Primary Colors
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Movie Reviews of Primary Colors
Movie Review: fairly good political film, but it cld have been MUCH better
Summary: 3 Stars
Travolta isn't quite Bill Clinton, but he makes a fairly convincing populist politician who is running a very rough campaign. However, the acting by most of the others is not that great. Even Emma Thompson seems fairly wooden in her performace. But Thornton and the young black actor (Lester?) are really pretty bad. Also, I just didn't get a feeling of fascination at the process - in fact, it barely held my attention, unlike Redford's wonderful The Candidate. I didn't get the feeling that I was learning anything or indications of things that I would want to learn: the whole thing seemed kind of boring and lurid.
Tepidly recommended.
Movie Review: In twenty years, it'll be forgotten...
Summary: 3 Stars
A horrible actor imitating a horrible president... How appropriate! This film is about as relevant as jokes about Nixon. I don't know what this thing's selling for used, but it can't be much. My suggestion would be to watch "Tales of the City" or "Torch Song Trilogy: instead.Movie Review: Travolta
Summary: 3 Stars
Quite a political drama. The acting is good and the story like is also. Kathy Bates is simply wonderful in this movie.Movie Review: Deeply Flawed
Summary: 2 Stars
This movie has some great moments that give one hope for what it could have been. Emma Thompson in particular shines in her role as the candidate's wife. However a terribly hokey script full of over-the-top metaphors about the moon and wild boars, characters who are too underwritten to win the empathy of the audience, a running time that's 45 minutes longer than it needs to be and a really, really, REALLY bad score (Seriously the worst I've heard in a major studio release film -- it sounds like a ten-year-old's piano recital or something.) sink this movie into the bottom of the commercial stratosphere.
Most disappointing of all are the two characters the audience is supposed to have the most empathy for. There's Libby, played by Kathy Bates, whose character trajectory is unbelievably manipulative. Sadly I can't be more specific about this without spoiling a major plot "twist" -- suffice it to say that filmmakers try to manipulate you into feeling something for both her and her cause -- not through good writing, but through an action that it made little sense for her to take. Then there's Henry Burton, the campaign manager through whose eyes we see all of this. His innocence and idealism are supposed to be challenged over and over again but the screenplay never presents him with any real moral delimmas. Instead he gets just a lot of sad music playing over soft-focus close-ups, a completely unresolved subplot with his girlfriend, a background involving him being the grandson of a civil rights leader that is never delved into and a character that is never fully developed. When the credits roll, we still have no idea who he is and what it is he stands for -- and the same can be said of this entire movie.
The DVD has no extras to speak of, just production notes and a trailer that make it hardly worth having a DVD instead of a video. Characters in this movie talk a lot about the importance of making history. The true events it's based on did, in fact, make history. (The fact that this film is actually a fictionalization of the Clintons is no secret.) But at this point, I think it's safe to say that this is one aspect of the Clinton administration even Democrats don't want to revist, so there's little hope of nostalgia ever saving this movie from the only spot in history it has managed to earn: the ash heaps.
Movie Review: I have to disagree
Summary: 2 Stars
Primary Colors is not a good film. John Travolta's Bill Clinton imitation starts wearing on the nerves very quickly and his accent is a crime against nature. Emma Thompson who is normally great is bland here. The only three people who really shine and almost make this a worthwile film are Billy Bob Thornton, Larry Hagman and Kathy Bates. Bates is particularly good as a politial operative who alas was a true believer and is crushed when she realizes that her gods are no better than their opponents.
Primary Colors isn't funny. It's not deep. It's not even witty and it doesnt' even cut it as a roman a clef. Sometimes terrific books in the hands of the wrong director or with the wrong actors just don't translate well to the big screen. This is one of those times.