Dave

Rating:
Summary: Compassionate Conservatism Worthy of the Name
Review: Simultaneously, this film offers both implausibilities and delightful entertainment, with several appealing suggestions as to which values the president of the United States should affirm and which priorities should guide and inform the president's initiatives. Directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Kevin Kline as Dave Kovic, the basic situation is this: Bill Mitchell, the current president, suffers a massive stroke while abed with one of his mistresses and is totally incapacitated, sustained by life support technologies. Kovic has been earning a modest living as a Mitchell impersonator and accepts an offer from Mitchell's chief of staff (Bob Alexander) skillfully portrayed by Frank Langella) to take on a full-time assignment to replace Mitchell. What is Alexander's objective? To ensure that his political power base is protected. For a while, Ellen Mitchell (Sigourney Weaver) is deceived because she and her husband had had almost no personal contact in recent years. Other than Alexander, his accomplice Alan Reed (Kevin Dunn) and Duane Stevenson (Ving Rhames, also brilliant as the Secret Service agent in charge), the First Lady and everyone else think that Kovic is Mitchell. And then....

I have no problem with the implausibilities because they create so many opportunities to affirm the the aforementioned values which, in my opinion, define "compassionate conservatism." For example, with the aid of his accountant and friend Murray Blum (Charles Grodin is also brilliant), Kovic is able to save a compellingly humanitarian project by trimming hundreds of millions of waste from the federal budget. This situation reminds me of one which sets up the climax in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) when a filibuster by interim Senator Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) defeats a pork barrel bill and thereby protects a Boy Rangers camp. Naive? Corny? Unrealistic? Perhaps to some but so what? I admire Dave because this contemporary version of "The Prince and the Pauper" has crisp direction, an engrossing plot, charm, wit, and stellar acting. The performance by Ben Kingsley (as Vice President Vance) is also noteworthy but I still have apprehensions about including news media journalists (playing themselves) such as Bernard Kalb, Larry King, John McLaughlin, and Helen Thomas. One clever touch is the cameo appearance by Oliver Stone who offers a conspiracy theory to explain President Mitchell's "bizarre" behavior. Those who share my high regard for Dave should check out Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe (1941), and Primary Colors (1998).


Rating:
Summary: GOOD DEMOCRATS, BAD REPUBLICANS, SAME OLD STORY
Review: The film "Dave" went through a script change. The story of a Presidential look-alike (Kevin Kline) who fills in for the secretly deceased real thing, the original story featured a Republican who brought his skills as a small entrepreneur to the job. Hollywood turned him into a Democrat, but kept his G.O.P common sense, such as when he and his partner look at the Federal budget and balance it by using the methods any small businessman would use. Naturally, pet liberal projects are all interjected while "Republican priorities" are given the heave-ho. You can search far and wide, and you will not find Hollywood films that openly portray a Democrat as the bad guy. I wrote a screenplay a few years ago called "A Murderous Campaign". It had all the elements of a great script. A beautiful porn star has an affair with a Democrat Louisiana Senator. She overhears him plotting the assassination of a political rival, but they find out she heard the plan. They try to kill her, so she goes into hiding and hooks up with a crusty old Washington reporter who is considered kooky because he has been accusing this Democrat of these crimes for years. A retired FBI friend of the reporter helps them. The Democrat announces a Presidential bid. The porn star uses her considerable charms and discovers that the Governor of New Jersey is the assassination target at a Statue of Liberty rally. She saves the Governor, and the plot is revealed, but the Democrat candidate goes into spin control. Nobody can really prove the plan. It looks like he will win the nomination, having weathered the politics of personal destruction. Finally, the porn girl and the reporter find the old father of the Democrat's chief of staff, a former Ku Klux Klansman who wants to get what he knows off his chest before passing from this mortal coil. He tells them about the drug smuggling operation the candidate has been running in the Louisiana Bayou. The reporter's FBI pal arranges a raid. They discover all the "smoking gun" evidence of a series of political murders going back years. The girl is re-united with her family, gets out of the porn business, the reporter wins the Pulitzer, and it is jail time for the Democrat. The end.
Creative execs who loved the verbal pitch when I simply described the Democrat as a "politician," a "candidate" or the "Senator" all passed when they read the part in the script that identifies him as an actual Democrat. Pamela Anderson would be perfect as the porn chick. I could see Denzel Washington as the reporter, and Gary Busey as the Democrat Senator. I was asked if I would change him to a Republican. My answer was that I wanted to maintain the realism of the story. See ya.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
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Rating:
Summary: Light romantic comedy.
Review: President Bill Mitchell is not exactly an ideal President. He looks after those who helped get him into office than the people and he is a philanderer. One of the ways that he keeps his amorous play a secret is to hire a lookalike to impersonate him. Now the man whom they have hired is Dave Kovic (Kevin Kline), a goodhearted man who likes to help people find jobs. After making his little exit, the real President suffers a stroke and is completely incapacitated. The corrupt and manipulative Chief of Staff, Bob Alexander, plans to use Dave to elevate himself to the White House. Unfortunately, he doesn't count on Dave enjoying himself in office, using his luck to make the country a better place and falling in love with the beautiful First Lady.

Rating:
Summary: A fun Political Drama/Comedy!
Review: DAVE is a great movie. It's fun to watch and is family friendly. At the same time, though, it has plenty of political jargon and Oval Office scenes to keep the political drama lover happy. DAVE follows a man who could pass as a twin of the President. He is recruited as a double for the Prez. for public appearances, but quite unexpectedly, gets a big promotion! Definately see this one.