BOB ROBERTS
A film review by Ken Johnson
Copyright 1993 Ken Johnson
107 min., R, Comedy/Documentary, 1992 Director: Tim Robbins Cast: Tim Robbins, Gore Vidal, Alan Rickman, Giancarlo Esposito, Ray Wise, Susan Sarandon, James Spader, Fred Ward, John Cusack, Peter Gallagher, Kelly Willis, Fisher Stevens, Lynne Thigpen
Tim Robbins plays Bob Roberts, a folk singing senatorial candidate. He travels around singing songs about the problems with America. As his campaign goes on, some people start to turn against him.
BOB ROBERTS starts off with a good idea, a folk singer who pops into a government race and then doesn't do much (remind anyone of Ross Perot). The problem that hurts this film is that the film isn't that funny. Too many of the jokes fail. Tim Robbins can't sing very well either, which is not good when his character is a singer. I don't recommend that you see this film in the theater. Instead, if you wish to see it, wait for the video cassette. This film is worth viewing for a very cheap rental. I give BOB ROBERTS a two on a scale of zero to five. BOB ROBERTS is rated R for explicit language and violence.
The biggest problem that I noticed in this film is that Bob Robert's music videos were not funny. I think that they were supposed to be funny, but they certainly didn't turn out that way. The videos weren't well done, and didn't hold my attention. Some of the songs that Tim Robbins sang were well done, but in my opinion, Tim Robbins can't sing. Those songs that were well written ended up being butchered by Robbins. The rest of the songs fell into the same category as the music videos.
What I think Tim Robbins tried to create was a pseudo-documentary showing some of the problems with America today. The film's basic problem is that Tim Robbins didn't stick entirely to documentary format in this film. Some of the scenes were shot as a movie, and the others were shot as a documentary; then the two were combined. I didn't think that this style worked.
This film isn't entirely bad. Most of the cast did a very good job. The actor that I think gives the best performance in this film is Alan Rickman. He seems to stand a little above the rest of the cast. The actor that I think does the worst job was Gore Vidal. He doesn't seem to be with the film very much. Some of the scenes (especially the live television show part) I thought were well done.
-------- Ken Johnson blj@mithrandir.cs.unh.edu
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