Election

Rating:
Summary: 'Election' is smart no matter what. [Janet Maslin]
Review: I thought 'Election' was one of this years best films. It was provactive comedy and a funny drama.It made you give a damn about the movies still and made you think about life in general. Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon give two of the most radiant performances this year. The real American Beauty is 'Election' I am sure.

Top 10 Best list this year: 1. The Cider House Rules 2. American Beauty 3. Arlington Road 4. The Sixth Sense 5. Boy's Don't Cry 6. ELECTION 7. The Matrix 8. The Insider 9. Bringing out the Dead 10. Being John Malkovich

Rating:
Summary: A simple movie that is not for children.
Review: This movie is like a teenage flick but I would say it is more for adults with its crazy plot line that dosent even make any scence with its pridictibility. I would say this movie dose have its good moments but other wise this a dull movie that drags you down with its cookey charictors in a story that is far from the truth.

Rating:
Summary: My no. 10 Fave.....
Review: Election is smart, lassy, adorable yet dark. It is suitable for all adults and I will guarantee you'll all love it to bits!

Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon - marvellous in this one) is an over acheving student at Carver High, she has decided to run for president in the school election, no-one cares right? Wrong. Meet Jim MacCalister (Matthew Broderick - miscast again), Tracy's teacher, and a very popular one, who tries to push Tracy out of the election by adding good-hearted jock and popular student Paul Metzler (Chris Klein - excellent actor!). Is there any competition? Who's gonna win? I can only tell ya one thing - you'll bloody love this flick!

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: If I told you this two years ago, you would've laughed me in the face, but Matthew Broderick made up for Godzilla with this one. After the bomb of a few years ago, Election made up for every bit of it and reminded me of why Broderick is so great. This is his best since Ferris Bueller.

The movie is about the life of Broderick and his obsession with overachiever Tracy Flick (Witherspoon). Two two have a love/hatred relationship going and it plays out amazingly well.

This is another one of those movies that doesn't get the due it deserves and instead, movies like American Pie which appeal to a wider, yet dumber, audience.

Get this one, you'll love yourself for it.

Rating:
Summary: Very funny
Review: I found this to be one of the freshest comedies in years. However, among my group of "movie geek" friends, people have either LOVED it, or have been very underwhelmed. I fall under the former. It delivered for me in acting, writing, and clever direction. I thought the story was sharp and exaggerated stereotypes to the point that they were humorous, but not obnoxious. This director seems to never "take sides" in his movies. Very admirable.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: This film was highly recommended to me by a couple of people who know movies and usually have great taste but I didn't enjoy it at all. The concept was pretty good but it just doesn't deliver. The characters are stylized in a way that just doesn't grab you in, the writing, direction and editing feel slapped together and the voice overs are interminable, not funny and don't move the story along. The script also throws in some ugly and gratuitous scenes/language to try to perk your interest but it just cheapens it further. The movie comes across as a very poor man's "American Beauty". Do yourself a favor and skip it.

Rating:
Summary: PAINFUL COMEDY
Review: This is one of those well acted and well made movies which is worth five stars ... but its reality inflicts so much uneasiness in the viewer that, honestly, I HAD to downgrade it by one star to four. This was a tough call. Ironically, it is so well done that just as you're about to laugh at some outrageous antic by the main character, Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) you realize, this unprincipled politically ambitious animal really exists. Her type REALLY gets away with the damage she does to people who trust her. That's the part which makes you wince at the funny stuff. However, I enjoyed the fun the writer and dirctor had with stereotypes (ingenuous, good hearted jock; indifferent teenage lesbian ... and so on).

It was perhaps most refreshing to see Matthew Broderick in a GOOD movie for a change! He is excellent as idealistic civics teacher Jim McAllister who realizes what the unscrupulous Tracy Flick is up to in rigging her high school's election for becoming student president. As a tribute to the optimism of the idealistic human spirit this movie works, and it drives towards a bitter sweet ending. And yes, there are some truly funny (belly laugh grade) of comedy in it. Yet just as you laugh at the absurdity of a scene .... it slowly dawns on you: hey, this isn't funny .... it happens this way in real life, making real life absurd. So there is often a little pinch in the comedy. The pinch was intended by the writer and director ... but as someone seeking "pure" entertainment, I'm not always fond of it. So THERE.

The music is absolutely terrific! It is an inexorable background ... kind of like the music in Hitchcock's Psycho .... but not as serious and creepy. It was great and makes the movie move. I wish I could become more exhuberant and give this movie five stars .... but four stars is the best I can do. I DID enjoy seeing this movie. I can recommend it to anyone. Would I see it a second time? Hmmmmmm.

Rating:
Summary: Suprise & Delight
Review: This was a funny and honest comedy. Broderick's imperfect character (the Teacher) is beautifully played off against the over ambitious Tracey Flick played by Reese Witherspoon.

Witherspoon is fantastic. Flick is appropriately unbearable in a very cute and sexy way.

Election is scathing and bitter, but not disparaging about middle America and is without a corny ending. Good one!

Rating:
Summary: great film
Review: Although an MTV movie, "Election" has to be one of the most original and comedic films to come along in the past few years. The parts are incredibly well acted, and the story, although absurd, is strangely realistic. A great biting look at satire and a society where getting ahead has become priority one.

Rating:
Summary: Election Gets My Vote
Review: This tart sexual and social comedy was rated "R" but I would rather teenagers get to see it than most of the PG-13 stuff out there. Matthew Broderick plays a well-respected social-studies teacher at a suburban high school. Reese Witherspoon plays the kind of student we remember none too fondly (we called ours "helium hands"): anytime a volunteer is needed, she is there. She heads every committee, takes every thankless chore, shows up in the yearbook more than anyone else--but does she have any friends?

It looks like la Witherspoon is a shoo-in for student government president but Broderick cannot stand dealing with this irritant any further. He decides to stop her. But how do you stop fate?

Election, by the way, is not only the process that decides who heads student government, but a term from calvinist theology dealing with the inevitability of human fate. The people behind this movie are very smart. And you'll feel very smart if you see this movie. The acting is fast and funny, the situations (like all good satire of this type) are just a little more contrived than we remember from real life, and the plot will have you hanging. A good time at the movies--pity it didn't do better in theaters, but perhaps "Election" will find its constituency in home video and DVD performances.