Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Gemma La Mana/Columbia Pictures

Review in a Hurry:  Writer-producer-brand-name Judd Apatow mocks movies like Ray, Walk the Line and every Elvis flick ever made in this funny, raunchy life story of fake rock legend Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly).

The Bigger Picture:  Dewey Cox was just a poor farmer's son, scarred by a childhood accident involving his brother and a machete, until he took the stage at his junior high talent show. Then he discovered he had the ability to make people dance and teenage girls to dramatically lower their inhibitions.

The rest is rock 'n' roll history.

Well, not really, but Walk Hard looks and sounds so much like a real musical biopic that you could make a good drinking game out of naming all the movies that get spoofed. (Take a shot every time you recognize a scene from The Buddy Holly Story, Yellow Submarine, The Doors or La Bamba. Not even the Partridge Family is spared.)

Cox manages to trip over every major musical moment in the last 50 years as he goes from obscurity to fame and back again. Along the way, he weds his backup singer (Jenna Fischer, looking hotter in macramé than any woman should) while still married to his first wife, does every drug his drummer (Tim Meadows) warns him against and hosts his own crappy 1970s variety show.

Much more like Talladega Nights than Knocked Up, this is essentially one long skit, rapid-firing jokes at each Behind the Music moment as it flies past. But what's really laughable is our habit of turning substandard human beings into saints because they can come up with a catchy tune. It's tough to parody a genre so oblivious to its own clichés, but Apatow and director Jake Kasdan pull it off.