The Second Civil War (1997)

So much average

Just what I expected

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

best movie i've ever seen.

Having looked back thorough Joe Dante's work I came upon this film, obviously I had to illegally download it, then watched it.Based in a CNN type newsroom, a story begins to brake about the governors of Idaho closing it's border to the rest of America.A loosed brained President then plans to send it the National Guard, to invade the state.James Earl Jones has a great part as a reporter, as does Dennis Leary. Credit must really go to Kevin Dunn playing the Governors right-hand man. Congratulations as well go to Robert Picado, hidden name and small role.Americans of voting age. See this film to observe what President Trump's would be like (Red Dawn too).

This is a very relevant film with a brilliant cast. I saw it when it was shown on HBO and, although it was supposed to be a comedy, I found it quite chilling in the end. The comedy is almost all irony and we are talking real irony, not simply funny, unfortunate situations. I saw the ending as chilling at the time because the premise and the ending was/is a real probability. Sure, not likely, but it should serve as a warning. It took me awhile to find this film again and I was not surprised to see the film was/had been buried. I presume because of its very not politically correct writing. Luckily I did a search on Netflix and found that it has been released on DVD. See it!

A funny, old-fashioned political farce set in an up-to-the-minute situation. An aggressive woman who heads an organization to "save the children" plans to move Pakistani orphans to Idaho. The governor of that state (Beau Bridges) decides to play to anti-immigrant sentiment by saying he will close the borders against further immigration.The American President (Phil Hartman) is a simpleton who managed by his political adviser (James Coburn). They're only interested in re-election, and are perfectly willing to resort to civil war to make it happen.A CNN-like news organization, "NN", which employs a rainbow of immigrants, and whose announcer is James Earl Jones, plays the potential conflict for all the advertising dollars it's worth.The governor (Beau Bridges) is really much more interested in his affair with a Mexican American reporter for "NN", and she seems to be the only person aware of the irony.

I noticed that a viewer thought this film was far better than WAG THE DOG. Might I disagree? This film is in many ways not on the same level as WTD. That film had acting, subtlety (despite its outrageousness), wit and brains. This film has neither. It's a stupid stupid (not to mention racist)thing that goes over-the-top too often. Way too often and waaaaaay over it. And it simply hasn't got the actors too for this sort of things. WAG THE DOG had De Niro and Hoffman (among others), this film's only virtues are James Coburn and Denis Leary (though the latter's part is seriously under-written, as are all parts actually). All of the others simply don't fit in. Perlman, Hedaya, Beau Bridges, Elizabeth Peña, ... none of them make sense in his/her part. And as far as the story goes... Well, if you're looking for subtlety, look somewhere else, because this one makes sure that you're not only not caring about the characters, but also that all of its attempts at black comedy or satire fall short(it had one good thing though, but I can't remember it)and that none of the events depicted seem believable. yes, it tries to give th e film a sense of reality by making the governor look like President Clinton, the president a dim-witted puppet and the head of News Net a sensationalistic b***ard, but all what it's trying to say sounds hollow and, yes, racist. See, for a film like this you need a careful handling of the subject. This film goes for cheap shots and smashes all of its messages without realizing it. A bad job for director Joe Dante, who really is more at home at the comedy-horror genre than at this political satire stuff. How to succeed in saying nothing at all. 4/10 (maximum)