Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Neutral—Purposely cheesy… literally cuts his brother into 2 pieces… John C. Reilly plays Dewey Cox from age 14 onward… a 30-ish actress plays Dewey’s 12 year old gf. At age 15, he has a wife, baby and a house, and again, it’s John C. Reilly who plays Dewey at this age. To make the joke even more blatantly obvious, Reilly announces how well he’s doing, for only being 15. His bandmates at the first jam session (whom he’s never met before) suddenly pick up on his lyrics for “Walk Hard” and sing merrily along. Dewey’s dad, forever bitter about Dewey accidentally killing his brother, says “the wrong kid died!” every time he opens his mouth. Dewey’s mama calls him on the phone, and then seconds later, his Dad shows up at Dewey’s hotel room and tells him mama fell out the window and was crushed by the radio. He has a pet monkey, a camel in the front lawn, and marries a second woman thinking it’s legal because he’s famous. They show him taking his shirt off, and all we see is his chest and chiseled abs. He’s ripped! Then the camera cuts, and we see him from the face up taking the rest of the shirt off.

The movie documents his life… all the ups and downs, drugs, sex, and rock 'n roll. It’s a parody amalgamation of the lives of Elvis, Johnny Cash, and others. Jack Black, Jonah Hill, Frankie Muniz, and many others (including the Temptations) make cameos. This is a goofy film that had a lot of potential but lost it with the deluge of sex innuendos and acts. The language isn’t as bad as most R fare these days, but it’s heavy enough. John C. Reilly (I hear) sang all the songs in the movie, and I must admit he’s got talent. There’s a funny scene where Reilly sings a song in the manner of Bob Dylan. It’s a spot-on impersonation and the lyrics make absolute no sense. His friend played by Tim Meadows is always getting high and he’s the only one who finds the words deep.

Overall, there’s a handful of funny gags, but nothing that’ll have you ROTFLOL. Albeit there are plenty other films much raunchier than this movie, the general crassness doesn’t merit watching it. Hoo rah.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Very Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3

Negative—In the first few minutes of the film you enjoy the simple pleasures of childhood of Dewey and his brother playing in the field—proclaiming “This is going to be he greatest day of our long lives. Nothing bad can happen today.” That should be the warning, beware—bad things do happen, especially to the eyes and ears of Christian and moral viewers. Brace yourselves for a shocking bloody scene. OK, it’s just the sight of two kids playing with machetes. The ill humor in a child getting cut in half is gruesome—yet this is humor to some?

Dewey is trying to do double good now for the loss of his brother. The spiral to drown out the viewer’s intelligence is constantly bombarded with uncomfortable sex humor and graphic in your face frontal nudity, vulgarities and using the Lord’s name in vain. This film should have been rated X.

May I suggest saving your money and reaching for a classic? We all are aware what the rock-n-roll life style may look like but do we really need to see it assaulting you at every other scene. Drugs were made to look enticing as we see Dewey given into the possibilities of what it could do for him. Wrong choices are made and kids are born—some children Dewey has no idea who they are or their names.

The dialog for the movie was satirical yet the audience was shocked more than humored and I noticed two actually taking a nap—a good alternative to seeing this movie. The family father favored the talented brother of Dewey. He repeatedly told Dewey it was the wrong son who died. Dewey—dopey as a shoe string—struggled to keep his young bride and new family happy. Through the ride of his life we see how meaningless and immoral the film is and how hopeless Dewey is. No redemptive quality found here.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1½

…“Dewey Cox” turns into long, long walk… Lyrics, jokes run thin… The biggest wrong note in this simple ditty is Dewey Cox himself. Reilly looks like a cornball Tim Robbins in a pompadour rug, belabored by vacuous dialogue and lame improv…

…As Reilly is having a telephone conversation, a male penis is framed in the upper right corner of the screen. No explanation about why…

…“Dewey Cox” plays like a Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour skit extended to feature length, a parade of shaggy wigs and shagalicious fashions…

…double-entendre-filled… there are several things you can count on about Dewey Cox. He will change costumes a lot (about 100 times) but show up frequently in his underwear. He will rip sinks without number off bathroom walls. And he will never, not even once, forget to makes us laugh. …

…Dewey Cox rocks. …and falls prey to every wretched excess you can imagine. How wretched? Well, there’s the orgy scene. …

…Crosses the line… graphic full female and especially full male nudity… comical, ironic spoof of musical bio-pics that makes fun of nearly everything but includes some anti-Christian content where faith and a preacher are mocked in a humanist fashion…