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Judd Apatow comedies are hit or miss for me, but Walk Hard definitely hit and hit hard. I'm at a disadvantage for reviewing it as a musician biopic parody because I haven't seen Walk the Line, which is its model, but I can tell you that it made me laugh. Hard. Parody jokes are often predictable and quickly grow old, but Walk Hard managed to land enough great jokes to keep it afloat. John C. Reilly was great as Dewey Cox, especially because he did all his own singing. There were some great cameos and bit parts by recognizable faces from SNL and The Office. Thankfully there wasn't as much over-the-top base humor as in Superbad, which exceeded my sensibilities (and that officially makes me old). To be sure, there were plenty of Apatow moments, but they were funnier than they were gross. 

One more post for tonight. If you haven't seen Hot Fuzz already, it just came out on DVD this week. I can't commend it to you enough. It's a great parody of action flicks without devolving into Naked Gun slapstick.

My wife was approached to complete a survey following our viewing of Transformers this afternoon (great summer action flick, btw). The survey was evidently measuring the impact of the post-slideshow, pre-preview commercials. For example, the anti-drug campaign type commercials commonly aired in theaters out here, or for those of you in LA, the old LA Times commercials shot like an action film. The interesting thing was that Cynthia told the guy she didn't recall the advertised products, but she did remember the church ads (slides) before the commercials. The survey-taker responded, "That's what everyone says." So, perhaps advertising in movie theaters is a strong way for churches to make their presence known.