Okay, so it isn't the classiest movie you've ever seen. It's rude and crude and smutty and perverse. But it's also a well done and pretty clever parody of Walk the Line, the recent popular film that recounts the story of Johnny Cash, with a bit of Ray (the Ray Charles story), and a few other biopics of top musicians thrown in.
Young Dewey Cox (Conner Rayburn) is just a backwoods country boy, doted on by his mother (Margo Martindale) and detested by his father (Raymond J. Barry) who oft repeats, "The wrong kid died," in reference to Dewey's brother who died young in a tragic accident when Dewey was swinging a machette.
But Dewey grows up (John C. Reilly) to find music and women and battle drug abuse of all kinds and serve time in prison and arise to become a star.
But first he marries Edith (Kristen Wiig), his first sweetheart, who produces baby after baby after baby and endures Dewey's long stretches out of town on tour while constantly reminding him that he can't make it. And, of course, he has a major affair with Darlene (Jenna Fischer) and is lured into drug use by his friend Sam (Tim Meadows). He also seeks advice from the man he discovered him, Hassidic record executive L’Chai’m (Harold Ramis).
Lots of fun cameo roles here including Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly, Jack Black as Paul McCartney, Paul Rudd as John Lennon, Jason Schwartzman as Ringo Starr, plus Eddie Vedder. Lyle Lovett, Jonah Hill, and others.
Directed by Jake Kasden who cowrote the script with Judd Apatow (who produced Superbad, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and many other goofy films and television shows).
Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.
My personal rating: B-
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