STUDIO: Sony
RELEASE DATE: April 8, 2008
STARRING: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Kristen Wiig, Tim Meadows, Matt Besser, and Chris Parnell
WRITTEN BY: Jake Kasdan & Judd Apatow
DIRECTED BY: Jake Kasdan
FEATURES: Deleted & Extended Scenes
8 Full Song Performances
The Real Dewey Cox
Commentary with Jake Kasdan, Judd Apatow, John C. Reilly and Lew Morton
8 Additional Full Song Performances
A Christmas Song From Dewey Cox
Cox Sausage Commercial with Outtakes
Song Demos
The Making of Walk Hard
The Last Word with John Hodgman
Line-O-Rama

DVD websites and critics often kneel down and praise the consistency of certain companies or lines of releases. For example, you won't find many bad reviews of a Criterion DVD and, with rare exception, a Pixar DVD release is usually something to get excited about. We should add a series of releases to the list of DVDs that are consistently worth buying - the Apatow-verse films. Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, and now Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story have all been given treatments on DVD that would make fans of recognized, Oscar-winning classics jealous. But the DVD for Walk Hard is especially notable for one simple reason - the movie could have been called "Bomb Hard" because that's exactly what it did at the box office. After not even making it into the black in theaters, many a studio would have scrapped all extravagant DVD plans and issued a bare bones release barely worth renting, much less buying. Not Sony. They've issued one of the most impressive DVDs of the year, at least if you're measuring by sheer quantity of special features for Walk Hard, a movie that deserved a much better fate in theaters and is sure to find a following on DVD.

Go to YouTube and watch just the trailer for Walk Hard. If you don't find the concept funny, you won't enjoy the movie. If a note-for-note, incredibly committed parody of Walk the Line and other biopics tickles your funny bone, it's hard to believe you'll be disappointed. The concept is more than half the comedic battle. Really, the only flaw of the film is that it's basically just one joke...but it's a damn funny joke. The problem with most modern comedies is that the writing and the acting are usually so damn lazy, doing the bare minimum to get to 80-90 minutes. You might not think it's funny but there's NOTHING lazy about Walk Hard. John C. Reilly gives his talented all to the story of a man who never lived up to the legacy of his kid brother, who he killed in a machete fight. Reilly is totally fearless and hilarious and his performance carries Walk Hard above most of the other comedies on the market.

If you've seen the theatrical version and liked it, you really should check out the unrated version. If you had problems with the theatrical release or have yet to see the movie, I would start with the 96-minute version. 120 minutes of Dewey Cox is a bit too much, especially if you're not sure yet if you like the movie. (The unrated version is hilariously called "American Cox: The Unbearably Long, Self-Indulgent Director's Cut"). If you're curious, most of the cut material comes from later in the life of Dewey Cox when he was doing a cheesy TV show, particularly with a love triangle between Dewey, Cheryl Ladd, and Cheryl Cox-Tiegs that culminates in a fight with Patrick Duffy. Yeah, you really should see that, but start with the original version. It's tighter as an overall film. The "Self-Indulgent" cut is for hardcore fans only.

Hardcore fans will start drooling at the mere sight of the special features for Walk Hard, which are nearly overwhelming in their scope. There's a commentary, deleted scenes, more than a dozen song performances, several featurettes, demos, and even the always-great line-o-rama, which has become a staple of the Apatow-verse movies. Line-o-rama is a featurette where fans can see just how much of a movie is improvised as they're given several different takes on the punchline for one scene. It's great and shows you just how talented these people are. Anchorman, Virgin, Knocked Up, and Superbad were all huge hits in theaters and even bigger on DVD. Walk Hard suffered from a very poorly chosen release date - the Christmas season was too crowded - so people will certainly track it down on DVD. They won't be sorry.