The Campaign Review
I feel like I am falling way behind in my reviews, but the fact is every other aspect of my life has ramped up to 11, cutting back on my time to spend on these. It is unfortunate. Between seeing and writing these reviews each one of them can take up to 6 hours, and that is a big chunk of my day.
I am a massive Will Ferrel fan, and even before doing reviews would try to see him in everything he did. Zoolander is one of my favorite comedies, mainly due to the awesomeness of Will as Mugatu. I consider it a nod in the right direction when they named his character after the space yeti from Star Trek A Private Little War. (Zoolander image courtesy of the Movie T Shirt category).
However, I was forced to give his most recent movie Casa de Mi Padre kind of a crap review. It just missed the mark by a lot IMO, and I went into this film hopeful for something great but really fearing another dog.
Thankfully this movie had me laughing my ass off, at least in parts. Will Ferrell, with his ability to pull serious and ridiculous in the same line of dialog, combined with the very talented Zack Galifianakis made some scenes that were funnier than a lot of things I have watched in the last three years. The funny doesn’t necessarily carry throughout the entirety of the movie, but there are a few moments that stand out so hard that I think they are worth the entire cost of the film.
If I were to offer a criticism (which, technically, is what I am here to do) it would be that the film shot off all it’s funny ammunition in the first 30-40 minutes and was kind of grinding out the script by the end. It is a curse of political campaign films that in the end, despite all of Hollywood’s attempts to convince us otherwise, political campaigns are ultimately boring. However, even in the grinding portions of the film there are truly comedic moments, usually involving ridiculous campaign ads or debate debacle. This film was also laced with some serious supporting talent, with the great Dan Aykroyd and Johnathon Lithgow not just doing cameos but actually having great roles throughout the story.
The other criticism that could be offered up is that both of the main characters are mainly playing the same characters they have always played. Zack is more or less doing a nicer version of his character from the Hangover, and Will is playing his Bush role from SNL. This doesn’t necessarily hurt the movie itself, and if you are a fan of those roles you will probably be very happy with it, but still.
The story is of a North Carolina Congressmen (Will Ferrell-Elf, Zoolander, Stranger than Fiction) who is running unopposed in his next re-election when a bad drunk dial to a Christian family (headed appropriately enough by Jack McBrayer in a great cameo) exposes him as a degenerate. The local power brokers the Motch brothers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) decide he is too much effort to get re-elected and opt to support another candidate. They tap local character Marty Huggins (Zack Galifianakis-The Hangover, the Hangover Part 2, Due Date) as their man. He is weird and frumpy, so they send in veteran campaign manager Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott-the Practice, In the Line of Fire, the Messangers) to revamp his life, making him more manly and appealing to the voters.
At that point the movie turns into a tit-for-tat dirty politics campaign movie. One side comes out with a brutal ad and the other retaliates. Marty is a honorable neophyte and Cam Brady is a corrupt veteran. There is a sub plot about the entire district being sold to the Chinese. Things get dirty fast, but honestly the story gets pretty political movie stereotyped without actually committing to any one side or the other. This happens about the time the jokes run out of gas, making the last 1/3rd of the film a grind.
The stars. The cast was chock full of great actors, and I enjoyed them a lot. Three stars. There were some bust your gut moments (the Huggins dinner table in particular) that had me holding my sides. One star. They didn’t do the thing that infuriates me about films like this in making the wife of the fat dumpy guy super hot. One star. Generally fun and worth watching. One star. Total: six stars.
The black hole. The humor kind of drained out of the film by the last half. One black hole. Aside from some really funny moments the story and script was pretty rote and by the book. One black hole. The film seriously suffered from the directors constant avoidance of anything actually political or controversial. People who sit on a fence are boring. One black hole. Total: three black holes.
A grand total of three stars. Better than Casa. It’s funny, but will it be a classic like Elf or Zoolander? No. Cute NetFlix fare when you are bored on a Tuesday night. Nothing on the screen really required a big one, so feel free to watch it at home. Date movie? Sure, if you want something bland that won’t offend anyone. Bathroom break? Nothing past the halfway mark is really critical, except for maybe the scene with Will freaking out in his campaign headquarters. However this film is only 85 minutes so hopefully you can hold it.
Thanks for reading. Not my best review, but for those I need something I either really love or really hate. Follow me on Twitter @NerdKungFu. Feel free to post comments on this review or move here. If you have any off topic questions or comments feel free to email me at [email protected]. Talk to you soon.
Dave
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