Man of the Year
Bulldog Reviews
“Man of the Year”
By: Michael Pickowicz
This situation shouldn’t be foreign to movie goers. You walk into the theater, sit down and watch, expecting to see the movie television advertisements told you about. Half way through the movie, you wonder to yourself, “Am I in the right movie?” Marketers of “Man of the Year” poised the question to their audience, “What would happen if a comedian ran for president and won?” Unfortunately, as great of a plot you may have thought this could have made, it only explains 1/5th of the movie. That being said, I’m not here to talk to you about how “Man of the Year” wasn’t the movie marketers told me it was going to be, but to review the movie that was put in front of me.
“Man of the Year” can be best described part comedy, part conspiracy thriller. The movie follows a comedian television news reporter (similar to Jon Steward) by the name of Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams). He makes the decision, thanks to his fans support, to run for President of the United States. Using his unique, stand-up comedic way, he surprises the country with his interesting take on the political system. The other half “Man of the Year” deals with a new electronic ballot used to make sure that voting is easy and fast for all voters. The only problem is that there is an error in the program that is found out too late to fix, and a woman named Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) is determined to get the truth out while the corporation is determined to sweep the situation under the rug.
As you can see by the summary, “Man of the Year” is all over the place. At one point, you’ll be laughing at Williams’ witty one liners, and the next, you’ll be watching some conspiracy plot that’s so generic, you’ll swear you’ve seen it before. In the beginning, any time Williams isn’t on the screen, the comedy dies. What’s worse is that when the two stories come together, it’s almost completely forgotten that the movie is about a president who is a comedian because nothing funny is said for a good 40 minutes in the middle of the movie. Another thing that bugged me is that almost all the comedy comes in the form of stand-up, all done by Williams. This would have been fine if some other characters made any attempt to be funny, but, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. This, ultimately, makes Williams’ role in the film seem more of a coating to what the movie really is, a by-the-book conspiracy movie.
As I walked out of the movie, I heard people in back of me saying, “I wish the movie was funnier.” The lady in front of me promptly agreed. What’s sad about the movie is that it feels like a missed opportunity. We could have gotten a movie about Robin Williams causing some political mayhem and changing the system in his own comedic way. Instead, we get some lady trying to reveal a truth that a corporation is desperate to hide. The movie isn’t terrible by any means, and, at times, it was quite funny. The fact is the stand-up by Williams can’t save this predictable movie. Save your eight bucks. I give “Man of the Year” 2 Bulldogs out of 5.
“Man of the Year”
By: Michael Pickowicz
This situation shouldn’t be foreign to movie goers. You walk into the theater, sit down and watch, expecting to see the movie television advertisements told you about. Half way through the movie, you wonder to yourself, “Am I in the right movie?” Marketers of “Man of the Year” poised the question to their audience, “What would happen if a comedian ran for president and won?” Unfortunately, as great of a plot you may have thought this could have made, it only explains 1/5th of the movie. That being said, I’m not here to talk to you about how “Man of the Year” wasn’t the movie marketers told me it was going to be, but to review the movie that was put in front of me.
“Man of the Year” can be best described part comedy, part conspiracy thriller. The movie follows a comedian television news reporter (similar to Jon Steward) by the name of Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams). He makes the decision, thanks to his fans support, to run for President of the United States. Using his unique, stand-up comedic way, he surprises the country with his interesting take on the political system. The other half “Man of the Year” deals with a new electronic ballot used to make sure that voting is easy and fast for all voters. The only problem is that there is an error in the program that is found out too late to fix, and a woman named Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) is determined to get the truth out while the corporation is determined to sweep the situation under the rug.
As you can see by the summary, “Man of the Year” is all over the place. At one point, you’ll be laughing at Williams’ witty one liners, and the next, you’ll be watching some conspiracy plot that’s so generic, you’ll swear you’ve seen it before. In the beginning, any time Williams isn’t on the screen, the comedy dies. What’s worse is that when the two stories come together, it’s almost completely forgotten that the movie is about a president who is a comedian because nothing funny is said for a good 40 minutes in the middle of the movie. Another thing that bugged me is that almost all the comedy comes in the form of stand-up, all done by Williams. This would have been fine if some other characters made any attempt to be funny, but, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. This, ultimately, makes Williams’ role in the film seem more of a coating to what the movie really is, a by-the-book conspiracy movie.
As I walked out of the movie, I heard people in back of me saying, “I wish the movie was funnier.” The lady in front of me promptly agreed. What’s sad about the movie is that it feels like a missed opportunity. We could have gotten a movie about Robin Williams causing some political mayhem and changing the system in his own comedic way. Instead, we get some lady trying to reveal a truth that a corporation is desperate to hide. The movie isn’t terrible by any means, and, at times, it was quite funny. The fact is the stand-up by Williams can’t save this predictable movie. Save your eight bucks. I give “Man of the Year” 2 Bulldogs out of 5.
posted by Mikepicko at 9:42 PM
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