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Man of the Year (2006)
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Movie Review by Daniel
July 27th, 2007
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MAN OF THE YEAR (Dir. Barry Levinson, 2006) Can't say I wasn't warned. By the time the red Netflix envelope containing this film's DVD came to my mailbox I was well aware that the critics were savage when it was released last fall with most complaining that it had been marketed drastically wrong. Indeed they were right - all the original trailers and TV ads made this movie look like a broad comedy along the lines of what if a Daily Show type cable TV host (Robin Williams in full-throttle rapid random riffing mode) was elected president?' Wouldn't wackiness ensue? Well, yes for a bit wackiness ensues but then we are forced to stomach a parallel plot in which programmer Laura Linney discovers a glitch in the electronic ballot system that got the comical candidate into the White House. So it's supposedly half political satire and half topical thriller. Too bad neither half works. Too bad this is such a wasted opportunity with a good cast but a lousy script (written by Levinson).
With his jokes about "weapons of mass distraction" (yep, that's the level of wit here), breast implants, cellphones, and making Bruce Springsteen Secretary of State, Williams is just doing his same old shtick and it's so sad to see Christopher Walken and Lewis Black (cast as his manager and chief writer respectively) having little to do but sit around laughing at everything he says. In fact there are many shots of scores of people laughing at Williams's tired antics throughout MAN OF THE YEAR. I bet there are more people in the movie laughing than there were laughing at the movie in it's brief run in theaters and certainly more than will ever laugh at home in the years to come. Misguided on every level.
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