Our Brand Is Crisis (2015)

Pretty Good

Awesome Movie

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

(Originally reviewed: 06/01/2017) Here is a picture with mistaken identity, is it trying to be a comedy or a drama? Nonetheless it's adequately passable and I have no regrets having seen it. Sandra Bullock is very good as per usual and so is Billy Bob Thornton who sports a bold shiny head as her election team's staff rival. These two actors play off of each other rather nicely and the performances all round are somewhat decent as well, this includes Anthony Mackie, Joaquim de Almeida and Zoe Kazan and Renaldo Pacheco; although I did not care for the characters of Scoot McNairy and Ann Dowd. Furthermore I enjoyed a couple of well put together scenes such as when Bullock goes a little crazy and seems to be having a lot fun, such as pranking Thornton's character and assaulting a police officer while intoxicated. Unfortunately the picture has problems though; such as a real lack of decent jokes including an animal being struck by a moving vehicle, where Bullock's character says "it's like he would rather kill himself, rather than be in one of our commercials", this was not to my liking as they have to use an animal's suffering to get some cheap laughs which ultimately fell flat just like a good few jokes in this picture. Moreover I didn't care for some real bland dialogue either and not knowing whether it believes itself to be a comedy or a serious picture which I'm positive I already previously stated. However the real problem is the last 10 to 15 minutes which are stupid, meaningless and make little sense and sum up the picture as it truly is, a mediocre, if passable Picture that works more as a drama than a comedy but all in all, it does not work well enough to deserve a recommendation.

A washed-up political strategist, Jane Bodine, is hired by a political consultancy to help their client, Senator Castillo, win the Bolivian general election. Bodine used to be the best in the game but an unfortunate series of events during a campaign saw her reputation, and confidence, destroyed. What sealed the deal was that she will be coming up against her long-time arch rival and nemesis, Pat Candy.Reasonably entertaining. Some funny moments and the mood is generally quite light-hearted. Some of the political machinations and stunts are quite clever too and often add to the humour. Some degree of engagement too, as it is clear who you should be backing in the presidential race.However, there's not much new here. The setting - Bolivia - may be original but that's about it. Movies like Primary Colours and Wag the Dog plus TV series like Veep and House of Cards have already covered the dirty inner workings of politics and elections, and done it a lot better. Real life would have prepared the audience too.And there's the other problem. Who wants to be reminded of what a loathsome industry politics is? Not me, that's for sure.There are two twists towards the end, but they don't really do anything for the movie. The first was a touch predictable. The second was idealistic and superficial. They could just have ended it with the election results and left one with the impression that the movie is a comedy. Instead, after being reasonably light- hearted all along, the movie suddenly ramped up the drama and attempts at profundity towards the end. Was pretty shallow and a matter of too little, too late.

it is a drama/ but at the same time tries to be a comedy. Sandra Bullock plays a rather depressing soul. She's "retired" from the political game but gets dragged back in to help a candidate, Castillo, win the Bolivian presidency. She's moody and has a potato chip habit and can't get over the altitude sickness. But when she sees the front runner has her advisory, Billy Bob, working for him, she puts her game face on. She wants a negative campaign and even puts out that Castillo had an affair to blame it on Billy Bob so Castillo will agree to the smear campaign.Her tactics work and Castillo wins. But the ending is very weird. Because he breaks some campaign promises, causing the public to riot. Sandra sees even though she won, perhaps it wasn't the best thing. At the end, it says she's some kind of director for a Latin American organization.FINAL VERDICT: Not to great. Not one of Bullock's best roles. I say, avoid it.

Political consultant Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) had a mental breakdown and lives in seclusion. Nell (Ann Dowd), Buckley (Scoot McNairy), and Ben (Anthony Mackie) hire her to consult on the failing campaign of Pedro Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida) as Bolivian President. He is a former leader who instigated harsh tactics and politics. She discovers old foe Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton) is running the leading candidate's campaign. She brings in LeBlanc (Zoe Kazan) to do opposition research.This movie wants to be a powerful statement against politics but is also trying to be a silly comedy. The fact that it's dealing with realistic world politics means that it needs to be more vicious. It needs to be darker. It needs to hit harder. The charismatic Bullock is stuck in no-woman's land. She is still compelling and fun although fun is not necessarily the needed adjective.