Columbia Pictures/Apatow Productions/Relativity Media
Released December 21, 2007
The Apatow crew is back at it again. This time, instead of shedding light on high school celibacy or unwanted pregnancies, The Crew made this sarcastic film about the life and times of Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) -- a rags to riches, moronic musician who, against all adversity, seizes the day (of course). The film was pretty much a two hour mockery of Ray and Walk The Line and my suspicion is that Apatow wanted to prove that anyone can write "the musician story" and make it work. And for the most part, it did.
Unlike most other Apatow creations, I was surprised that this film focused so much on slap-stick like humor. When I saw that the film was rated R, I was actually more excited that the humor would not be directed at 13 year old boys but would be more universal (basically, not another Talledga Nights). But instead of making the jokes more intelligent, the jokes were just more raunchy and it must have been the frontal nudity of a flaccid penis that pushed the rating to the R-level. Either way, the cliche driven film was bolstered by greater creative freedom associated with the R-level rating.
I was fully cognizant going into this film that it was going to be some sort of "fake-rockstar" plot made to vent someone's (Apatow's) frustration with the rise of "the musician story" as a successful genre (and I must agree, was Walk The Line not EXACTLY like Ray but with white people? Think about it). All in all, I felt like I was stuck in one of those awful Epic Movie 4 or Date Movie 7 trash theater blockbusters. The sarcasm was so thick that it really brought the level of humor way down when in comparison to the quasi social commentary of most Apatow films. The amount of sex jokes were humorous but straight up childish. And I was pretty surprised that they included some racist humor that made me giggle but was a bit distasteful. A wide range of sup par comedy.
What I did like was the flow of the film. I find myself feeling very trapped in Apatow's films (someone get this guy a new editor) with no release in site. But the flow and the timing of this film were very well done. The humor gets you at the most random moments and if you are a sarcastic person in general, this script will have your sides splitting. The is no doubt, it certainly had it's moments. The inclusion of Tim Meadows as the sidekick and drug promoter was a fantastic touch. I missed him.
Can't complain too much when you are on Christmas break (finished my finals) and you are with some old friends seeing a movie. Feel at ease seeing this film that there is a little something for anyone.
2.7 out of 4
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