Title: The Campaign (2012)
Director: Jay Roach
Cast: Will Farrell, Zack Galifianakis, Dan Aykroyd, John
Lithgow, Dylan McDermott, Brian Cox
Are you a Republican or a Democrat? Do you believe in a form
of government that works for its people? Do you hate the savage way in which
political parties throw dirt at each other all over the media? These are the questions you gotta keep in mind when watching The Campaign. I live on the island of Puerto Rico
Ferrell plays the well oiled politician known as Cam Brady.
He’s obviously The Republican candidate who’s the ‘All American Man’ he goes to
church, he believes in his country and in supporting this nations troops, he’s
a family man with a beautiful wife, and two kids! He also has a mistress on the
side, and one night, when he decides to call her up and get kinky with her, he mistakenly
ends up calling a Christian’s family’s home and leaves them a particularly
nasty sexually charged message on their answering machine. This embarrassing
turn of events causes a new candidate to move forward in the political race, his
name is ‘Marty Huggins’ played by Zack Galifianakis. Huggins is a leader of the
people, a person truly interested in doing something for his town. He tells the
people to bring their brooms with him to Washington
because, “It’s a mess!” Who will win this battle; the evil , selfish politician
or the one who cares for the interests of the people?
In my opinion, all the greatest comedies succeed because of
the cast. Special effects movies, action movies, they can get away with having mediocre
actors because there’s the action, and there are the effects to keep you
interested. But in a comedy you can’t risk having bad actors. You have to get
truly funny people in there or your reason for being is dead. In order to make
your audience laugh, you need good comedians. Ghostbusters (1984), The Blues
Brothers (1980), Coming to America
(1988), Young Frankenstein (1974), all these super comedies worked because the
cast is freaking amazing. Of course, great comedy directors where behind them
as well, and it’s the combination of these two elements that make a great comedy.
I think this was the case with The Campaign, a film made by some truly funny
people and a trusted comedy director: Jay Roach.
Director Jay Roach
Ferrell, when he’s good he’s good and on this film he is
truly on. I mean the guy is dead funny. I always enjoyed Will Ferrell’s take on
president George W. Bush, he was so dead on with his Saturday Night Live
sketches; it was always truly funny stuff in my book. The Campaign takes all those
satirical sketches that Ferrell did on Saturday Night Live and takes them up to
a hundred. Zack Galifianakis, I'm so glad he is on this one playing off of Will Ferrell's character, they are perfect for each other because they are both comedians that are very extreme, they'll go the lengths necessary to make us laugh, so this two explosively funny comedians on the screen is a match made in heaven as far as I'm concerned, I hope this film serves to push Galifianakis's career even further. There’s no mercy for politicians on this movie! I loved that about
it, because come one, let’s face it, these political campaigns can get vicious
and it’s that viciousness that works like magic on this movie. As it is in the
real world, these guys really have no mercy for each other. And for those of
you who think this film is only for liberals, well, I’m here to tell you that you’re
wrong because both parties are made fun off, but its primordially the rich
republicans who get the heat. In this films eyes, Big Money and the politicians
who play their evil game are the true villain. In The Campaign big business only
cares about financially backing up a politician that they can easily manipulate.
Sadly, same as in the real world, there are always politicians more then
willing to play along. These
millionaires with huge businesses are the ones who could turn this world around
because they have the money to do it, but instead they choose child slavery as
an option. They choose to buy the elections, play dirty, keep slavery going in
the world, only now they call it ‘less than minimum wage’. So these are the
guys that The Campaign aims its guns at, which is actually perfectly alright by
me. I think the film has every right to say that Washington is “a mess!”
Jay Roach is a director who has made many a fine comedy, in
my book all three of the Austin Powers movies rocked; these are the kinds of
comedies I like to watch over and over again. Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet
the Fockers (2004), both hilarious in my book. It’s safe to say that Jay Roach has
turned into one of those great comedy directors; it seems like Roach will be a mainstay
in Hollywood ;
his comedies are hugely successful most of the time. Ultimately, what I loved
most about the film is how it comments on the fakeness of politics, on how it
manipulates the masses to think a certain way. The political game portrayed on
this film and the one we see in real life are both one big circus attraction,
one big show that tries to attract as many zombies as it can with its bright
colorful lights, loud music and it’s confetti. They are simply trying to sell
you a product that you will ultimately be disappointed by. Wouldn’t it be great
if for once they would try to sell us a politician that wouldn’t disappoint? One that would be worth a damn? The Campaign
is well worth the watch, funny every step of the way and unafraid to sshow
things the way they are, it gets a couple of extra points simply for that in my
book!
Rating: 4 out of 5
