I only watched it again as The Hangover (2009), which I had the misfortune to experience recently (it’s terrible), is obsessed with it. It’s not as good or as bad as I remembered. For a ‘message movie’, it’s quite thoughtful and not annoying.
It is also The Tom Cruise Show. He’s not just an exceptionally pretty face; the lad is an acting roadshow.
And Hans Zimmer is involved.
The take-home image is of Bobby De Niro and his cool-as-milk beard. And his cool hat.
It’s not exactly a funny movie (not a single laugh was had) but more of a witty satire that stays just on the right side of absurd because you can genuinely see this stuff happening for it sort of has happened.
Politicians and their helpers are mostly reptiles and will do anything to win power – history tell us this, and Wag the Dog (1997) exposes the techniques spin doctors use and the cynicism of distraction, PR in its essence, if you will. It also draws our attention to the collusion between the media and the political class. More films should do this.
Denis Leary is highly annoying, though. He doesn’t seem sincere. His persona is a grating act and I don’t get his appeal or why he is in films.
But he’s not in this much.
Thank fuck.
I never thought much for John Grisham with his seemingly bottomless supply of the same sledgehammer page-turners for the courtroom lay person. But this is Hackman and Hoffman in their only film together, the “least likely to succeed” still chewing up the scenery.
This is glossy and decent enough as expected but with an intriguing premise offering something quite different from the usual going-through-the-motions drama. Jury selection/packing/tampering/whatever is the focus, and it’s quite the line-up: Cliff Curtis, Luis Guzmán, and, somehow, Uncle Frank with no eyesight.
And it doesn’t skirt around an issue, guns, that is still an … issue. Because it’s never not going to be.
Worth a watch.
Wanderings and ... wonderings. 