The Reagans (2003)

Best movie ever!

As Good As It Gets

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This was not a great movie, but it was absorbing and kept my attention. It bordered on campy at times. It actually could have used four episodes to tell the entire story of the Reagans, and should have covered his after White House life. His diagnosis of Alzheimers and his dramatic admission would have made for further good viewing. The story may have had a "leftward" slant at times, but overall I thought the portrait of the Reagans was sympathetic. Reagan could be cold to his children, but warmhearted toward others. He didn't like conflict and both he and Nancy were socially tolerant, having cut their teeth in show business. Reagan did have a great sense of humor which comes through and lightens the tone. Looking back, it now seems quaint that this movie was so controversial at the time.

Just like the recent Hitchcock disaster, this was yet another movie trying to depict the man as a total imbecile and the wife as all the brains behind everything. Totally over simplistic, totally stereotypical , all the clichés and the undercurrent of sexist man hating misandry underneath it all, as we always get with the radically liberal Hollywood. Reagan according to this was a totally clueless puppet who did nothing and never put nay thought into anything. His wife was really the president and knew everything about everything. Identical to Hitchcock movie where Helen Mirren strangled the life out of the whole thing and even claimed to strangle Janet leigh too. Utter poppycock, Hitchcock was a genius, period.

James Brolin and Judy Davis should have won Emmys for their performances as President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis Reagan from their first meeting to the end of their two terms in the White House. Brolin reminds me of why everybody liked Reagan. He seemed easy-going and he could talk to anybody. When Michael flunks out of school, he doesn't bash or criticize him but gets him a tutor and help with Nancy. The Reagan household is a blended one. He was married to actress, Jane Wyman, who was an Oscar winner and on Falcon Crest during his years of Presidency. Sadly, we never see Jane Wyman at all. I didn't know that the younger Patti and Ron Jr. didn't know about Michael and Maureen until Michael came to stay with them. Judy Davis as Nancy Reagan is divine in this role. She really portrays her as a wife, mother, and above all else Ron's best friend and partner in life. They really were an extraordinary couple in marriage. When he actually did die, Nancy didn't want to leave his coffin. It was a heartbreaking goodbye.

This movie was simply awful!!! First of all, this movie should have been titled. Nancy Regan, as the major focus of the movies was on her, not the former President. No matter your political bend, the movie portrayed President Reagan as doing nothing for the eight years that he was President. Instead of focusing on the fall of the Soviet Union, the booming Economy, restored faith in the country as a whole, it focused on, AIDS, the coldness of Nancy Reagan, and their bad relationship with their children. (This was true to an extent. Interestingly enough, one of the focuses of the movie was Patti Reagan's hatred of her mother and her "love" of her father. If she loved her father so much, why did she take her , mother's maiden name, and openly campaign against her father? None of which was mentioned in the movie. Aside from a typical left wing, one sided view of President Reagan, the acting was horrible. Brolin never had one moment portraying Reagan as serious. The whole movie was Jelly Beans and Bedtime for Bonzo. The movie was pulled because it was terrible. One last issue. The Kennedy movie with Martin Sheen was a total puff piece put out by Liberal Hollywood, but at least in that film, the acting was well done, and the movie was entertaining. The same can not be said of The Reagans.