Reel Fanatic: "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"

As a midnight movie, I was looking to "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" to be the perfect remedy to a 10-hour work day, a panacea with the silly spirit of "Office Space" or "Super Troopers," and to its credit it almost reached that lofty standard.

Like the movie it most directly spoofs, "Walk the Line," "Walk Hard" gets most of its charm from inspired performances by John C. Reilly as the titular Mr. Cox (and be warned, you will get your share of jokes about that) and a seriously sultry Jenna Fischer as the temptress Darlene Madison.

And for the first 30 minutes or so, that's enough to make Dewey's familiar sage a perfectly enjoyable ride. The childhood tragedy that sets Dewey down his troubled trajectory is richly funny, and listen close, in particular, to the song Reilly sings when Dewey gets his big break to fill in for the ailing Bobby Shad (Craig Robinson, a k a Darryl from "The Office.") I'm sure I laughed loud enough at that to alarm not only the people with me but all the 10 or so others who bothered to turn out for this in the wee hours of the morning too.

Like "Walk the Line," however, the movie does start to drag more than a bit when Dewey/Johnny enters the cycle of drug-induced-meltdown-to-rehab-and-back-to-the-drugs-again (though Tim Meadows, as Dewey's drummer/pusherman, is funnier in this than he has been in many years.) It isn't enough of an excuse that writers Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan (whose "TV Set" is on my viewing menu for tonight after work) felt the need to stick to the familiar story they were skewering, because when they dared to venture away from it their movie is often driven by its own uniquely silly charms.

Two scenes in particular prove this point, Dewey's Brian Wilson-style apex of excess, complete with at least 10 aborigines, and the finale, which manages to take dead aim at the awards show scene and hit its mark surer than "For Your Consideration" ever did.

And like with "Walk the Line," Reilly, though he throws himself into the character of Dewey fully, often gets overshadowed by Fischer just as Joaquin Phoenix did by Reese Witherspoon. It's a real starmaking turn, and it's her Darlene that sets the tone for the whole movie, which is, naturally, silly but with more than enough heart to have you cheering all along for Dewey and his friends to indeed "Walk Hard." (And be warned, it is more than a little juvenile at times, complete with a hotel room full of groupies that has both the requisite bare breasts and a rather gratuitously funny hanging of wang.)

The bottom line: "Walk Hard" is any factor you can come up with to the point of one million times better than any "spoof" with the word "movie" in its title. Though I suppose there's little hope that "National Treasure 2" won't win the box-office race by a wide margin, anyone who loves to laugh will be rewarded by following the saga of Dewey Cox this weekend.

The darker side of my nature is still waiting for a bad flick to come from Camp Apatow ("40-Year-Old Virgin" has been my least favorite thus far, but that flick definitely still has its merits.) I fear it will come in 2008 with either "Pineapple Express" or "Don't' Mess With the Zohan," but until then I'll be cheering for this Geek to just continue his winning streak.

Though I guess you really can't call Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man 3" the worst movie of this year, I can definitely say it was my most disappointing. After turning out for a midnight screening (which I'm gonna do again tonight for Dewey Cox, but more on that later), I was just thoroughly let down.

The biggest problem, from my perspective, was that Raimi had clearly just stopped having any fun with the "Spider-Man" saga. About halfway through I couldn't help thinking that it's high time for him to direct, not just produce, a good, old-fashioned horror movie. And now, thankfully, that appears to be happening.

It seems Raimi's next project will be "Drag Me to Hell," a supernatural thriller he wrote with his brother, Ivan Raimi. (Yes, I realize that means it's the same writing team behind "Spider-Man 3," but also the duo that came up with both "Army of Darkness" and "Darkman," so take heart.)

The only plot detail leaked so far is that it's about the unwitting recipient of a supernatural curse, and the flick will go into production early next year.

Here's what Rob Tapert, whose Ghost House studio is financing the project, had to say about Raimi's change of pace: "When one has done three very expensive movies, they get used to eating caviar. Sam will have to ponder what it means to come down from the mountaintop for a moment."

As long as whatever he comes up with just tastes like a fun movie, that will be good enough for me. Welcome back, Sam.

Update on "The Hobbit"

Just a day or two after the big news came about MGM, New Line and Peter Jackson making not one but two "Hobbit" movies, Jackson is already bowing out of the directing chair (for now, at least.)

