Today’s Prayer Focus

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language.
Moral Rating: Extremely Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults
Genre: Comedy, Satire, Music
Length: 1 hr. 36 min.
Year of Release: 2007
USA Release: December 21, 2007
Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing
Relevant Issues
Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing
Nudity

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Sexual sin

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Should I save sex for marriage? Answer

What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer

Sex, Love and Relationships
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Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing Copyright, Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing
Featuring John C. Reilly
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny,” “Magnolia,” “Boogie Nights
Jack Black, Ed Helms, Justin Long, Paul Rudd, Jason Schwartzman, Kristen Wiig, See all »
Director Jake Kasdan—“Orange County,” “Zero Effect”
Producer Judd Apatow, Carey Dietrich, Jake Kasdan, Clayton Townsend
Distributor Distributor: Columbia Pictures. Trademark logo.Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures

“Life made him tough. Love made him strong. …”

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “America loves larger-than-life musician and songwriter Dewey Cox! But behind the music is the up-and-down-and-up-again story of a musician whose songs would change a nation. On his rock 'n roll spiral, Cox sleeps with 411 women, marries three times, has 22 kids and 14 stepkids, stars in his own 70s TV show, collects friends ranging from Elvis to the Beatles to a chimp, and gets addicted to—and then kicks—every drug known to man… but despite it all, Cox grows into a national icon and eventually earns the love of a good woman—longtime backup singer Darlene.”


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Neutral
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
Jacob Keenum, age 21
Negative
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
Karla D., age 44
Movie Critics
…“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…
Graham Killeen, The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
…As Reilly is having a telephone conversation, a male penis is framed in the upper right corner of the screen. No explanation about why…
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
…“Dewey Cox” plays like a Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour skit extended to feature length, a parade of shaggy wigs and shagalicious fashions…
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
…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. …
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
…Dewey Cox rocks. …and falls prey to every wretched excess you can imagine. How wretched? Well, there’s the orgy scene. …
Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic
…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…
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