Rating: 
Summary: 1-2-3-4! What the hell are we voting for!
Review: A funny mockumentary that pokes holes in our "democratic" process, the media, corporate politics and the lack of insightful initiative in mainstream U.S. journalism and documentary making (leave it to the british to criticize the U.S. campaign process!). Even a nod to Mumia Abu-Jamal. Who knows what Bob Roberts stands for? Who cares? All anyone need know is that he is the "conservative rebel" ("passionate conservative"?/"reformer w/results"?) who strums on the guitar to political "folk" songs with great aplomb and mass commercial appeal. A good reminder of how shallow our democracy has become, and the handholding that is evident amongst big business, media, and government. Yea for tim robbins!
Rating: 
Summary: Bad
Review: This is the second worst movie i have ever seen, only barely edging out a horrible movie entitled "Shakes the Clown" for the Absolute Worst Honors. If you like to think for yourself and have half the brain then this movie is probably not for you.
Rating:
Summary: All too true...if a little over the top
Review: I am amazed that so few people appreciate or notice that Robbins skewers more than Republicans in this one! Has no one still alive seen "Dont Look Back", the documentary of Bob Dylan's 1965 English tour? "Bob Roberts" is a deft satire of "Dont Look Back" and the phenomenon of knee-jerk hero worship, whatever it's political pretensions. Rent "Dont Look Back" and this film at the same time, and watch this one second...I think you'll agree that this film has more complexity than most of it's reviewers have managed to notice.
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious! Tim Robbins at his best!
Review: This movie is for those of us who like politics and can enjoy a good laugh at its expense. Each candidate in some ways manipulates the media and Bob Roberts is a guy who pulls out all the stops and never quits manipulating the press. His stunts are far out there...or are they? and hysterical all at once. A must see!
Rating:
Summary: Scariest Horror Movie Ever
Review: A Brave New World for American Politics, but no where near as far flung as Huxley, and much more frightening. This is the Christian Right's manual for taking over the country...
Rating:
Summary: Funny Movie
Review: Bob Roberts is a funny movie. I've seen it at least 5 times. The folk songs are especially hilarious. This movie is enjoyable if you don't take everything at face value. The movie's premise is a fake documentary about a Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania. Following him throughout the campaign is very humerous. The only bad thing I can say about Bob Roberts is that it has a tremendous liberal slant, and it will be really offensive to any Republican that watches it. The movie was made with an obvious liberal Democrat agenda. However, if you watch it strictly for entertainment value, it's a pretty good satire.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent: The sad truth of American politics
Review: This is a most important film I fisrt saw it in the cinema when it came out during the Bush/Clinton Campaign. A timely release. I have rented it several times after that and finally bought it from Amazon. I can't say enough good things about it!I'm glad I did. Tim Robbins is remarkable. He has his finger on exactly what happens in the political arena in the United States. He assails the media and the political system in such a real way it is easy to believe it is a genuine documentary. Because it is so well done, it makes one shudder to see so much truth portrayed and illustrated in one two hour sitting. Very entertaining yet great for any University level Poli-Sci course and any film course. Tim Robbins wrote it and apparently all of the songs too. Listen carefully to the lyrics. Tim Robbins illustrates what is truly being said by many Americans in an un-subtle way, yet so many Americans dont seem to hear it! Again, an important, yet disturbing film. A must see for every American and member of any "Democracy." If there really is such a thing!
Rating:
Summary: Commedable But Too Obvious!
Review: I loved the wry, Republican-bashing in this film, but did it have to spell everything out in caps? We were quite aware of Bob Roberts' packaging concept without it having to be explained to us by various characters, especially so humorlessly. John Cusack's little lecture was especially patronizing. Being spoon-fed a message only diminishes your enjoyment of a film, especially a satire. But I'm opposed to it on more than aesthetic grounds. Mainstream Americans hate liberals because they see us as elitist, condescending, and a little contemptuous of them. Heavy-handed films like this only reinforce that image.
Rating:
Summary: The greatest horror movie of all time.
Review: We were all told to interpret BOB ROBERTS as another "faux documentary," in the vein of THIS IS SPINAL TAP, but believe me when I say that it should be shelved in the horror section. I'm a huge fan of THE EXORCIST and the original HALLOWEEN, but BOB ROBERTS did more to instill a sense of utter dread in my soul than Friedkin's and Carpenter's opera combined. Robbins is simply brilliant in the title role -- that of an ultra-right-wing senatorial candidate who tours his home state of Pennsylvania in a bus called "The Pride," accompanied by a politically-correct mix of minority and female staff members, grabbing every conceiveable opportunity to manipulate the press and forward his campaign. Robbins imbues the role with the kind of doubletalk and charm and slippery charisma that, whether we realize it or not, drives the entire political candidacy system. That it takes us a little time to stop smiling back at him and get truly disgusted is testament to the need for this film. Perhaps the most chilling element of BOB ROBERTS is the constant silencing and/or nullification of any and all sane voices that dare to oppose Roberts and what he stands for. In a segment where Roberts -- whose fairly ingenious attempt to usurp the "freewheeling" image of Bob Dylan requires him to record and release several folk albums -- becomes the musical guest on an episode of "Cutting Edge Live" (a blatant reference to "Saturday Night Live," the program where the character of Bob Roberts made his debut during an episode hosted by Robbins), the objections of both the guest host (played by Robbins' sometimes co-star John Cusack) and one of the producers to Roberts' very presence on the show is undercut and overridden in short order by the powers-that-be, who see nothing more than the ratings to be garnered by the candidate's appearance, and nothing wrong with the ethical price being paid for such a coup. Competing with that sequence for most terrifying moment is the initial depiction of Roberts' biggest fans, a triad of future KKK or otherwise malefic militia members, average age twentyish, whose gazes are as blank and fanatical as the robotic rhetoric that clearly drives them to idolize -- and virtually drool in the presence of -- the grinning monster who even himself is disturbed by the level of the boys' devotion. The reappearance of these same boys, late in the film, rivals the most uncomfortable moments of ROSEMARY'S BABY for sheer revulsion at the abject wrongness of the nature of their worship. Robbins, the writer, producer, and director as well as star of BOB ROBERTS, had the sense to refrain from releasing a soundtrack album to this film, as the litany of nigh-satanic folk songs ("Complain, Complain, Complain"; "Don't Vote"; etc.) would certainly, out of context, become an actual anthem for precisely the kind of subhuman American consumers whom Robbins viciously attacks throughout the film -- to me, solid proof that Robbins is less interested in money than his message, proving even further that he is indeed anti-Republican. Get your hands on BOB ROBERTS. Use it as a litmus test for those around you whose political motives you doubt, or flat-out know to be problematic. If they clap along with the music and don't understand why the fictional documentarian winds up criticizing his own chosen subject, hand 'em some Klan literature and lose their phone numbers. The film is brash, courageous, important, and -- unfortunately -- timeless in this, the much-revered "land of the free." Notable supporting roles are filled by the likes of Peter Gallagher, Alan Rickman, Helen Hunt, the remarkable Ray Wise (almost as scary here as he was in "Twin Peaks"), and the incomparable Gore Vidal (as Roberts' besieged-by-press-manipulation Democratic opponent). And one more thing: watch the entire movie, all the way through the closing credits. Robbins' real message appears immediately thereafter.
Rating:
Summary: Political satire at its finest
Review: Never has has a politically-oriented film so aptly demonstrated the status of democracy in the United States. Should be required viewing in high school and civics classes.
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