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Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story: Navigation

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Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that, like most comedies produced by Judd Apatow, this spoof of music biopics is a pretty hard-R affair. There's full-frontal male nudity (including at least three close-ups of male genitalia), several shots of bare-breasted women, and lots of sexual innuendo. The main character is introduced to (and takes) almost every kind of drug -- pot, pills, acid, cocaine, you name it. There are also several off-color Jewish jokes (about them running showbiz, for instance), African-American stereotypes, and plenty of strong language. A few violent scenes are played for laughs (including two that show people who've been sliced in half by a machete).

Families can talk about how the movie pokes fun at straightforward biopics like Ray and Walk the Line. What Hollywood "formula" for telling musicians' life stories does the comedy make fun of? Is it on target? How are musicians typically portrayed in the media? Kids: Do you think all famous rock stars live like Dewey Cox? What parts do you think are exaggerated for laughs? Families can also discuss the "return" of the R-rated comedy. Do the raunchy bits make movies like this funnier, or do they go overboard?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Sandie Angulo Chen

Even when they're directed by someone else, Judd Apatow-produced movies have the same raunchy but still earnest feel. In WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY, director Jake Kasdan takes up the "genre spoofer" mantle to poke fun at Hollywood's love affair with musical biopics. And if you don't mind close-ups of genitalia and Jewish jokes (apparently they're it's OK because the director is Jewish...), the movie will definitely make you laugh.

The story of Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) should seem like déjà vu -- on purpose. Like both Ray subject Ray Charles and Walk the Line's Johnny Cash, Dewey has a brother whose premature death haunts him. Later, also like Charles, Dewey loses one of his senses (Charles lost his sight; Dewey loses his sense of smell). As a successful singer, Cox becomes more and more like Cash as he struggles to suppress his love for back-up singer Darlene (Jenna Fischer), who doesn't want to fool around with a married man.

In addition to making specific references to Ray and Walk the Line, the movie has Dewey change drastically with each decade as his career rises and falls. He sings in prisons and on the same stage as Elvis and Buddy Holly in the '50s. He drops acid with the Beatles (performed in hilariously bad-but-funny imitation style by Jack Black as Paul, Paul Rudd as John, Justin Long as George, and Jason Schwartzman as Ringo) in the '60s, and hosts a laughable variety show in the '70s.

Reilly, who sings all the fake Cox tunes, is surprisingly good as the troubled singer. And the supporting comedians -- Fischer and SNL veterans Kristen Wiig, Tim Meadows, and Chris Parnell, to name a few -- are all pros whose comedy skills shouldn't be underestimated.

Walk Hard isn't a comedic masterpiece by any stretch, but in the vein of Anchorman and Superbad, it's the kind of laughfest that grows on you, even though parts are quite stupid. And after the credits roll, don't be surprised if you leave the theater singing "Walk Hard."

If you're in the mood for a serious musical biopic after all the comedy, try Ray, Walk the Line, and the excellent, PG-rated Coal Miner's Daughter.

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Content
		CS	adults	kids
Sexual Content Several close-ups of a penis and shots of topless women in the apparent aftermath of group sex. Lots of tongue kissing, flirting, and discussion of/singing about sex (heavy double entendre in some lyrics). Teenage girls open their shirts to show their bras to Dewey. A couple dances erotically at a nightclub.
Violence A boy gets split in half by a machete, but the scene is played for laughs -- no screaming or blood spatter.
Language Lots of "f--k"s, as well as "s--t," "a--hole," "bitch," "c--t," etc.
Message
	Social Behavior There are a few jokes/stereotypes about African Americans dirty dancing and Jewish people controlling the music business (for example, the record-company executives are Hasidic men). As his fame grows, so does Dewey's appetite for drugs and women. He cheats on his wife, is mean to his band, and doesn't want to take care of his kids. But in the end, he comes to his senses.
	Commercialism Lyle Lovett, Jackson Browne, Jewel, and Eddie Vedder pop up as themselves.
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco High-school girls smoke cigarettes at a talent show. Dewey is introduced to stronger and stronger drugs -- marijuana, cocaine, PCP, acid, and even Viagra -- by his bandmate.

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