My Fellow Americans

Day 332 - 11/28/09 - Movie #332

BEFORE: Let's keep the theme going with this comedy, starring Jack Lemmon and James Garner as a couple of ex-presidents.

THE PLOT: Framed in a scandal by the current President and pursued by armed agents, two squabbling political foes plunge into a desperate search for the evidence that will establish their innocence.

AFTER: aka "Grumpy Old Presidents" - it's sort of a road-trip buddy comedy, it reminded me a little of "Midnight Run". Ex-President Kramer (Lemmon) and ex-president Douglas (Garner) have to team up to get across the country, after their helicopter blows up, in what looks like an attempt to have them killed. Of course one is a Democrat and the other is a Republican, and there's a lot of animosity left over from their campaigning days. They're both one-term presidents, and one replaced the other as president, you see.

They're pursued by agents of some sort - NSA, or CIA, and after their copter crashes in North Carolina, they've got to make their way to Ohio to get evidence from Kramer's presidential library that will clear Kramer from a defense contractor scandal. But it seems like current President Haney (Dan Aykroyd) wants Kramer to take the fall, and Garner's out for the same info, as a favor to the DNC chairman.

It's a funny enough premise, and there are a few laughs as the presidents encounter locals in West Virginia and Ohio, from lady truck drivers and trailer park families to gay pride marchers and lesbian bikers. But the humor's sort of cheap, and the plot's not that complex.

Also starring John Heard as the Vice-President, Wilford Brimley as the DNC chairman, Lauren Bacall as a former First Lady, Sela Ward as a reporter, and Everett McGill ("Big Ed" from "Twin Peaks") as a rogue NSA colonel. Also character actors James Rebhorn and Conchata Ferrell, and a quick cameo by Esther Rolle as the White House cook.

And the West Wing staffers keep showing up this week - Bradley Whitford plays Haney's chief of staff (sort of a downgrade from working for President Bartlett). So in movies this week I've seen 8 regulars from West Wing - Whitford, Martin Sheen, Allison Janney ("Primary Colors"), Joshua Malina ("The American President"), Oliver Platt ("Bulworth"), Tim Matheson ("Black Sheep"), Nina Siemaszko ("The American President") and Anna Deavere Smith (also in "The American President") I guess once you get cast in a political movie or TV show, you're locked into that genre... I'm half-expecting Richard Schiff or Janel Moloney to turn up in tomorrow's movie.

RATING: 5 out of 10 rental cars

The American President

Day 331 - 11/27/09 - Movie #331

BEFORE: Another film I've been trying to see for quite a while. Hey, I missed the news - did President Obama pardon a turkey yesterday? I know it's a grand symbolic tradition and all, but I was kind of hoping he'd be above all that. I mean, what's one turkey compared to the millions that get killed and eaten on Thanksgiving? Not that I care about turkey's rights - I just think the President should have more important things on his agenda.

THE PLOT: Comedy-drama about a widowed US president and a lobbyist who fall in love. It's all aboveboard, but "politics is perception" and sparks fly anyway.

AFTER: Ha! This film referenced both Thanksgiving AND "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"! I love it when a plan comes together... And the assistant director was Frank Capra III, grandson of the director of last night's film. This was directed by Rob Reiner (who had a cameo in "Primary Colors") and written by Aaron Sorkin, who went on to create "The West Wing".

Similarities to "West Wing" abound, as the film balances President Shepard's (Michael Douglas) romance with a lobbyist (Annette Bening) with an attack on Libya, and a lot of those round-table discussions that made "West Wing" great. The presence of Martin Sheen as the president's chief of staff seals the deal.

Actually, this film is mostly about the romance and its affect on the president's chances re-election. This president is a widower with a 12-year old daughter, and when he starts dating, the Republican opposition, led by Sen. Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss, looking very Cheney-like) starts harping about "family values", and Shepard starts plunging in the polls.

It's a mostly charming film, especially when the President tries to buy flowers for his date, and can't seem to manage the simple feat without the help of his staff, or the Secret Service checking out the flower shop. But the inevitable conflicts arise when her environmental bill is sacrificed for his anti-crime bill...

Also starring Michael J. Fox and David Paymer as White House staffers, with Wendie Malick, John Mahoney, and Joshua Malina as various lobbyists.

RATING: 7 out of 10 china patterns

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Day 330 - 11/26/09 - Movie #330

BEFORE: I'm not sure if this is the most appropriate movie to watch on Thanksgiving - since the holiday is such an amalgam of religion, federal holiday, and a really good excuse to stuff ourselves. But director Frank Capra was the answer to final Jeopardy on the episode I watched today, I'm going to jump on the coincidence.

THE PLOT: A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn't back down.

AFTER: This is considered a classic film about the idealism and corruption in the American political system. Jimmy Stewart plays a new Senator, Jefferson Smith, who at first says that he's not going to make any waves, he's just going to sit quietly in the Senate and serve out his term. But a trip around the Washington DC landmarks inspires him, and before you know it, he's learning how to propose a bill to start a national boy's camp - but wouldn't you know that the land he wants to put the camp on is the site of a very suspect federal dam project. What are the odds of that?

