Borgel_42

The local library just acquired this DVD. It looked interesting, so I checked it out and watched part of it. This movie has a great premise: a collection of George W. Bush's most hilarious and idiotic mistakes. Every second the president is on the screen is hilarious as he bumbles his way through the English language with quotes like "I believe that humans and fish can coexist peacefully" and "The literacy of our children are appalling". He even makes up words such as "misunderestimate" and "subliminable". It's great fun for anyone who isn't a complete Bush Fanatic.

However, the way it's presented falls flat on its face. The camera will show a five second clip of the president to make you laugh. Then it follows up with some text just in case you didn't catch what he said. Then it shows some snobbish liberal talking-head that makes INCREDIBLY STUPID sarcastic remarks about what the president said, and then makes some more sarcastic remarks to mercilessly beat the dead horse of a joke. By the time it gets to the next title slide announcing that you are about to see another clip of George W. Bush, you will be screaming for mercy from the horrible, horrible boredom. I turned it off after about 15 minutes.

As if that isn't enough, the film is interspersed with silly gimmicks related to the jokes. When the President said "You work hard to put food on your family" the viewers are suddenly subjected to a music video with "The George W. Bush Singers" in which a bunch of people dance around and put food on each other, trying to stretch the humor for 20 minutes longer than it should have lasted. For some reason, they also stuck in a few Bloomsbury comic strips by Gary Trudeau making fun of the president. (Newspaper comic strips just don't make a great transition to the big screen...) In conclusion: 3 stars for an attempt to make fun of George Bush. Too bad it was a big, overblown waste of time.

This play, of course, would have been a lot better seen on stage, but watching this movie was still an excellent use of my time. The best part of this particular screen adaptation is Dustin Hoffman (This is the first movie he starred in) who perfectly plays Zoditch, the schmo whose psyche is analyzed in Journey of the Fifth Horse. The other actors also play their roles excellently. The play is simple, low-key, and thoughtful, and the characters are dynamically human. I have not seen very many plays, and I have seen none of Ivan Turgenev's, but I was touched by every scene and never bored for a moment.

I recommend this solemnly poignant film to everyone.