The more you watch, the funnier Reilly gets.
"Walk Hard" is rated "R" for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, and language.
Video:
I gave pretty high marks (8s) to the theatrical and unrated DVDs, which were mastered in High Definition and featured relatively bright and bold colors. But I felt like an umpire who needed glasses as I watched the Blu-ray, because to my eyes I couldn't see an appreciable difference. I expected a glossier surface and even more striking detail, but the transfer looks a little soft to me . . . which, again, seems inappropriate for a film about a guy named Cox. It was a good picture, with decent color saturation and detail, but certainly nothing that made me go, "Wow," check out this 1080p Blu-ray! The black levels aren't as strong as they could have been, and a number of scenes have a slight graininess. I'm sure that's a director's decision, because as I mentioned in an earlier review, some of the performance scenes are actually less grainy than the ones from "Walk the Line" that they parody.
This two-disc (one 50GB, one 25GB) Blu-ray features both versions of the film on one disc plus some features, and the remaining bonus features on a second disc. The transfer was made using the AVC/MPEG-4 codec, and "Walk Hard" is presented in 2.40:1 widescreen.
Audio:
The featured audio is an English or French Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), which offers a decent set of dynamics and makes equally good use of the effects speakers during the musical numbers. As with the video, though, it didn't blow me away. Maybe the wrong kid did the audio/visuals. Additional soundtrack options are in Spanish and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, which seem robust enough. Subtitles are in English, French, and Spanish.
Extras:
All of the bonus features from the two-disc unrated DVD are here, plus those three BD-Live exclusives. Included here are eight full song performances and a number of extended ones for "Gamblin' Man," "Walk Hard," "(I Hate You) Big Daddy," "A Life Without You," "Let's Duet," "Guilty as Charged," "Dear Mr. President," "The Mulatto Song," "Royal Jelly," "Hey Mr. Old Guy," "Farmer Glickstein," "Billy Don't be a Hero," "Starman," "(You Make Me So) Hard," "My Girl" (performed by The Temptations) and "Walk Hard" (performed by the All-Star Band).
Also included are 20 minutes of deleted/extended scenes (nine of them) with the longest being a Beatles routine and Eddie Vedder appearing at the Lifetime Awards. There's something like a gag reel that's called "Line-o-Rama" (which basically is a compilation of funny lines), and a Cox Sausage commercial with in-character fake outtakes. Also included are early song demos sung by the composers. And for those who can't get enough, there's "Tyler Nilson: A Coxumentary" about the in-character stuff, and another short feature about the guy who responded to a call for a young male actor to literally let it all hang out. "The Last Word with John Hodgman" and a bonus feature on "The Music of Walk Hard" cover more Cox bases, while there are plenty of in-character bits, including "The Real Dewey Cox." All of them, with the exception of the musical numbers, are fairly short (under 10 minutes) and generally okay but not great.
I most enjoyed a straight "making of" feature and a lively commentary track with Kasdan, Apatow, Reilly and Lew Morton. There's some nice energy here, some laughs, and enough anecdotes to satisfy most fans.
As for the BD-Live "mini-featurettes," as Sony describes them, I was unable to access the three, and you will be too unless you have a Profile 2.0 player and an Ethernet connection hooking you up to the Internet. That, frankly, will never happen with me, because I have a comfortable little home theater with a big screen TV that's in a totally different room from where I use the computer. Plus, I'm just not one of those who has to feel "connected" all the time, constantly using my opposable thumbs to fidget with hand-held games, Blueberries, cell phones, or other mobile gizmos. But that's where I think such mini-featurettes might be welcome. Fox just released "Juno," which included in the purchase price a downloadable copy for portable media like laptops. I could see people downloading a movie like this and clicking on BD-Live features while waiting in an airport or something. But to rewire a house or change the way you watch movies, just for a couple minutes of in-character Cox history? I don't know about you, but it ain't gonna happen in the Plath house.
Aside from these three brief features, the other thing you can expect from BD-Live, according to a publicist, is "exclusive downloadable theatrical and home video previews, along with a FAQ about BD-Live functionality."
Bottom Line:
I'm no "Coxologist," but this "Walk the Line" parody really, umm, grows on you. I laughed at a number of places the first time I watched it, and appreciated it all the more the second time through. Everybody talked about how amazing it was for Joaquin Phoenix to do his own singing, but Reilly (who was trained in music theater) cranks out songs of all different styles that are so good you walk away (not necessarily hard) humming them. The more you watch, the funnier Reilly gets. But I think if you go into a film like this expecting to laugh uproariously every minute, you'll walk away wishing it were funnier. If you watch with an open (well, make that BLANK) mind, it can seem like a real hoot and a half. And it's great to be able to have both the theatrical version and this "Unbearably long, self-indulgent director's cut" on the same disc.
