Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010)
Average Rating: 6.4/10
Reviews Counted: 37
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 9
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 2
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 4,500
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Movie Info
Andy Serkis stars as volatile British new wave icon Ian Dury in this biopic from BAFTA-nominated director Mat Whitecross (The Road to Guantanamo). As a young boy, Dury nearly died after being stricken with polio. Though the ravaging disease would leave him permanently disabled, however, it would also instill him with the drive and perseverance to become one of the most influential musicians of his generation. Along with his band Ian Dury & the Blockheads, the unpredictable rocker would become a
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Cast
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Andy Serkis
Ian Dury -
Bill Milner
Baxter Dury -
Ray Winstone
Bill Dury -
Naomie Harris
Denise Roudette -
Tom Hughes
Chaz Jankel -
Olivia Williams
Betty -
Joe Kennedy
Davey Payne -
Toby Jones
Hargreaves -
Wesley Nelson
Young Ian -
MacKenzie Crook
Russell -
Ralph Ineson
Sulphate Strangler -
Clifford Samuel
Charlie Charles -
Jimmy Jagger
John Turnbull -
Arthur Darvill
Mick Gallagher -
Shakraj Soornack
Norman Watt-Roy -
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All Critics (38) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (28) | Rotten (9) | DVD (1)
Somehow this well-intentioned film cannot help but turn an uncompromisingly original artist into a formula.
Top CriticIt's an energetic and vivacious film that will appeal to fans of punk rock worldwide and should find its place in the pantheon of great music-film biographies.
Paul Viragh's script is too bitty to hold it all together, and filigrees of technique fail to disguise the weaknesses in helmer Mat Whitecross' first solo flight.
You don't need to be a fan of Dury's music to enjoy 'Sex & Drugs...'. This is just gorgeous, celebratory cinema, unfettered and courageous, if unashamedly scattershot, much like the man himself.
...a major performance in a minor film.
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll ticks all the music biopic boxes, but Whitecross wisely ramps things up by looking at Dury's life with the same sort of random, chaotic vision that both blessed and cursed the man himself.
[Serkis is} a revelation as Drury...
... hides an utterly conventional biopic behind a narrative chopped up into flashbacks, fantasies, animated interludes, music videos and carnivalesque stage shows.
I'm sure there was more to the astounding life of Ian Dury, but this picture doesn't submit the nuances, only the juiciest clichés imaginable.
Wonderful Ian Dury -- England's most endearing punk-era showman -- deserves a biopic worthy of his bouncy, ribald and trenchant songs. The new movie Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll ain't it.
Inhabiting the body and soul of legendary pub rocker Ian Dury, human chameleon Andy Serkis single-handedly muscles this by-the-book biopic into the realm of something very special.
This film is a British celebration of outsiderdom - be it the creative or the crippled - that is never sentimental.
The acting generally is first-class, but what holds the film together is the performance of Andy Serkis. His resemblance to Dury is simply uncanny, both in the appearance, the body language, the growling voice and the singing.
Andy Serkis delivers a spellbinding turn as Dury. Replicating Dury's cheeky chappie onstage persona is admirable enough; more astonishing is Serkis' uncanny incarnation of Dury in person, variously charming, belligerent, foul, pathetic and awesome.
While it feels slapdash rather than properly punk-collage ragged, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is an honest job, and it makes a good case for including Dury's work and personality in any Brit-culture list of Reasons to be Cheerful.
A strong central performance from Andy Serkis as the late British punk rocker Ian Dury powers Mat Whitecross' directorial debut through a fractured 113 minutes.
Anchored by a ripping central performance from Serkis, this biopic about notorious musician Ian Dury is too stylish for its own good. Director Whitecross shows ambition and audacity, but his riotous visual style is distracting.
A sometimes whimsical and magical take on the life of one of Britain's most artistically charged rock stars. Serkis shines in his role as the troubled singer.
Audience Reviews for Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Ian Dury: It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
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- Ian Dury: The moral of this story is, don't go looking for morals to stories, and if you want a message, fuck off down the post office.
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Latest News on Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
May 17, 2010:
Andy Serkis Talks The Hobbit, Tintin, and MoreWith roles in "The Hobbit," "Tintin," "Burke & Hare," and the Ian Dury biopic "Sex & Drugs & Rock &...
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