Being Anti-Apatow is Bad for Movie Biz

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story has stalled at $14.2 million in the box office. While the movie wasn’t the pitch-perfect mock biopic I had hoped for, it was still highly enjoyable – and much better than most of its competition the past two weekends. So why the poor box office gross?

Can somebody explain to me why the dreadful P.S. I Love You (yes, I watched it…against my will) and The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep are both on pace to surpass Walk Hard in the following weeks? Is there an anti-Apatow campaign brewing?

Apatow isn’t the greatest working director/producer in movies by any stretch of the imagination, but there are plenty of studio hacks that deserve a legion of haters before him. If he is to be the standard of which comedy should be measured (standard, as in passing grade), we could do much worse.

And we do have much worse.

Apatow and his crew of clowns have been involved in numerous projects since their first knockout, Knocked Up. The 40 Year Old Virgin hinted at the success that was due, but Knocked Up’s success solidified it. Superbad bolstered their popularity tenfold, introducing the troupe’s brand of R-rated comedy to the masses. Not too shabby for a recent box-office bomber.

But this isn’t meant to be a Wikipedia entry. The point here is that Apatow is a hard working writer/director/producer releasing – gasp! – original movies. Balk all you want at the sorta flimsy concepts (virgins get devirginized, stoners get responsible, teens grow up) but I’ll take the upcoming Pineapple Express over any remake scheduled to lower our cinematic standards.

But don’t take my word for it:

These guys work hard for their comedy. Do you want another Epic Movie? Respect.