Video:
I gave pretty high marks (8s) to the theatrical and unrated DVDs, which were mastered in High Definition and featured relatively bright and bold colors. But I felt like an umpire who needed glasses as I watched the Blu-ray, because to my eyes I couldn't see an appreciable difference. I expected a glossier surface and even more striking detail, but the transfer looks a little soft to me . . . which, again, seems inappropriate for a film about a guy named Cox. It was a good picture, with decent color saturation and detail, but certainly nothing that made me go, "Wow," check out this 1080p Blu-ray! The black levels aren't as strong as they could have been, and a number of scenes have a slight graininess. I'm sure that's a director's decision, because as I mentioned in an earlier review, some of the performance scenes are actually less grainy than the ones from "Walk the Line" that they parody.
This two-disc (one 50GB, one 25GB) Blu-ray features both versions of the film on one disc plus some features, and the remaining bonus features on a second disc. The transfer was made using the AVC/MPEG-4 codec, and "Walk Hard" is presented in 2.40:1 widescreen.
Audio:
The featured audio is an English or French Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit), which offers a decent set of dynamics and makes equally good use of the effects speakers during the musical numbers. As with the video, though, it didn't blow me away. Maybe the wrong kid did the audio/visuals. Additional soundtrack options are in Spanish and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, which seem robust enough. Subtitles are in English, French, and Spanish.
Extras:
All of the bonus features from the two-disc unrated DVD are here, plus those three BD-Live exclusives. Included here are eight full song performances and a number of extended ones for "Gamblin' Man," "Walk Hard," "(I Hate You) Big Daddy," "A Life Without You," "Let's Duet," "Guilty as Charged," "Dear Mr. President," "The Mulatto Song," "Royal Jelly," "Hey Mr. Old Guy," "Farmer Glickstein," "Billy Don't be a Hero," "Starman," "(You Make Me So) Hard," "My Girl" (performed by The Temptations) and "Walk Hard" (performed by the All-Star Band).
Also included are 20 minutes of deleted/extended scenes (nine of them) with the longest being a Beatles routine and Eddie Vedder appearing at the Lifetime Awards. There's something like a gag reel that's called "Line-o-Rama" (which basically is a compilation of funny lines), and a Cox Sausage commercial with in-character fake outtakes. Also included are early song demos sung by the composers. And for those who can't get enough, there's "Tyler Nilson: A Coxumentary" about the in-character stuff, and another short feature about the guy who responded to a call for a young male actor to literally let it all hang out. "The Last Word with John Hodgman" and a bonus feature on "The Music of Walk Hard" cover more Cox bases, while there are plenty of in-character bits, including "The Real Dewey Cox." All of them, with the exception of the musical numbers, are fairly short (under 10 minutes) and generally okay but not great.
I most enjoyed a straight "making of" feature and a lively commentary track with Kasdan, Apatow, Reilly and Lew Morton. There's some nice energy here, some laughs, and enough anecdotes to satisfy most fans.
As for the BD-Live "mini-featurettes," as Sony describes them, I was unable to access the three, and you will be too unless you have a Profile 2.0 player and an Ethernet connection hooking you up to the Internet. That, frankly, will never happen with me, because I have a comfortable little home theater with a big screen TV that's in a totally different room from where I use the computer. Plus, I'm just not one of those who has to feel "connected" all the time, constantly using my opposable thumbs to fidget with hand-held games, Blueberries, cell phones, or other mobile gizmos. But that's where I think such mini-featurettes might be welcome. Fox just released "Juno," which included in the purchase price a downloadable copy for portable media like laptops. I could see people downloading a movie like this and clicking on BD-Live features while waiting in an airport or something. But to rewire a house or change the way you watch movies, just for a couple minutes of in-character Cox history? I don't know about you, but it ain't gonna happen in the Plath house.
Aside from these three brief features, the other thing you can expect from BD-Live, according to a publicist, is "exclusive downloadable theatrical and home video previews, along with a FAQ about BD-Live functionality."
Bottom Line:
I'm no "Coxologist," but this "Walk the Line" parody really, umm, grows on you. I laughed at a number of places the first time I watched it, and appreciated it all the more the second time through. Everybody talked about how amazing it was for Joaquin Phoenix to do his own singing, but Reilly (who was trained in music theater) cranks out songs of all different styles that are so good you walk away (not necessarily hard) humming them. The more you watch, the funnier Reilly gets. But I think if you go into a film like this expecting to laugh uproariously every minute, you'll walk away wishing it were funnier. If you watch with an open (well, make that BLANK) mind, it can seem like a real hoot and a half. And it's great to be able to have both the theatrical version and this "Unbearably long, self-indulgent director's cut" on the same disc.
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