Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

"Life made him tough. Love made him strong. Music made him hard."

2007 1h 36m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

🍅

75%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.9

IMDB

★6.6TMDB · 795🍅75%Rotten Tomatoes●63Metacritic★6.9IMDB · 81,223

ComedyMusic

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Following a childhood tragedy, Dewey Cox follows a long and winding road to music stardom. Dewey perseveres through changing musical styles, an addiction to nearly every drug known and bouts of uncontrollable rage.

“Life made him tough. Love made him strong. Music made him hard.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

John C. Reilly
Dewey Cox
Jenna Fischer
Darlene Madison
Raymond J. Barry
Pa Cox
Kristen Wiig
Edith
Tim Meadows
Sam
Harold Ramis
L'Chaim
Margo Martindale
Ma Cox
Chris Parnell
Theo

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jake Kasdan
Writers: Judd Apatow, Jake Kasdan
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 52% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 19 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CAST

Did you know

216+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jake Kasdan, shot by Uta Briesewitz. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michael Andrews. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Steve Welch shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer and Raymond J. Barry carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Life made him tough. Love made him strong. Music made him hard.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jake Kasdan directs. Uta Briesewitz behind the camera. Michael Andrews scores. Steve Welch cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 52% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
2Released 19 years ago.
3216+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
4Directed by Jake Kasdan, shot by Uta Briesewitz. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Michael Andrews. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Steve Welch shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer and Raymond J. Barry carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Life made him tough. Love made him strong. Music made him hard.".
9IMDB entry: tt0841046 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 12 themes, including "rock 'n' roll", "hip-hop", "music record", "pop star".

The technical file

Cinematography: Uta Briesewitz
Original score: Michael Andrews
Editing: Steve Welch
Production design: Jefferson Sage
Costume design: Debra McGuire
Makeup / hair: Beth Klein
VFX supervisor: Mark Freund
Sound: Robert Grieve
Stunt coordinator: Malosi Leonard
Runtime: 96 min · 1h 36m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $35,000,000
Box office: $18,317,151
Return: 52% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
Rotten Tomatoes: 75% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 63/100
IMDB rating: 6.9/10 · 81,223 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win & 6 nominations total

Also by

Jake Kasdan

Stills · wallpapers

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Kamurai2020-09-25
★ 6/10
Decent watch at best, won't watch again, but can recommend. I only recommend this as I think enough people like J.C. Reilly, and SNL style skits. This movie is essentially a long series of SNL sketches sewn together. I'm not a fan of this style of writing because it doesn't seem to matter what order you put some of the bits in, it's just stopping the story to tell a joke or two, moving onto another joke or two, etc., until they decide to go back to the part of the movie that progresses the story. Perhaps, watching a movie like this critically is counter intuitive, but even if I were to turn my brain off and enjoy it, I'm not a fan of drug humor, Dewey Cox is a jerk, and the music focused comedy isn't that good to me, despite the music actually being enjoyable itself. "Let's Duet" was really good though. There something to like in here, and I can see it: it's just not enough to get me to come back when there are so many options out there.

Production companies