Did you ever notice how the losers; the baddies and the incompetents always have thinning hair or are outright baldies in the movies?
Talk about typecasting: Jeff Bridges as the Prez. Full head of hair, high energy, masculine, physically fit and pretty funny, too. Pretty cool, even for a Democrat. Golly, gee whiz, are there supposed to be any similarities drawn between him and Clinton?(I think he stole this movie, BTW).
Gary Oldman as Shelly Runyon, Thinning hair (to be charitable), four-eyed geeky tubercular physique, and quivering jaw, with mean little spitting cobra-like malevolence that only Gary can portray. Oh yes, he plays the EVIL Republican.
Joan Allen...uh, who? What a wussy. Was this the best they could do for a representative of Yearning American Womanhood straining at the Chains of Inequality? For most of the movie, she does nothing to move beyond precisely those reasons that are put forth as Bridge's motivation for nominating her in the first place-namely that he wants a Woman named to the V.P. slot as a part of his "legacy". Not once does he or his chief aide (well played by Sam Eliott) discuss her politics nor is she shown to be any sort of a leader. Mostly, she is so self-effacing; so in awe of all these Big Strong Men, that she makes one ill (snif!). Only towards the end, do you get an idea that maybe she is substantive and that she actually has an opinion on something. They might as well have been picking a S,F and D housefrau out of the phonebook.
Bridges and Eliott seem to regard political investigations as something shameful and dirty and only reluctantly, when they had no other choice, do they finally, reluctantly, (sighing all the way) take advantage of information provided by a plucky (and cute) (OW! take that! sexist pig!) FBI agent. But only in the interest of the American People, you understand...
One last: the ambitious little weasel turncoat representative played by Christian Slater. Does he ever show any emotion besides barely held in eagerness? He seems forever on the verge of anticipating some impending event, like the water bucket above the half-open door trick.
The music was way too loud and way too epic. Way too obvious that this was meant to be a Big Event.
