Man of the Year (2006)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Good movie but grossly overrated

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

You'd think that Robin Williams playing a TV comedian who becomes president would be pure gold. And you'd think that a rigged election as a result of faulty computer voting would just make it more interesting.Unfortunately this movie is neither of those things. Primarily because it couldn't make up it's mind whether it was a comedy or a thriller. And even worse that it doesn't combine those two things but switches rather abruptly between the two. Basically all the characters are half baked, which really is a disservice yo the talent of both Williams and Linney. Even Jeff Goldblum in his very short time on the screen is horribly unimpressive. In fact the best thing about this movie is the cameos by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey right at the end.If you're a fan of Robin Williams as I am skip this one. Go and watch "Patch Adams" or "Good morning Vietnam" and go to your happy place.

This is one of Williams worst showings. Even when allowed to rift in his own style (like Good Morning Vietnam) the genuine laughs are few and far between. GMV uses Williams comedy effectively to break up an otherwise poignant and dramatic movie but in 'M of the Y' Williams seems hard pressed to find a balance and the humour seems stale and disjointed. (To be fair, Williams supposedly based his act on Leno's routine which might explain the painfully dumbed down and tired jokes.) A complete waste of Lara Linney's talents. It is ironic that the film was shot in 2006 and seems to foreshadow the 2016 circus of Donald Trump's campaign but none the less a very bad movie.

I love Robin Williams and would be disposed to look favourably upon any film he stars in - especially if it's a comedy. And the president slash comedian role in "Man of the Year" seemed to fit him perfectly.What I struggled with in this film - badly - is the credibility of the story at numerous junctures:a software to simply count votes - how hard that can be? I can believe in viruses, in some evil mastermind trying to rig the voting, but in the simplest programme getting it wrong?! - blah.a man in his 50s meets a woman once, they hardly exchange a word, but he is utterly smitten with her and gives her his private mobile number, calls her ex employer and would jump at meeting her the moment she calls. And he has just become the most powerful man on the planet. Love conquers all in the Hollywood model, but even so... really?!the presidential candidate and then the president elect has a mobile phone which he answers at all times, even in the Oval Office while formally in a formal meeting with the outgoing president?! An assistant might provide some much needed help - he should consider it.the president elect has to choose 14,000 new employees, and he goes paintballing with his entire campaign staff?! - and so on.A good film might have one idea which is far-fetched, but then everything falls into place (we don't really believe an extra-terrestrial will end up in a small boy's wardrobe, but after that, all the other elements, the continuation and the human story behind click into place seamlessly, so we can ignore the initial lack of plot credibility). This film just piles incredible on implausible, it didn't do it for me.

I generally like the work of director Barry Levinson,and I have some of his movies among my favourite ones (Diner,Good Morning Vietnam and Wag the Dog).However,I started to loose a little bit of faith on him with his most recent films.Bandits had been very mediocre and Envy had been an unbearable piece of crap,not to mention I could not believe Levinson was involved on it.He needed to do something really good to redeem himself after such film excrement.And although Man of the Year resulted to be enormously superior to Envy (which means practically nothing),it resulted to be a mediocre film.The main fails from this movie are on the screenplay.It is not bad,but for some reason it did not leave me very satisfied.I think it should have been more incisive and sarcastic,and not so bland.Some humor moments fail because they were not well written.However,there are good elements on this movie which make it moderately entertaining.The best thing from the screenplay is the proper commentaries it makes on the world of politics.Besides,there are some good moments of humor and Robin Williams fits well on his character.For that positive elements,I can give a slight recommendation to Man of the Year,although the final experience is mediocre.I hope Levinson has lifted the aim on What Just Happened,his most recent movie.