Two thumbs down for "W"
When a man got and walked out during the Oliver Stone movie, "W," last week at the Brassfield, I assumed he was coming back.
He didn't.
I don't consider the film that bad, but it's not very good, either.
The movie's main flaw is that it can't make it's mind what it is: a serious biopic or a two-hour Saturday Night Live" skit? Fact or fiction?
Give Josh Brolin credit for an uncanny portrayal of George W. Bush.
But the film is wildly uneven and meanders all over the place, from the sublime to the downright silly, as in the scene it wastes, from start to finish, on the president nearly choking to death on a pretzel.
It relishes close-ups of him chewing with his mouth open.
Then there's Thandie Newton's portrayal of Condoleezza Rice, which comes across as broad and one-dimensional ... less funny and not as good as Tina Fey's Sarah Palin.
What was the point?
There are some intriguing scenes between Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. that suggest the son's frustration that his father does not take him seriously.
But not much else. What a waste of a strong cast, including James Cromwell as George H.W. Bush, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush and Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney.
When the movie ended, some in the audience clapped.
I thought about cheering, too. It was finally over.
Comments (2)
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Seriously Allen,
What in the world did you expect from Stone? He is a pure Bush hater. Those clapping were probably of a similar mindset. Anything that demeans President Bush is a good thing to them.
Accuracy and reliability come in way down the list of priorities for any "hater". This behavior marginilizes them in the eyes of the more normal amongst us.
The Bush Haters learned zero form their predecessors.. the equally idiotic Clinton Haters.
Posted on October 28, 2008 8:35 AM
Did Stone mention in the film that Bush earned better grades than the "nuanced" John Kerry at Yale, and to date is the only president with an MBA from Haavaad, and flew F-102's in the Guard, or that he beat the "intellectually superior" Demo-Rats consistently for almost 8 years now? If Bush is such a dunce, what does that make his opponents?
Perhaps Stone could make a film about that! Unfortunately in our educationally challenged country, many of the real dunces get their history, whether it be the Kennedy Assassination, the Vietnam War, or the career of Bush 43, from a fool like Oliver Stone.
Posted on October 28, 2008 11:20 AM