. BULWORTH
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 1998 Christopher Null
You know, I've seen NETWORK before, and it's a much better film.
BULWORTH is, in the kindest of words, an "homage" to that picture, and at least it has an excellent role model. Simply take the story about a TV newsman who goes nuts, stirs up controversy, and fatally angers the establishment and change it to a US Senator who does the same thing, and you've got BULWORTH.
Warren Beatty's title role performance is the only reason BULWORTH has anything going for it at all. Much like Tom Cruise in JERRY MAGUIRE, Beatty takes a difficult character and makes it his own, and while Beatty as a foul-mouthed politician is not exactly playing against type, it's still his very aggressive performance that carries the picture.
Everything else, from the dismal supporting cast (Halle Berry has never looked so lost) to the throw-away one-liners (you've seen all the best over and over again on the trailers) is cut-and-pasted from NETWORK or clearly dredged from some late night rewrite session.
Still, Beatty's in fine form, and his outrageous wackiness takes the film halfway to where it could have been. (And geez, he directed, produced, wrote, and starred in the film... maybe someone was a little too busy?) But overall, the missed opportunities, the overtly silly anti-PC message backed up by nothing, and the all-too-forseeable ending make BULWORTH little more than a fable that we already knew: That anyone involved with politics is totally insane.
RATING: ***
|------------------------------|
\ ***** Perfection \
\ **** Good, memorable film \
\ *** Average, hits and misses \
\ ** Sub-par on many levels \
\ * Unquestionably awful \
|------------------------------|
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Warren Beatty Producer: Warren Beatty, Pieter Jan Brugge Writer: Warren Beatty, Jeremy Pikser Starring: Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Don Cheadle, Paul Sorvino, Jack Warden, Christine Baranski, Joshua Malina
http://www.bulworth.com
-Christopher Null / null@sirius.com / Writer-Producer / http://www.filmcritic.com
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