Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Do you find the title of this film funny? If deadpan double entendres are your thing and you like seeing pictures of people's naughty bits, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story could be for you. It's like a two hour episode of Finbarr Saunders, but without the pay-off at the end.

There's a golden rule in Hollywood comedy: if you can't come up with a story of your own, try to spoof somebody else's. Doubtless someone figured that the rock 'n' roll biopic was an easy target. The trouble is, like the Austin Powers films (though without Mike Myers' charm), this attempts to take the piss out of its subject matter without understanding the humour which was already there. So what we get is not an affectionate, witty comment on the genre, like This Is Spinal Tap, but a story which is ultimately less amusing and a lot less interesting than the originals. And because it sticks so tightly to formula, Walk Hard is devoid of any creative potential of its own.

Some aspects of this film are well handled. The music generally works, though it's unfortunate that Dewey's masterpiece is quite so mediocre. There are a lot of genuinely clever references to other rock 'n' roll films but most of these are so subtle that they'll go over the heads of its natural audience. Some of the period sequences work well, though the much vaunted Beatles sequence looks as though it was put together in a hurry by art students who only ever heard the music second hand. None of the actors playing real life characters look at all like them, and since none of them can act either, those scenes fall rather flat.

It's clear that this film works for some people. Several reviewers in the screening I attended were laughing out loud. It did have its moments - I laughed twice myself. But if you repeat the same joke that many times you're bound to get it right eventually. Ultimately there's just no substance to this, no reason to care about the characters, no plot and no point. Walk hard? Walk away.