Wag the Dog

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source: Wag the Dog

They could have titled this movie "Watch A Bunch of Jerks Talk on Cell Phones All Day" and it would have been just as effective. The pacing of this movie is all screwed up, like the characters' inane dialogue is more important than the structure of the movie. Could have been much better.

People who want to sit down and have a nice neat story poured into their heads will hate this movie. On the other hand, if you like political satire, this movie will make you laugh and cringe in fear. Hoffman and DeNiro are brilliant -- My favorite exchange-- DeNiro, referring to the Gulf War shot of a laser-guided bomb blowing up a building, says something like "I was there when they filmed it. It was a 1/4 scale model". Hoffman says "Is that really true?" DeNiro smiles and says "Who's to say?"

I found this movie to be funny, boring, confusing, sloppy and brilliant. It's worth seeing but it's not a big deal. I won't think about it every time I watch the news because this could never happen, but it is interesting as a movie. Woody Harrelson was great and Hoffman deserved his Oscar nomination.

The premise of this movie is simple: Only two weeks before election day, a sitting president is hit by a sex scandal. A brief dalliance with a Firefly Girl becomes public knowledge, and now his 17% lead is about to plummet. Winifred Ames (Anne Heche), one of the President's top aides, calls in spin doctor extraordinary, Conrad Bream (Robert De Niro). Conrad goes to work immediately, deciding that the best way to get the public's mind off the Firefly Girl is to give them something bigger to think about. "Change the story, change the lead" is his motto, so he decides to manufacture a war against Albania. Brilliant performances by Dustin Hoffman and De Niro make this an intelligent laugh riot. Levinson and Mamet have created a minor masterpiece of comedy.

Don't be fooled, this movie is not nearly as clever as some would have you believe. Whilst the basic plot is interesting, especially in the light of events over the last 4-5 years, "Wag The Dog" just doesn't deliver anything you are likely to believe would actually happen. This lack of credibility makes this film fail as a satire. To make matters worse, the acting is at best irritating. De Niro plays that scruffy, self-satisfied character he plays when not cast as a gangster (tedious), and Hoffman hobbles about like a man recovering from recent bilateral hip replacements (whatever talent this guy had as an actor has long since deserted him). For me the ending couldn't come soon enough.

Many people have said that Wag the Dog is a boring movie. Many have said it's too "brainy". Well, I agree. For those who cannot comprehend the subtleties, it must be excruciating. For the rest of us, it is a fantastically sharp satire with quick jabs and an aura that makes you fear the possibilities for real life. You can't get any better than De Niro- Hoffman, and such wonderful additions as Denis Leary and a surprisingly funny Willie Nelson make the cast one of the best in years. David Mamet is again masterful with his insight into the political realm, and the music, though not exceptionally powerful, is appropriate.

This.was an interesting movie with a great cast. I loved Denis Leary.'s "Fad King" character. The president gets caught in a scandal, so Dustin Hoffman and company create a fake war with Albania to help improve the president's image. I think the plot was good and the cast worked well together and it worked as a political satire. I recommend it. *** out of ****

Adapted from Larry Beinhart's novel 'American Hero' this seemed to be intended as an airy semi-political comedy. To me it just seemed like a lazily assembled collage of soft, extended skits on engineering a media war. You may notice several badly handled leaps in the story. This is a muddled mess and it could have been such a great movie because its premise is exceptional. Unfortunately, De Niro, Heche and Hoffman (three actors I really appreciate and the main reason why I watched this movie) couldn't help it. But then -- what to do with such a script?