Lawrence Kasdan has contributed some pretty great stuff to the film world. Besides writing Raiders Of The Lost Ark and having a hand in The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, he’s also directed a number of films (including Mumford, my favorite Jason Lee flick). Additionally, Lawrence is a family man. He has two sons, both of whom worked as directors this year. Jon churned out the generic indie wannabe entitled In The Land Of Women. It stunk worse than a steaming puddle of panther piss.
I guess it’s a good thing there’s another son to uphold the family name, huh? Jake Kasdan’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story will be released on December 21. In short, it’s a sure-fire hit. The Kasdan family holiday dinner should be interesting this year. My money is on Jake getting the biggest piece of ham. Jon will be lucky if he’s even invited.
Essentially, Walk Hard is a humorous riff on the musical bio-pic (with Walk The Line being its main target). It probably shouldn’t have ended up being anything special, but it truly is. Some of this has to be due to the fact Judd Apatow co-wrote the screenplay with Kasdan. The duo is an effective pair, never producing a dull moment. The film is consistently hilarious and pitch perfect in tone throughout its streamlined hour and a half runtime. This couldn’t have been easy to pull off. After all, the story begins in the 1950s and ends in the present. Jokes are stocked in an abundant supply though, no matter what decade is being referenced. For instance, in a modern day scene, a rapper samples one of Cox’s past hits on a track of his. This rapper’s name is... Lil Nutsack. Fucking brilliant.
Surely you’ve seen John C. Reilly in some comedic ensemble films before. He was the one stealing scenes right out from under the noses of big name actors. Finally, somebody has stepped up and decided to let this guy shine on his own. I for one am thankful. It was getting kind of tiresome seeing him play sidekick to Will Ferrell all the time. The man is a wonder in this role.
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