The American President

Rating:
Summary: Great for boomers!!
Review: Ok, my wife and I are baby-boomers. And we LOVE this movie. Great love story, great ending, very, very re-watchable. As 50+ folks, this is hard to beat. Very few "flicks" -- see that dates me -- do I like to watch again and again. This is one of them.

Rating:
Summary: The American President
Review: This movie provided comedy, romance, and excitement all in one.

Rating:
Summary: I'm Not A Romantic Comedy Fan, But I Love This Movie
Review: The American President inspired Aaron Sorkin to explore the Presidency in a weekly television show, which brought about the hit show "The West Wing." I am a huge fan of the show, so naturally I saw some of Sorkin's other works. A Few Good Men was outstanding, Malice was great, and I also watched Sports Night for a while until it was cancelled. I like Aaron Sorkin's style of writing. The situations are plausible and believable, the characters are written inteligently, the plotting is uniformly excellent, plus there is lots of wit interjected to make it funny. This movie is no exception to any of the rules. Rob Reiner helms this picture and does his usual bang-up job, with more subtlety than usual. The acting is great all around: Michael Douglas is great as the lonely president, Martin Sheen as his Chief of Staff (who is now the President on West Wing), Annette Bening and Michael J. Fox as a hyper and hypochondriac policy adviser is the standout. This is the only romantic comedy I own and I would advise you to buy it too. It also contains an excellent speech at the end by President Andrew Shepard. "It's a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up." Enjoy

Rating:
Summary: MUST SEE!
Review: EXCELLENT Movie! Definitely a MUST SEE!!! Michael Douglas makes a terrific president in a conflict between his presidency and the 2nd love of his life. Annette Bening is excellent in remaining a professional business woman while falling for the most eligible bachelor in the US, the President. Truly a worthwhile film.

GO SEE IT! YOU WON'T REGRET IT! (I own it and have seen it at least once a month if not 2 or 3 times a month since I bought it)

Rating:
Summary: Great Speeches of the Twentieth Century
Review: Aaron Sorkin must have went back for seconds and even thirds on the day that God handed out the ability to write witty, intelligent dialogue. Fans of his television shows "Sports Night" and "The West Wing" know this already, as do anyone who saw his play "A Few Good Men" or its filmed adaptation. In "The American President," Sorkin teams up again with "Good Men" director Rob Reiner to provide, again, a political drama that manages to remain human and endearing, primarily due to Sorkin's magnificent lines.

Michael Douglas plays President Andrew Shephard, a widower, who, although the President, happens to be a decent person. Annette Benning plays a lobbyist who, despite being a lobbyist, is also decent. These two decent people meet each other and fall in love, though their love is thwarted by the wholly indecent Richard Dreyfus as a petty little twerp of a Republican candidate, using their liasons as political fodder. Will our heroes survive? Save us, Frank Capra!

The setup works well, and all the performances are splendid. The highlight is Sorkin's writing, and the highlights in Sorkin's writing here are the great speeches. Hey, it's Presidential. The film is made by Douglas's gripping, propelling speech to the press club at the climax of the film where he politically ...-slaps Dreyfus and stands up for his woman. It's great, makes you want to stand up and cheer for the country and several liberal-leaning policies like gun-control and greenhouse emissions (Sorkin, thankfully, was allowed to through in some political "lobbying" of his own, as usual. No one wants an apolitical movie about the President, for crying out loud). Michael J. Fox as advisor Lewis Rothchild also gets his two copper cents in as an insider who is somehow undamaged by soul-crippling Washington and has maintained his idealism. Fox makes up believe it, which is shocking.

Now, while the speeches are great, the rest of the dialogue never manages the wit and pace that is Sorkin. Reiner's directing, in their second team-up, doesn't seem to keep up with the script, and most of the exchanges are flawed. We can see how they should be, but they aren't there yet. It's too bad, and mars an otherwise great film.

I try to imagine our current President acting in the same regards as Douglas in "The American President": noble, intelligent, dignified. But I can't. So rent the DVD to pretend.

Rating:
Summary: Very cute and funny
Review: I really loved this movie and have watched it several times. It is such a cute story about a single President dating again. He was cute and funny and she was in total awe of him. Together they made a wonderful couple. The only thing I did not like was the bill against firearms. They could have left that out and it would have been a much better movie. I added it to my collection though in spite of that part because it is definately worth watching. He was the way you would like your President to be. Together they overcame a lot of obstacles that could arise in a relationship such as theirs.

Rating:
Summary: At times entertaining but overall unrealistic
Review: "The American President" has moments of humor as one recognizes bizzare situations that would happen as a result of a bachelor President. However, that is what precisely makes this film hard to swallow. The idea of a President who gets into these types of fixes doesn't make me feel any safer. Also, this film, not surprisingly, plays heavily with the liberal Democratic social viewpoint. That in and of itself doesn't bother me, but the fact that it was so obvious was annoying.

Rating:
Summary: Great film, regardless of politics involved.
Review: If you're looking for a story that has true-life politics and accurate representations of parties, I guess The American President might not be for you. But c'mon, we're talking about a movie here, and an enjoyable one at that. Immerse yourself in the situation, and you will become involved with a touching and emotional film about a president who actually has high moral standards (yeah yeah... realism isn't the high point in this flick) and his lobbiest girlfriend who really DOES have no hidden motives (yeah yeah...).

So just sit back and enjoy the film, because if you don't get offended by the apparently unrealistic politics, then it's fun to watch (even if you hate michael douglas and annette bening, who aren't my favorites by all means).

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, but DVD is lacking in quality
Review: While this movie is great, the treatment by the studio on DVD does not do it justice.

Little to no extras, a snapper case, and a poor transfer that can be noticed on anyone's TV (not just high end systems) detract from an otherwise excellent film. In the beginning, watch the ties that are worn, and how much they shimmer as they or the camera moves. I think this DVD might have been transferred from a copy of the VHS tape picked up at the local retailer... Oh well, at least it's letterboxed (but not anamorphic).

Should you buy this DVD? Of course! But c'mon, Warner Home Video, let's redo this title and give it a better treatment. I'd buy a Special Edition with anamorphic video, commentaries, and other extras in a heartbeat!

Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Support for the Left
Review: A none to thinly veiled attack on conservatives, this film smacks of cardboard cut-out caricatures of the right. If one goes in for this sort of thing, then this is the movie for you. However if you want something that will genuinely make you think about politics as opposed to adhering to party-line rhetoric then look elsewhere.