The Campaign

First Hit:  It was very funny at times while at other times reflectively poignant of our political process.

Cam Brady (played by Will Ferrell) is a multi-elected congressman who does little in congress but loves being a member. He’s running unopposed until two wealthy businessmen Glenn and Wade Motch (played by John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd respectively) decide they want some influence in congress so that they can build a new factory in Brady's congressional district.

The kicker is that the workers will be imported from China at very low wages. It is what they call "insourcing". They select the younger odd-ball son of Raymond Huggins (played by Brian Cox) Marty (Zach Galifianakis) who they think they can easily manipulate.

Marty gives tours of his home town for a living but he’s always wanted to be seen as someone more than this, especially by his father. To assist Marty, Glenn and Wade hire a take no prisoners campaign manager Tim Wattley (played by Dylan McDermott). With Tim’s guidance, Marty becomes ruthless in his quest to win the election.

Cam is and becomes more of what most people don’t like about politicians, untruthful, unfaithful, scheming, and willing to do anything, including airing manipulative television commercials, to win. Marty is meeting him punch for punch, but learns the lesson sooner than Cam that he has to live with himself and in the final day of the campaign decides to promote telling the truth, the real truth.

The parallels to the real election process are astonishing and with our country in election mode, this film is timely. One very nice touch is having real and famous newsmen be part of the script. They are used to announce the latest news from the campaign.

Lastly, showing how both wives can and are affected by the power of publicity was very good.

Ferrell, although not my favorite actor, is pretty good in this role. Although too much Will Farrell and less of his character at times, he does carry this role, enough for the audience to see our election stupidity. Galifianakis is good but also stuck in a type casting of the same kind of person he’s played in other films. Fortunately it works here. Lithgow and Aykroyd are great as rich manipulators who point fingers at each other in front of a congressional hearing. McDermott was very amusing as the dark hired hand to make Marty a winner. Cox is great as Marty’s overly stuffed and arrogant father. Shawn Harwell and Chris Henchy must have had a lot of fun writing this script knowing this film would air during an election year. Jay Roach did a very good job of bringing poignant humor and truth by showing us the absurdity of our election process.

Overall:  This was an enjoyable film with some interesting likenesses to our current election.

The Other Guys

First Hit: An insipidly lost film with little direction and a hopeless story.

I’ve mentioned this before that I don’t think Will Ferrell is much as an actor and somewhat bankrupted as a comedian. That is a given. But what was a good actor like Mark Wahlberg thinking by being in this film?

The writing by Adam McKay and Chris Henchy was completely lost, had no focus, and devoid of a meaningful subject and worse as comedy.

The opening sequences with Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson were mildly amusing as a spoof on super-hero cops, but then to have them jump off building and commit suicide while in pursuit of criminals was totally lost on me. What was the point of this?

The Other Guys, who are the wanna be cops in the squad room, was totally a misrepresentation of anything cops do, or don’t do, and if it was supposed to be ironic it totally missed the mark. Terry Hoitz (played by Wahlberg) is a damaged cop because he mistakenly shot Derek Jeter in the leg and now the whole city of New York hates and reviles him.

His partner Allen Gamble (played by Ferrell) was a desk cop, who worked in accounting, but now has to be a real detective and risk himself on the streets. They are a mismatched partnership and don’t get along.

There are a few moments of real laughter as they display their differences, but mostly they go through this film mugging and pretending to work on a case together. The aspect that all beautiful women are attracted to Gamble falls flat and is nowhere believable.

The story line that they tracking down a racketeer is only reasonable because Gamble worked in the accounting department, nothing else works.

Ferrell cannot act. The difference between a good comedian acting as a straight man and a bad one is to watch Steve Carell in his latest film and watch Ferrell in this one; night and day. Carell is great and Ferrell is insipid. Wahlberg must be having a crisis of confidence to take on this film. He is can be a very good actor but here he must be just picking up a paycheck. It was nice to see Michael Keaton again on the screen in the role as Ferrell’s and Wahlberg’s boss. Jackson and Johnson are a good team together and their egos work well. Maybe the film needed to focus on them. McKay co-wrote and directed this mess and if he gets to direct another film he better be watched over by someone who knows something about film making.

Overall: This film is useless at all levels.