A lot of packages arrive on my doorstep, but I have to admit I wasn’t expecting The Cox Box. Columbia Pictures really went all out with this one, and it’s all to promote a little film called Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
The film opens next Friday, December 21 with John C. Reilly as the incomparable Dewey Cox – a country bumpkin who cuts his brother in half, falls into fame, and changes the world of music.
I really, really didn’t expect to like the movie, but I haven’t laughed so hard all year. Reilly is hilarious, and there is barely a scene in the film that doesn’t have some brilliantly raunchy joke, or spoof of some famed musician. It’s an utterly stupid film, but the music is actually really good, and I can’t believe how many cameos there are (Jewel!?).
Anyway, back to the Cox Box. There’s a napkin with scribbled notes for Dewey’s song “Walk Hard”, a leather guitar pick key chain, a calendar with all of his album covers, a signed photo, a book on Dewey’s musical career by Rolling Stone Contributing Editor David Wild, a t-shirt from his world tour, and an “album” that has a DVD and CD with video and musical highlights. Oh, and it comes in a box that looks like a guitar amp.
It’s… amazing. Stupid and amazing. And I can already hear people starting to quote the film.
My only complaint about the whole Dewey Cox promo? The “Cox Across America” concert tour didn’t come to Toronto!
