It is election year in the United States where the President, the whole of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate stand for election. American politics is notorious for being very bitter and negative: so it seems like a fair target for a comedy.
Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is a four term Democratic representative of the 14th district of North Carolina, based around the city of Hampton. He is running unopposed for the seat but he is in trouble after he accidentally leaves a sexually explicit message on a born-again Christian family's answering machine. His backers, the industrialists the Motch brothers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) decides that Cam is a dud and set out to find a someone to run against him. They find the nice, but naïve and weird Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) to run as a Republican. The campaign quickly descends into false accusations, personal attacks and physical violence. But the Motch brothers have their own dastardly plan for Hampton.
The Campaign is a hit and miss comedy, but it is mostly hit. Ferrell is the best comic performer out of the pair but both comic leads have their moments. The jokes vary from verbal, crude and swearing based, Ferrell's trademarked adlibbing and physical: the biggest laugh in the audience I was in was when the baby got punched in the face. As a political satire this is a film that lacks subtly, but to anyone who is interested in American politics you can easily see the references to negative campaigning, making false accusations that someone is a communist/socialist or an Islamic terrorist just through implication, how candidates just use any rhetoric to get elected without actually having any ideas or policies and how political campaign teams think more about image then they do about doing what they think is best for the district and the country. I personally thought the film missed a trick because I think the filmmakers should not have mentioned the political parties the candidates represented and so you could not tell them apart.
The Campaign runs at a brisk 85 minutes, but near the end the film felt like it running out of steam, both story and jokes wise, near the end. The writing was not smart enough when it could have been more ambitious with its satire.
It is still an enjoyable enough film for people who are fans of Will Ferrell and it is at least worth a rental.
Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is a four term Democratic representative of the 14th district of North Carolina, based around the city of Hampton. He is running unopposed for the seat but he is in trouble after he accidentally leaves a sexually explicit message on a born-again Christian family's answering machine. His backers, the industrialists the Motch brothers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) decides that Cam is a dud and set out to find a someone to run against him. They find the nice, but naïve and weird Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) to run as a Republican. The campaign quickly descends into false accusations, personal attacks and physical violence. But the Motch brothers have their own dastardly plan for Hampton.
The Campaign is a hit and miss comedy, but it is mostly hit. Ferrell is the best comic performer out of the pair but both comic leads have their moments. The jokes vary from verbal, crude and swearing based, Ferrell's trademarked adlibbing and physical: the biggest laugh in the audience I was in was when the baby got punched in the face. As a political satire this is a film that lacks subtly, but to anyone who is interested in American politics you can easily see the references to negative campaigning, making false accusations that someone is a communist/socialist or an Islamic terrorist just through implication, how candidates just use any rhetoric to get elected without actually having any ideas or policies and how political campaign teams think more about image then they do about doing what they think is best for the district and the country. I personally thought the film missed a trick because I think the filmmakers should not have mentioned the political parties the candidates represented and so you could not tell them apart.
The Campaign runs at a brisk 85 minutes, but near the end the film felt like it running out of steam, both story and jokes wise, near the end. The writing was not smart enough when it could have been more ambitious with its satire.
It is still an enjoyable enough film for people who are fans of Will Ferrell and it is at least worth a rental.