When he sticks to his guns, the powers behind the dam project, including Senator Paine, his idol and the senior Senator from his own (unnamed) state, try to frame him by submitting phony evidence that Sen. Smith owns land in the area of the proposed dam, and that he's corrupt and unfit to serve in the Senate. This leads to a filibuster by Sen. Smith to stop the dam bill, while the news of the dam project spreads throughout his home state - but the communications magnate who backs the phony dam also tries to use his own newspapers to spread the news about Smith's senatorial incompetence.

Gee, if only there were a simple solution, like maybe picking another location for the camp... But Sen. Smith has to "do the right thing" and stamp out graft wherever he sees it - but what about the thousands of other pork barrel projects that get approved by Congress every year?

I had more fun picking out the cast members who also appeared in "It's a Wonderful Life", another film directed by Capra. Thomas Mitchell, who played Uncle Billy, plays a reporter here. And Beulah Bondi, who played Ma Bailey, also plays Jimmy Stewart's mother in this film. And the guy who played Mr. Gower the pharmacist, and the guy who played the real estate lawyer, and the little boy who played Pete Bailey... It was also interesting to see Claude Rains as Sen. Paine, since he's most famous for playing the Invisible Man...(oh, so THAT's what he looks like...)

RATING: 5 out of 10 Senate pages

Primary Colors

Day 329 - 11/26/09 - Movie #329

BEFORE: Politics week continues - did you notice that all three films so far are about campaigning or getting elected? For once, that was intentional... I'm also proud of the fact that I'm crossing some films off of my list that I've been meaning to watch for about a decade. So even though the list might not be getting much shorter, I'll take that as a sign of some progress...

THE PLOT: A man joins the political campaign of a smooth-operator candidate for president of the USA.

AFTER: This is a (very) thinly-veiled look at the Clinton campaign, based on the book of the same name. John Travolta plays Gov. Jack Stanton, and Emma Thompson plays Susan Stanton, (aka Schmillary Schminton...). It's sort of told from the P.O.V. of Henry Burton, a young black man who joins up as campaign manager for Stanton because he believes in his rhetoric and his image, only to become more and more disillusioned by him when he realizes that the governor has a few skeletons in his closet.

We all sort of went through this with Clinton as a candidate, and then obviously as President as well. He was so likable, so believable, that when the first woman came forward with claims of an affair, many people just wrote it off. But then there was a second, maybe even a third, and finally I think we all just came to realize that this guy had a real problem staying faithful to his wife, but since Hillary stood by him, they either had some kind of open marriage or understanding, or just accepted that part of being charismatic enough to become President was also being charismatic enough to sleep around. Come on, we all know that Presidents get a little action on the side - JFK, Eisenhower, Jefferson...isn't that WHY men want to be President?

The movie doesn't follow the Clinton timeline exactly - but it is an interesting study in the kind of politics that candidates engage in to discredit their opponents. Stanton refuses to "go negative" in his ads, since that sort of thing tends to reflect badly on the attacker, but the Stanton campaign ends up hiring an investigator, Libby Holden (Kathy Bates) to dig up what dirt she can - not only on Stanton's opponents, but on Stanton himself. The theory being, if she can find out about the other women he's been with, so can the press.

I'd like to get an account of which real-life people all of these fictional characters are supposed to represent. Campaign strategist Richard Jemmons (Billy Bob Thornton) is obviously a stand-in for James Carville, and Daisy (Maura Tierney) could be Dee Dee Myers. Stanton's opponent, Senator Harris is probably Paul Tsongas, and Wikipedia suggests that Gov. Picker (Larry Hagman) is sort of an amalgam of Jerry Brown, Ross Perot and Gov. Askew of Florida. Umm...OK?

But in the movie, it's Gov. Picker who's involved with the "Clearwater" scandal - wasn't it the Clintons themselves who were involved with the Whitewater scandal in real-life? I guess they didn't want to pile too many scandals on the lead character, in order to keep him somewhat likable...

The Democratic primary is portrayed here as something like "American Idol" or "Survivor", where the front-runners keep getting dis-credited and eliminated, leaving Stanton/Clinton as the best choice among those remaining. With what I remember about the 1992 campaign, I'm OK with that analogy.

I'm also happy there was a very prominent Thanksgiving dinner scene, which justifies my decision to watch this film on the day before said holiday...

Also in supporting roles: Paul Guilfoyle (Lt. Brass from "CSI"), Alison Janney (from "West Wing"), Diane Ladd, Rob Reiner, and Mykelti Williamson.

RATING: 7 out of 10 Krispy Kremes

Black Sheep (1996)

DAY 328 - 11/24/09 - Movie #328

BEFORE: This is the David Spade/Chris Farley political comedy - not the 2006 horror film about virus-infected killer sheep (I swear) that has the same name...

THE PLOT: A gubernatorial candidate hires an assistant whose only job is to make sure the candidate's incompetent brother doesn't ruin the election.

