Worth seeing for Reilly's fine performance in the lead.

Rating: 7/10 (8 April 2012)

From Judd Apatow and company comes this certainly very likable movie that parodies standard Hollywood biographies of musical entertainers, taking particular aim at "Walk the Line" and "Ray" but also working as a skewering of changing musical trends over the decades, as its lead character Dewey Cox (an endearing John C. Reilly) is more than willing to move from one genre to another, and basically do whatever it takes to keep up the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.
Dewey Cox has had to deal with a tragic childhood incident which earned him the enmity of his father (Raymond J. Barry). The movie charts Dewey's progress over the years, as he ascends to stardom, becomes addicted to all manner of drugs, antagonizes the people in his life, and ultimately realizes what's truly important and puts his life back together.
The Apatow style of comedy is evident as always, alternating between sweet and poignant moments and very adult moments - there's even some nudity. Sometimes it gets a little silly - such as the animated LSD trip sequence - but mostly it's an enjoyable movie that goes far on the abilities of its cast. Reilly, who does his own singing, is well supported by Kristen Wiig as his first wife, Jenna Fischer as the backup singer who becomes his second wife (while he's still married to the first one), Matt Besser and former 'SNL' cast members Tim Meadows & Chris Parnell as his bandmates, and Barry & Margo Martindale as his parents. There are a lot of fun bits along the way, from the likes of Rance Howard, Craig Robinson, Harold Ramis, Jack McBrayer, Ed Helms, Gerry Bednob, David Krumholtz, Jane Lynch, and Simon Helberg. Particularly funny is the stunt casting of people like Frankie Muniz, as Buddy Holly, and Justin Long, Paul Rudd, Jason Schwartzman, and Jack Black as the Beatles! Nice cameos by real life music stars are a treat, as well.
There are enough laugh out loud moments to make all of this pleasant enough (at least this never gets truly mean spirited), and as a bonus the music is often genuinely catchy as well as amusing. Overall, good if not great stuff.
Seven out of 10.