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Head of State (Full Screen Edition)

Head of State (Full Screen Edition)

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Would have voted for the other guy.
Review: I don't really care who's white and who's black at all, but some of the things that Chirs Rock's charecter stood for were so liberal that I would have voted for thje other guy. I'm a Repulican and think the idea of gun contol is dumb, and Chirs Rock suggested that if someone had a gun, beat him up. Overall, it was okay, but had alot of "Lets make fun of white people jokes because they won't care anyway" jokes. It's like...it just mmakes me mad that this movie had alot of racist jokes toward whites, but oh well.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: weak-spined political satire
Review: **1/2 Though fun at times, "Head of State" is really just a pale imitation of "Bullworth," with Chris Rock as the "candidate of the people" who ends up running for President of the United States. Unlike "Bullworth," however, this film seems less serious in its intentions, opting for a junior high-level vision of presidential politics that robs the film of much of its satirical purpose and bite.

Rock, who both directed and co-wrote the film (with Ali Leroi), plays a good-hearted Washington D.C. alderman named Mays Gilliam who, after its own candidate is killed in an airplane crash, is tapped by a major political party (presumably the Democrats, though it is never actually specified) to run for office against a popular Vice Presidential incumbent. As with "The Producers," the idea here is to find a candidate who is guaranteed to lose the election so that the field will be wide open for a more "likely" winner in the 2008 election. The naïve, trusting Mays, of course, doesn't know this and believes he is actually running to win.

"Head of State" provides a few good laughs, but the film, as a whole, feels woefully unimaginative and predictable. Gilliam's brand of touchy-feely populism sounds as phony and contrived as the hot air bellowing of his conservative rival. Even though the film is obviously intended as satire, we still need to be able to believe that Gilliam is providing at least a halfway plausible alternative for the concept to have any real point or purpose. Instead of tweaking the audience and making us squirm - as any good satire should - the movie strokes our ego, allowing us to feel smug and self-congratulatory as we wallow in our own moral righteousness. Unfortunately, this is what tends to happen when satirists operate in a blatantly commercial venue like this one. With "Bullworth," Warren Beatty seemed far more willing to push the envelope and risk the commercial consequences.

Rock still isn't much of an actor and his skills as a director could use some honing as well. There are some funny bits early on in the film, but after awhile, the premise, since it isn't being exploited to its utmost effectiveness, simply burns itself out. "Head of State" is good for a few hearty chuckles, but for those of us yearning for some real hard-edged political satire in this country, it fails to satisfy the craving.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Poorly constructed film
Review: This film was the "Hey lets make fun of white folks" movie of the year. It could have been a great political satire, and some elements of it work that way, but overall it just flops.

A lot of the humor is just plain dumb, especially the first hour or so. I do encourage you to sit through the whole thing, because it gets watchable in the last half hour. The idea of not actually mentioning parties but instead symbolizing each through a "black suit" or a "gray suit" is nice, but the film doesn't work with its potential. Instead it boils down to bad race jokes and repeated gags. Even Bernie Mac, who offers 70% of the movie's laughs, can't save this film.

It also boils down to another typical Chris Rock movie. He's trying to make it to the top, and he likes a girl, and of course he's the nicest guy in the galaxy so the girl immediately falls for him, and every thing ends honky dory happy sappy - even if the situations don't really call for it. For further reference, watch "Down to Earth."

Some one should have shouted "SECURITY!" when the writers brought this script to the producers.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Funny but Dumb
Review: This was a funny movie but it could have made more sense!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: THIS MOVIE WAS HORRIBLE
Review: I saw this movie when it came out in the movie theaters, and i did not like it at all. I am a huge Chris Rock fan, I think he is hilarious and I usually like his movies. I think Chris Rock might have ruined his reputation with this movie. This movie was so boring. And, when you go to see a Chris Rock movie you expect to laugh every minute, this movie did not have that many funny parts. The parts that were funny were not even that funny. DO NOT BUY THIS DVD.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: funny, but not as good as it could have been
Review: A Film by Chris Rock

When I first saw the preview for this movie, I saw that it had Chris Rock in the White House and a bunch of older women singing along with the song "Hot In Here". That's what I expected out of the movie, a huge racial stereotype of what would happen if a black man was ever elected president. There is some of that in the actual movie, but there is quite a bit more as well.

