What is walk hard a parody of

Even when they're directed by someone else, Judd Apatow-produced movies have the same raunchy but still earnest feel. In Walk Hard, director Jake Kasdan takes up the "genre spoofer" mantle to poke fun at Hollywood's love affair with musical biopics. And if you don't mind close-ups of genitalia and Jewish jokes (apparently they're it's OK because the director is Jewish...), the movie will definitely make you laugh.

Reilly, who sings all the fake Cox tunes, is surprisingly good as the troubled singer. And the supporting comedians -- Fischer and SNL veterans Kristen Wiig, Tim Meadows, and Chris Parnell, to name a few -- are all pros whose comedy skills shouldn't be underestimated. Walk Hard isn't a comedic masterpiece by any stretch, but in the vein of Anchorman and Superbad, it's the kind of laughfest that grows on you, even though parts are quite stupid. And after the credits roll, don't be surprised if you leave the theater singing "Walk Hard."

If nothing else, at least it can be said that Walk Hard is not just another lame, humorless attempt at lampooning a popular genre. Perhaps due to the co-authorship of Judd Apatow or perhaps because Jake Kasdan aspires to be more than this generation's version of ZAZ (see: Airplane!, The Naked Gun), this film works better than the countless recent failures to come before it. That's not to say it's comedic brilliance. A lot of the jokes don't work. There are times when the movie spins its wheels. And the songs are rarely funny or clever enough. But there are laughs to be had and, perhaps surprisingly, I found myself caring a little about the character of Dewey Cox as the story develops. Sure, he's a walking collection of cobbled together clichés, but John C. Reilly provides him with a human quality that never gets lost amidst all the physical comedy and double entendres.

Although the film draws from a variety of sources, Dewey is most obviously patterned after Johnny Cash. Dewey's first big hit, "Walk Hard," is the

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