AFTER: This actually has very little to do with politics - Farley plays the screw-up brother of a candidate (Tim Matheson) running for governor of Washington state, and Spade is assigned to keep him out of the public eye. This is little more than a story device to get them out to a remote cabin in the woods, where they can be frightened by snakes, bats and raccoons, smack their heads into low tree branches, and other forms of low slapstick humor.

The inspiration seems to come from the "Three Stooges" school of comedy, but I sort of wonder if Spade and Farley could have evolved into a modern-day Abbott and Costello, if Farley had lived a little longer, and they started to aim a little bit higher.

Gary Busey does some interesting supporting work as a crazy Vietnam vet/survivalist - also featuring fellow SNL veteran Christine Ebersole as the incumbent governor, and Bruce McGill (Matheson's co-star from "Animal House").

RATING: 5 out of 10 land mines (fairly good for a film that resorts to slapstick at every possible opportunity)

Bulworth

Day 327 - 11/23/09 - Movie #327

BEFORE: Well, I promised to get to politics in November, so Warren Beatty is my link. I've been meaning to watch this one for quite a while - I got an Academy screener of this a few years ago, so old it's on VHS!

THE PLOT: A suicidally disillusioned liberal politician puts a contract out on himself and takes the opportunity to be bluntly honest with his voters by affecting the rhythms and speech of hip-hop music and culture.

AFTER: Once again, Beattly plays a man whose life is very complicated and falling apart. This time, he's a senator from California who's having a midlife crisis - his wife is having an affair, he's 4 points behind in the polls, and he's going for days without food or sleep. One day he snaps and accidentally starts telling the truth - the REAL truth about how politics works, while campaigning in a black neighborhood.

At the same time, he's taken out a large insurance policy on himself, and hired a hitman to take himself out. But then he spends some time in a nightclub with Halle Berry and finds something to live for (she's been known to have that effect on men...) Unfortunately, Sen. Bulworth gets introduced to this new form of music called "rap" (note: film was made in 1998...) and he starts doing his sound bites and debates in rhyme. It's not really rap, it's just sort of loose verse the way he does it.

This leads to Bulworth dressing all street-like, and dropping some F-bombs on live TV. Unfortunately, even though this un-hip white guy visits South Central L.A. and learns a lot about how the other half lives, the references to black culture are very dated, and also overtly racist - every black man is either a rapper, a gangster, or a gangsta rapper.

Plus, we're never really sure if the senator's new policy of speaking honestly is sincere, or if the change in his personality is just caused by the lack of sleep, or the drugs, or if he's truly gone bonkers.

It's a shame, because some of the issues raised in the film, such as people demanding health-care, and the insurance companies dragging their feet in providing it, are very timely. It's just too bad that they're buried under a pile of bad rhymes and racial stereotypes.

Supporting work by Oliver Platt, Josh Malina ("West Wing"), Don Cheadle, Nora Dunn, Laurie Metcalf, Paul Sorvino, Sean Astin, and Jack Warden (Beatty's co-star from "Heaven Can Wait")

RATING: 5 out of 10 exit polls

Bugsy

Day 326 - 11/22/09 - Movie #326

BEFORE: Moving on from thieves to another type of criminal - gangster and casino owner Bugsy Siegel - this sort of turned into "hunk week", with Redford and McQueen and Brosnan, and now Warren Beatty. I assure you, that was unintentional. Also, following a movie with Faye Dunaway with a Warren Beatty movie, forming a sort of "Bonnie and Clyde" reunion, was a happy accident.

THE PLOT: The story of how Bugsy Siegel started Las Vegas.

AFTER: I don't know if I'm getting burned out, jaded or just hard to impress, but I didn't really see the point of this movie. So Bugsy Siegel is a gangster - so what? So he's married and he chases other women - so what? So he thought up the idea for Las Vegas as an entertainment mecca - OK, that last part's actually pretty cool.

But as a biopic of a man, and a man's life and a man's personality, I didn't really feel all the pieces coming together coherently. Where the other actors in the past week played characters who had it all together - planning bank robberies and jewel thefts with precision, Bugsy's life always feels like it's unraveling. Is his marriage on the rocks, is his girlfriend Virginia (Annette Bening) seeing other guys, is he losing control of the other L.A. mobsters? I'm reminded of other Beatty movies like "Shampoo" and "Heaven Can Wait", where his situations and relationships keep getting more and more complicated.

Bugsy's got this great idea for a Las Vegas casino, but the construction keeps running over budget and the opening date keeps getting pushed back. He keeps telling Virginia that he's going to ask his wife for a divorce, but he never seems to get around to it. Plus he's got this grand ambition to go to Italy and assassinate Mussolini. Does he have some kind of A.D.D., or is he just crazy?

Co-starring Harvey Keitel as Mickey Cohen, Ben Kingsley as Meyer Lansky, also Elliott Gould, Joe Mantegna and Bebe Neuwirth in a bit part. I suppose this sort of works as a snapshot of 1940's gangster history, but it just sort of left me cold and un-entertained.

RATING: 3 out of 10