Sorry Oliver

Here's what I learned from W. George W. Bush is an idiot who is a reformed drunk and scared to death of his father and his legacy. Also W. is a victim of his own stupidity because others do bad things in his name. I won't get into the White Wash of Collin Powell nor the fact that the Laura Bush of W. is better looking than Laura Bush could ever hope to be on the best day of her life. The faults with W. other than it's conclusion that George Bush is too stupid to blame for his mess, is the fact that one learns nothing about the man. There's just nothing there. The movie centers around 2 themes. W. Is scared of his Dad who himself is a pussy and the build up and failure of the war in Iraq. Ultimately one learns nothing they didn't already know and the film misses so many key issues and events that deal with the man that is the the center of it's subject that it's almost a completely pointless exercise. The films spends so much time on it's two main points and so little time on everything else that at less than 2 hours it still feels 3 hours long. Ultimately though Oliver Stone's W. can't over come it's one fatal flaw. It's painfully painfully dull.

W. is not a terrible movie, but it's far from good . Mostly it's just a bore.

W. **/*****

Late Edit by Jonathan: By all means, W. isn't up there with Stone's better works such as JFK, Nixon, Born On the Fourth of July, etc. but it's one of his better movies of late. Josh Brolin nails Bush Jr. right down to the accent and delivers a fine performance. My opinion of Bush remains unchanged, but (and this is where me and the Count will disagree) I had pity for Colin Powell leaving the theater. Yes, Colin dishonored himself by going along with the administration's plans, but even if he did quit his post, he would have been easily replaced by another Bush clone and would have invaded Iraq any damn way. There was nothing he could do to stop Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest from changing their minds. His biggest fault, though, was believing that W. would be anything like his father, when it came to foreign policy issues. One great touch to W. was how all the actors looked and played exactly like the people in Bush's Cabinet. Richard Dreyfus was scary good and evil as Cheney, the no.2 in command, but the man lurking in the shadows, calling the shots in the darkness. Toby Jones is perfect as Karl Rove, the strategist who carries the image of a man who's taking revenge on the world for it's transgressions when he was probably bulled and abused as a teenager. All in all, solid performances carry W. from mediocrity.

*** stars out of ****