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Atticus Chaos

Oliver Stone's W.

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I have to be honest: I actually like the idea of a movie about George W and George H.W.'s relationship.

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I read it's set mainly during the 70s and 80s and ends just as Bush is going to war in Iraq. It's said to deal with the troubled relationship between father and son, which is weird because I didn't even know they had a bad reltionship.

 

I suppose the elder Bush might be pissed because his son has now messed up his legacy as well.

 

what legacy?

 

I tend to think of Elder Bush as an average to below average president, he did some things wrong, but he did a lot of things right . Even Obama's said he wants to emulate his foreign policy. He also left office with a pretty decent approval rating (56%)

 

Now he's just going to be remembered as the chimp's dad.

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It's a little late to quibble with casting decisions, but I would have liked to have seen Dennis Quaid as Bush. He could have given the same performance he gave as Jerry Lee Lewis in Great Balls of Fire and it would have been both hilarious and appropriate to the tone of the film. Plus, he did a fairly passable W. in that crap American Dreams movie a few years ago, so you know he's got it in him.

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I actually didn't mind American Dreamz. I've seen worse movies, and since I saw it on tv it's not like I paid for it.

 

Still, Quaid seems more comedic than serious, especially as Bush. I think this casting decision is ok.

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Newest trailer is set to "Once in a Lifetime." This is going to be incredible.

 

That's the funniest fucking thing I've seen all week. Slo-mo pretzel choke. You have got to be fucking kidding me with this awesomeness.

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Saw it yesterday. I wouldn't really classify it as a dark comedy. Not sure what I would classify it as, though..

 

I thought it was okay.. it seemed to end rather abruptly.. even given it's lengthy running time. I have to wonder who the writers' sources were for a lot of the material and can't help but think that there are going to be a lot of moviegoers who think this is a 100% without a doubt true story.

 

Oh, and Thandie Newton as Condi is absolutely priceless.

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I saw it opening weekend. Thought the first two-thirds of the movie were pretty damn good but then it just kind of ended. I sort of expected that since there's really no good way to end a biopic of someone who is still alive and presumably isn't about to kick the bucket. There were definitely quite a few dark comic elements but I wouldn't classify it as a dark comedy.

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I would've liked to seen more than passing mentions for Florida as well as more around 9/11 - they mentioned it a lot, but it would've been interesting to see an acted scene of when it all went down with Bush at that elementary school.

 

Brolin was fantasic in this role, BTW. I'm glad to see that Brolin is coming up as a major star these days given his past filmography. I just read that Stone originally had Christian Bale in the role, but Bale backed out after the prosthetic makeup tests were unsatisfactory to him.

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Thandie Newton ruled it as Condi. I really enjoyed Rummy too, the actor playing him has his ridiculous hand motions down. I thought the movie was pretty sympathetic towards W. (spoilers ahead for a three week old movie)

 

 

 

 

 

The whole "Jeb was really the favorite son" is a pretty interesting angle for W's motivations. The film made me feel sorry for Bush, as a nice guy who was basically in over his head and had some bad advisors. Some of those press conferences were just uncomfortable to watch, it was like a bad Steve Carell Office scene, except based on reality. I felt bad for Bush Sr too...the scene after he lost the election to Clinton was pretty striking.

 

Anyways, I enjoyed the film...not sure why it received such negative reviews.

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