W.

[Keith Whitener]

Anyone see it? How was it? What are your thoughts?

[punkdc]

I'm super interested in this as well. I've read reviews that said it wasn't terrible so its already beating my expectations.

[scamboogah]

I liked it. It was much, much more sympathetic than I thought it would be. It's almost as if Stone's message is, "Yes, it's easy to think of Bush as an evil asshole, but the truth is he's just a dope, and you all elected him, so in reality, it's YOUR fault".

Dreyfuss should win an oscar.

[Darryl]

JUST got home from seeing it, and I loved it. Brolin is W. I was very worried that it would come across as a spoof, and it doesn't. I was also concerned that there would be stupid "recognition-laughter," in the audience, where people think they have to laugh at everything that's familiar. That didn't happen, which was a huge relief. Of course, there are familiar parts played for humor, but that's different.

Overall, this movie is done with a surprisingly light touch from the usually heavy-handed Oliver Stone. This is not a slam or a hatchet-job by any means.

I liked the structure of moving back and forth through time. I liked Cromwell's portrayal of Bush the First, despite the fact that he really didn't even try to get the vocal quality close. And Dreyfuss is indeed fantastic as well.

The only thing I didn't like was there were way too many close-ups of eating. At least once, it's for comedic effect, but if you don't like seeing and hearing amplified chewing, you will cringe. I could have done with way less of that. In fact, much of the film is shot handheld, very very close, with faces filling the frame, as if we are being forced into intimacy.

My recommendation: three thumbs up!

[Warhead Jones]

I wanted to like this, but it really kind of fell flat. W. has daddy issues – other than that Stone really didn't tell us anything.

The casting and acting is worth the ticket price,(Thandie Newton becomes Condoleezza), but I was very disappointed in the story.

[ericluxury]

Yeah the movie had no clear point. There was one atrocious scene where Stone didn't have talking heads Fox News shows so he decided to recreate his own and it was weird the way he jammed in W.'s catchphrases ('Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice....won't get fooled again' and stuff like that).
Overall though it was an okay movie. Most of the fun was watching the impressions. Dreyfuss actually fell flat to me since he seemed like Dreyfuss rather than Cheney and same with James Cromwell. I liked Thandie Newton as Condi and Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell. Josh Brolin was great, though I occasionally thought to myself W isn't that handsome. He's goofier than that. But thats asking a lot of him, portraying a sitting President and slipping into the role so well has got to be very difficult.

Can't say anyone should spend $12-$8 on it, but its not bad at all.

[jeffwatt]

Would anyone else have been a bit more jazzed about a Cheney/Powell movie? To me, the only one who went through any sort of change or moral dilemma was Colin Powell.

Everything else left me feeling a bit empty. Bush is a goober, I know that. Why did I pay $15 to hear it again?

Good scenes, misguided movie.

[DonTGD]

JUST got home from seeing it, and I loved it. Brolin is W. I was very worried that it would come across as a spoof, and it doesn't. I was also concerned that there would be stupid "recognition-laughter," in the audience, where people think they have to laugh at everything that's familiar. That didn't happen, which was a huge relief. Of course, there are familiar parts played for humor, but that's different.
...

Familiarity is the most significant human emotion. That's why this occurs. I fully acknowledge that familiarity can be damaging and lazy in comedy, but if you analyze human behavior and management, familiarity is super-important. I am convinced that the acknowledgment of familiarity as a critical emotion that guides human decision-making is going to be the "next big thing."

[KeithTalent]

Familiarity is the most significant human emotion. That's why this occurs. I fully acknowledge that familiarity can be damaging and lazy in comedy, but if you analyze human behavior and management, familiarity is super-important. I am convinced that the acknowledgment of familiarity as a critical emotion that guides human decision-making is going to be the "next big thing."

To quote the former third-baseman, "Nostalgia ruins everything."

[James Morris]

As a character study, it was pretty great. Brolin was amazing. The ending was kind of clunky, but throughout the movie I was so sucked in.