Rating of
2/4
60%
CJP - wrote on 10/04/08
Action: 2/3 + Comedy: 0/2 + Good vs Evil: 1/1 + Love/Sex: 0.5/1 + Special Effects: 0.5/1 + Plot: 1/1 + Music: 1/1 = 6/10 or 60%.
For it's release in 2004 the President's daughter, a young Veronica Mars, is obviously a culmination of the Bush Twin's drunken escapades, while the President is modeled after a careless and sex happy Bill Clinton, which worked more effectively at the height of SNL parodies of those individuals. Regardless, this is one of Mamet's more clever and layered scripts initially. Veteran actors fall out of the wood works and offer strong cameo performances. The unique atmosphere of the top layered government officals is incredibly intriguing initially as well.
As the film progresses it begins to unravel uneccessarily though. Val Kilmer's Jack Bauer type badass turns into a sudden caring and "I long for home" sob story. William H Macy goes into an unprompted, typical "reveal all the conspiracy plot" monologue as if he's a 60's James Bond or Batman villain. And Mamet makes the rookie mistake of trying to force us to suddenly care about these agents humanity when it was their stone-cold, take no prisoners montra that made the first half of the film so intriguing.
