An excellent comedy with a limited audience.

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2008)

Walk Hard is an unusual comedy, in that the jokes in it are not always funny on their own, but they are funny because they exist as a shorthand in pointing out how similar musician biopics are.
It's important to keep this in mind. If you consider the gag of a kid being chopped in half with a machete, it's not funny in itself. If you consider it in the role it plays in this film - to motivate Dewey to become a star, to make him feel insecure with his relationship to his father, it's considerably more funny than treating it realistically.
This movie will accumulate a large cult following, similar to This Is Spinal Tap. If you show This Is Spinal Tap to people who aren't interested in music, they will be pretty bored, since most of the gags don't make sense to them. Same deal as Walk Hard. It's a wonderfully juvenile comedy, but it has so much heart that it doesn't feel cruel. When we see Dewey performing in the 70s, it's hard to think how horrible it is, because despite his decline, it still looks very fun, in a very dated way.
I would not suggest this movie to anyone who didn't absolutely love This Is Spinal Tap. But the lack of accessibility to this movie doesn't change that it is ultimately a fantastic movie.
I have one real problem with the movie - the rehab sequences went on too long. That's it. Everything else feels very well done.