Here's what Jackson's manager Ken Kamins told Hollywood Insider: "Peter won't be directing because he felt the fans have waited long enough for The Hobbit. (Well, he's certainly right about that.) It will take the better part of every day of the next four years to write, direct and produce two Hobbit films. Given his current obligations to both The Lovely Bones and Tintin, waiting for Peter, Fran, and Phillippa to write, direct and produce The Hobbit would require the fans wait even longer."

Which, of course, would open the door wide open for any number of very talented directors to move in. The Variety article about Sam Raimi's horror flick implied that he is already the anointed one, but I'm personally still holding out hope for Alfonso Cuaron, though he already has three (three!?!?) announced directing credits listed at the IMDB for 2009: México '68, The Memory of Running and The History of Love. (I have to imagine he'd gladly give all these up to take the reins of "The Hobbit.") Whoever lands this will have a hot property on their hands, so definitely stay tuned, 'cause a decision is expected by early next year.

Bold move, guys: Vatican slams 'His Dark Materials'

Though I still fairly regularly attend Catholic church services, it pains me to admit I wasn't at all surprised to see the Vatican come out today with a rather pathetic statement about the box office numbers for "The Golden Compass."

Predicting that New Line will bail on completing the trilogy (which I fear will happen too), the Vatican's l'Osservatore Romano newspaper called "Compass" the "Most anti-Christmas film possible" and said that “... In (Phillip) Pullman’s world, hope simply does not exist, because there is no salvation but only personal, individualistic capacity to control the situation and dominate events.”

Having not read the entire trilogy yet I'll give them a pass on the latter part, but what in the world does "The Golden Compass" even have to do with Christmas at all, and what movie were these guys watching? (I have a rather strong suspicion they didn't bother to watch it at all.) If I had any complaints about the movie (which I did, though I kind of enjoyed it too), it's that the movie was defanged of most of Pullman's most overt anti-Christianity sentiment, not that it was spreading it around to corrupt all the kiddies.

And, I think the greater point here is that it is an act of fairly extreme cowardice that the Vatican let its American attack dog, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, do all the talking until it had the box office totals to hide behind. If anything, I think New Line was doomed from the start in making such a costly movie from a book that didn't have quite the following of a "Lord of the Rings," but seeing ridiculous statements like this just makes me hope all the more that it will bankroll the next two chapters in this potentially thrilling trilogy. 'Nuff said.

Free "Jackass"? Yes, please!

Actually, I haven't had time to take in "Jackass 2.5" yet, but once I do, I and anyone else who cares to can apparently do so for free now, and huzzah to that. When I went to the site, it said you had to download something called "Microsoft Silverlight" and go through some "silly registration process," but I'd have to think those will be small hurdles to jump for more jackassery from Johnny and the boys. To download the movie, click here. Methinks I just might try and do so at work later today (rather than, of course, doing any actual work.)

More ridiculous Dewey Cox swag

OK, I can now admit that I've officially been hoodwinked by joining the "Dewey Cox Fan Club."

After already getting a pair of tighty-whities supposedly autographed on the backside by Dewey himself, I found another envelope from Columbia in my mailbox when I got home last night. It was awfully thin, but I still held out hope that it was a copy of the soundtrack or something equally cool.

Of course not. What it was this time, which I've done the service of photographing for anyone who actually bothers to read this, is supposedly a clump of Dewey's chest hair (given the source, I was frankly more than a little surprised they didn't say it was hair from some other region of his body.)

I do have to say I laughed a lot harder this time than I did at the underwear, and since I'm going to a midnight screening tonight, I guess this rather twisted marketing scheme worked (though I'm fairly certain I would have bitten without it.) Bring it on!

Six minutes of "The Dark Knight"?

I figure anyone who made it this far deserves a reward, so please enjoy this YouTube clip that purports to be a rather horribly bootlegged clip of the Joker's henchmen robbing a Gotham bank, which I found over at the great Iwatchstuff.com (though the poster rather cryptically called it "My Safari Trip to Antarctica.") I'd imagine the real test of the veracity of this clip will be how long it lasts before the bigwigs order it removed, so I'll try and keep my eyes on it to see if it becomes a dead link. Until then, enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.