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2.0 out of 5 stars Their Job is to Clap Like Seals...and ours is to bark, April 20, 2010
By Rev. E. Antonio Hernandez "Rev. E. A. Hernandez" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This review is from: Poliwood (Ws Sub Ac3 Dol) (DVD)
Firstly, a jump of delight has occurred in my chair--I finally got to be the FIRST reviewer of a film. Secondly, my coined term "FOLLYWOOD" finally has a near-counterpart.

Having got that off my chest, I have to start by saying this is an interesting documentary by Barry Levinson: celebrities in politics. Not the elected dopes like Arnie or Ronald, but the no-really-I'm-an-average-person-too celebrity who wants to get in on the political process.

There is real meat and potatoes here, and I'm just sorry there's not enough of it...not by a long shot. It's Follywood at its worst, because in light of Moore's CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY and Maher's RELIGULOUS, this film is a clunker.

Interspersed between Levinson's grumpy outlook about television being the opiate of the masses, I had to endure Spike Lee's angry glare and endless, pointless rants by the likes of Josh Lucas.

I'm very sorry, but I've never heard of Josh Lucas until I saw this film, I don't know him from Joe the Plumber, and I don't care what he says about his precious little self. It was more satisfying to see Susan Sarandon, Ellen Burstyn and Anne Hathaway, who are politically active and really are ordinary women, politically involved. They, along with Rachel Leigh Cook (not what I'd call genius-level person) showing up at the Republican National Convention as onlookers was a refreshing sight.

The rest of this thing, frankly, is fart gas and bad music. I loved Crosby and Nash defending their right to perform political songs--I didn't know they had done one a few years ago called "Let's Impeach the President"--it was excellent, but again, too little of it.

You know, I had always wondered about celebrities and especially good actors. I've written a great deal of commentary about this subject: what is life like for you when you can't go anywhere, can't rely on friends because you never know who is really one and who isn't, when you feel you can't show your face, like Jodie Foster?--I've had replies, and they say, "It's cool, it's not that bad."

More often I wonder about their politics. Why should they be so deep, why be spokespeople of any kind, why were they challenged in this film to a political duel by some sponge-head fat lady who resented their stardom? At that same sit-down with celebs and "plain" folk, the celebs were charged with being out of touch with reality.

So now I know, celebs really need to watch out for intellectually bereft Republican fat ladies. That's the answer.

In reality, this is worth a single viewing. Even then it's irritating because it could have been done better, a lot more informatively, with much more substance. Here I get a sense of what I ocassionally call 'substance abuse'. Listening to some ten or fifteen minutes of windbag Matthew Modine's entrance into political activism was not my cup of tea, and that is the type of unfortunate emptiness you're going to find in this thing. A sigh o' sadness for what might have been, and was not, and wishing will not make it so.

Michael Moore it ain't.