"You can take my children, but you can't take my monkey!"

“Thursday, Thursday, so good to me,” (apologies to The Mamas & the Papas).

It’s time for another fiction amuse-bouche. It’s too small to sicken you if you don’t like it, but just enough to give you a grá for more if it’s pleasing to the palate.

All you left was a drawer of socks: from them I crafted hexing dolls with hobnail eyes and scalpel teeth. They returned to you, thirsty.

A friendly warning: get all your stuff back when you jilt someone badly.

So I succumbed to a good deal and have subscribed to movie channels on my television. Last night I gorged on an odd cocktail of 70s action, comedy, and horror/science fiction.

The comedy is worth mentioning as it surprised me with its multitude of good lines and laugh out loud moments. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, is a parody of music biography films, and does a great job of sending up the usual tropes: the difficult childhood experience that shapes a career, dissolution because of drugs and partying, and the final wisdom that comes from age and responsibility.

It’s directed by Jake Kasadan (who did some writing and directing on Freaks and Geeks), and co-written by Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Jake Kasdan. The story follows the poor country boy Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly), who accidentally cuts his brother in half during a machete duel as a kid, thus ensuring life-long antipathy from his father, and the loss of his sense of smell. Despite this traumatic event Dewey goes on to become a famous singer. His songs can cause a girl to rip off her blouse spontaneously in seconds.

Like many biopics that it parodies the film could have been a tad shorter, it lags a little in the middle, but ends well. The humour is amiable, which helps, and Reilly plays his character straight. The songs in the film are all tongue in cheek, but a couple of them even manage to be memorable. I started watching Walk Hard expecting to switch over after a couple of minutes, but after a particularly funny opening sequence I was content to settle in for the entire movie.

It won’t change your life, but it will cheer you up. It’s an enjoyable film for these tough economic times, especially if you’re a fan of the genre.