Judd Apatow is having quite a year, so why stop while he's ahead? He co-writes Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story with its director, Jake Kasdan, and the result is, yet again, golden.

Musician biopics are the target of spoofing this time, with Walk the Line and Ray serving as the main models. Trappings of this genre are ripe for the picking, and Walk Hard nails more than a fair share of them. It later ventures out into further territory until the movie has covered almost all of its title character's entire life. That approach results in parodying a bigger picture than just a movie genre, eventually coasting on the shared insight (brought to light mostly by VH-1 specials) that most really famous musician's lives follow similar trajectories. And having recently watched La Vie en Rose, I can see these stories will always keep coming.

In any case, Walk Hard provides a much needed skewering of such films -- at best it may even motivate more viewers to rethink how they want their celebrity life stories served to them. At very best, someone will recognize the good work here by the star of the show, John C. Reilly. This character actor makes good in his comedy headlining debut, taking what is essentially a silly Will Ferrell character and actually lending him some kind of robustness. What's taking so long? Give the man an award already! (Capsule review)

(Released by Columbia Pictures and rated "R" for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.)

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.