[Note - Politics: I hate election season and find it to be polite institutionalized bullying when all is said and done. I find politicians and those involved to be just about the lowest form of humanity and the desire to wield that kind of control over people to be sickening. My favorite day is the Wednesday after the election. I don't like either or any side. To say I am disillusioned by politics 1) makes the unfair implication that I was ever transfixed by it and 2) is like saying that the gypsies were disappointed by the Nazi policies. I just wanted to get that out of the way because it colors my reaction to this movie greatly.]
Cast: Will Ferrell has a great deal of goodwill built up with me, mostly due to my immense love of Stranger Than Fiction, so I'm always ready to give something he does a chance. I'm not a huge fan of this style of comedy. Since Anchorman, they have followed the law of diminishing returns for laughs and quality. Ferrell plays the characters as well as the cast he puts around him. Sadly...I want to like Zach Galifianakis. In interviews he strikes me as a nice guy and pretty funny too. I don't like his screen persona though. Something about it always rubs me the wrong way. He seemed very outmatched by Ferrell whenever they're together which makes Ferrell then hard to swallow. The rest of the cast is a bunch of people I'm happy to see working, but no one has the material to really shine in this.
Plot: Few things in this world are more ripe for jokes than an election. Had the entire movie kept the focus of wringing every joke out of the election season, this would be a solid movie. They didn't do that though. They decided to try and go for an optimistic statement about politics, which has no place in this movie. I'm also really tired of these plots where the only bad guys are the business men. Why is everyone else in the movie allowed to be merely inept, but the business men have to be pure and calculated evil? I'm not saying the they are normally moral contributors in an election. Every person involved in a real election are awful, awful, wretched, calculating, awful people. I'm probably over-bothered by this, but I hate when a movie paints a picture of the candidates as idealist characters, trying to do the right thing, while the rest of the world is pulling them down. It's bullshit. I'm sorry, but it really irritates me.
Elephant in the Room: Why did you see this if it's been out this long and you were pretty sure you wouldn't like it? Good question. I don't have a good answer. Maybe I was hoping it would be different. Maybe everything else out was that bad. Maybe I thought it would be just disappointing, not thematically infuriating. Maybe it was the next movie starting at the theater when I showed up. God, I can't wait for some better movies to come out.
To Sum Things Up:
I should've seen Paranorman.This movie did nothing but remind me of what is to come in the next 2 months and how much I hate this time of year every four years. I kind of want to go watch V for Vendetta now.
Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment