September 12, 2012
BY EMILY PRESTWOOD
Ranger Reporter
While the race to the White House continues, movie director Jay Roach introduced a humorous take on the current political contest. His latest comedy, The Campaign, hit theaters on August 10, 2012.
Complete with childish wit and unoriginal political commentary, I give this movie one out of five stars. Lacking creativity and effort overall, the plot itself is extremely simple.
Staring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, The Campaign follows two North Carolina politicians battling for a seat in Congress. The battle between the two southerners is born when two wealthy CEO’s decide to use Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) to knock Cam Brady (Ferrell) out of the political market. Both Huggins and Brady struggle to maintain a balance in their homes, perfect their public appearance, and hold on to their sanity, producing a comical disaster.
Given the serious and often dull nature of politics, Roach succeeds in incorporating humor throughout the movie.
Yet, apart from the few good laughs, this movie is extremely shallow. Even the humor itself becomes shallow. As the movie progresses, overused stereotypical jokes become common—too common. By the end of this relatively short movie, the story becomes predictable and appears to drag out. In an effort to cover up the slowness of the movie, excess humor and countless crude comments are layered on top of each scene. With humor poured into almost every line, the movie becomes somewhat cluttered, taking away from its potential quality.
As I walked out of the theater, it occurred to me that I could not really remember what the actual movie was about. It took me a second to realize I had just paid for an overpriced ticket to sit and laugh for about ten minutes at the scarce original humor scattered about the movie.
The more I thought about it, the movie as a whole seemed to be a weak, unorganized attempt at creating a satire on how wealthy business partners, rather than citizens, run our country today. Obviously if anyone has to take the time to decide whether or not a movie was good, they have wasted their time.
Do I recommend this movie? Absolutely not. There is, however, one exception. If you just went through a traumatic breakup and are in need of a good laugh, wait and see this movie when it premiers in the mall theater. But even then I am not sure it is worth your two dollars.
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