When Sony Pictures invited JoBlo.com, along with a few other journalists to get a sneak peak at the latest Judd Apatow release WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY, I was happy to attend. Yes, I’m a fan of the guys work and I was looking forward to getting a glimpse into COX… you know what I mean. And when I arrived, I found the soundstage looking like a record release party. Many of Dewey Cox’s hit album covers surrounded us. They covered everything from his early work, his psychedelic phase and of course, a teen beach party album. All this with some groovy music and mini hot dogs, it all felt like a music lovers dream.
As for Dewey Cox himself, yes, I know he’s not real. But after hearing the music with terrific bits of lyrical wonderment, including a couple of lines from a song I presume is called “Duet“… “In my dreams, you’re blowing me… with kisses” with a pause in just the right place. Or “I’m going to beat off… all my demons”. Sorry, but that’s funny to me. And from the looks of it, this isn’t the only funny tune to be heard, since there are another twenty-nine songs, I’m sure a few of them will be winners. And when The Box of Cox comes out with all the music from the film, fun times will be had by all. After all this music, Mr. Cox feels as real to me as any movie character from a spoof could feel.
But after the mini-wieners and tunage, we were given to opportunity to see the first ten minutes of WALK HARD, along with three other moments of merriment. The first ten minutes were an obvious spoof on WALK THE LINE with a little RAY thrown in. Right down to the older brother who keeps talking about his “long life” and how he’s so young that he has his whole life ahead of him. See where that’s going? There is some terribly funny moments in the opening sequence. From the older brother who seems to have a death wish, to the dad who really could care less about Dewey, at loss of a better term… I laughed hard.
The other three scenes include Dewey singing the above tune with the woman who is not his wife, namely Darlene, played by Jenna Fischer. With a little sexual tension thrown in. There is also a moment of temptation when a few folks backstage are smoking reefer. And finally, a trip to India [literally] as The Beatles, played by Jack Black as Paul, Paul Rudd as John, Jason Schwartzman as Ringo and Justin Long as George all convince Dewey to take a little LSD. Not without the ladies permission though.
Now, from what I can tell, WALK HARD looks to be very funny. I laughed a lot at what I saw. I do sense that it may be one of those flicks that as the time ticks away, the laughs may get to be less and less, but it still looked like fun times to me. I was digging the music and all the actors looked to be enjoying themselves. And I even learned something, don’t play with machete’s without an adult or parent guardian. It can really cut you up.
After the glimpse of Dewey, we got a chance to have a Q and A with director, Jake Kasdan who co-wrote the script along with Mr. Apatow. And of course, Judd is producing again, and he was there to make us laugh along with John C. Reilly, who is quite funny also. The three of them seemed to be really excited about the movie and the music. Although forget all of that, because there is one thing that this movie has that none of Apatow’s others have… a long look at a penis. I’m not sure what that means, he just seemed pretty excited that there was a penis in the film, yet apparently, the penis is not excited. Below, we’ve got some exclusive video from the Q&A where you can watch Apatow, Kasdan and Reilly all talking WALK HARD.