The movie actually follows Mays Gilliam (Chris Rock) as he becomes a candidate for President and all through the race. Mays starts out just working for the Democratic Party in Washington D.C., but when the original nominee is killed in a plane crash, the Party leaders decide to nominate someone who can't possibly win the election but could win minority support for the Party: a working class black man with low level political experience. Naturally, nobody tells Mays this and he believes that he actually has a chance. It takes a little time for Mays to get his bearings, but he begins to run his campaign his way (meaning: in a decidedly urban and ethnic manner). Mays is a down to earth, honest man, who is more at ease talking with the men working at a fundraiser than he is with a Union Boss.

I was a little surprised that Rock's biting political humor was mostly absent from the movie. Yes, during a couple of his speeches and political rallies he got to sound off a little bit, but there was a lot less than I expected. This was a funny movie, but more racial stereotypes than I would have liked. Coming from Chris Rock, I expected something more. I laughed, and I enjoyed the movie but it wasn't what it could have been.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Only Thing White Is The House!
Review: Like I siad in the title of this review, "The Only Thing White Is The House!" Chris Rock and Bernie Mac are gr8 2gether. This movie is halarious. It is halarious how Mays (Rock) and his brother Mitch (Mac) greet each other by punching each other in the face. I love when Mays runs 4 president and he's at a party (2 promote his campaign) and he deejays and says "The roof is on fire" and everyboby at the party thought the roof was really on fire. That was halarious. Everybody panicked. I also like the part where there is a school shoting and Mays and the other candidate go to the school and news cameras catch Mays saying "They're acting just like us. Hey, we're bombing countries all the time. If I was 12, I'd probably have a gun 2." That was gr8. This is a must own 4 any Chris Rock or Bernie Mac fan!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not Vintage Chris Rock
Review: The previews and trailers were the thing that tempted me, but I found that the story and the humor just didn't tickle me as much as some of his other films have as I truly do LOVE Chris Rock's humor. IF you are bored silly and have nothing better to do, watch it, there are some scenes that work really well. His girlfriend/fiance with her screeching and as little exposure as she actually had in the movie just didn't work! In fact, if those scenes were cut out, I might have rated the movie higher.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: MISSES THE MARK..
Review: I am a big fan of Chris Rock. Love almost all of his stand-up. But what may have worked quite alright as a skit on The Chris Rock Show just doesn't cut it as "humor" in a fullfledged movie.

Too many disparate characters are smooshed in, while some characters such as the superwhore, the meatman etc are left so underdeveloped it makes you wonder why they were put in in the first place.

Bromidic jibes about "brothers" doing drugs etc while white men being geeks are so 80s they'd make Beegees look postmodern. But Chris chose to stick with that kind of humor.

Watching him and Bernie Mac slug each other in greeting was funny the first time. Having them get in a brawl later in the film as they have an intense discussion was disturbing. Mays Gilliam even advocates violence as a solution to dealing with certain controversial issues.

What can one say. It really is a "light" movie, in every sense of the word. Worth a rental, maybe, nothing more.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Better Than I Had Expected
Review: I wasn't expecting much from "Head of State". After reviews I had read when the film was first released, I was a little apprehensive about this one, but I thought, "Chris Rock and Bernie Mac are in it so it must be funny!" It was. Now, I was rolling on the floor laughing, but the film did have its moments.

The film centers around Mays Gilliam (Rock) an alderman who is chosen to run for president when one of the original candidates is killed in plane crash. The reason Gilliam is chosen is because the party realizes that there is no way they are going to win. They just need someone to run and in four years, they'll put someone more experienced on the ballot. At first Gilliam goes along with the people who hired him, but soon he realizes that he needs to campaign his way. Thus begins many ups and downs in Gilliam's quest for the presidency.

I would suggest this film to anyone who would like to have a good laugh. Fans of Chris Rock and Bernie Mac will definitely enjoy this comedy. However, Bernie Mac could have had more screen time as Gilliam's older brother. Check this one out!


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