Very funny but also unnecessarily crude

Rating: 7/10 (12 October 2008)

I loved John C. Reilly in TALLADEGA NIGHTS, so it isn't surprising that I'd give this film a look. Overall, it's a real mixed bag--with some hilarious comedy, excellent singing by Reilly but also an amazing amount of completely unnecessary crudity that would prevent me from strongly recommending the film. With only a bit of editing, this film could easily have been rated PG-13 and been a good film for teens as well as adults.
The first ten minutes of the film are probably the best, as you see a young Dewey Cox and his brother playing together. You just have to see it to believe it--especially the dreaded "machete incident". It was obvious that this was NOT a movie that was meant to be taken very seriously. I also loved soon after that when they showed 40-something Reilly as a 14 year-old. It was really stupid and confusing---and I liked these ridiculous aspects of the film. What follows is a decades long saga involving Cox--one of the dumbest, most selfish and self-destructive singers in history. During this journey, the Cox character incorporates bits and pieces of many rock-n-roll lives--with obvious nods to Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Brian Wilson and many, many others. I particularly liked the sequence where Cox hung out with the Beatles in India--the dialog was really goofy.
However, despite laughing repeatedly, the film also suffered from occasional lulls but especially from crudeness. Three separate times the film showed a closeup shot of a penis. There really wasn't any reason for this. It wasn't funny and it seemed to be included gratuitously. Additionally, several sex scenes were rather explicit as well. Had the nudity been excised, it wouldn't have noticeably harmed the picture and made it more accessible to teens--who should be a large audience for the film--especially since it does have a decent anti-drug message most of the time (showing what an idiot Cox became each time he used). As a result, I strongly recommend that parents act like adults and not let their kids see this movie. Even for a rated R film, it's amazingly graphic.