical sequence (it's set at an all-star tribute to Dewey) is a real knockout - as it should be. It's reminiscent of the 35th Anniversary special staged to honor Bob Dylan back in the 90s, with various acts covering Cox's best (Jewel, Eddie Vedder, Jackson Browne, and Ghostface Killah all appear). But the final number, a solo by Cox, is a real heart - and show - stopper, and this more than makes up for the sluggish (even by the numbers, as far as parodies go) start.