BULWORTH RATING: 6.5 / 10 --> So-so
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It's ironic that I watched this Warren Beatty political comedy just when the rumors of the actor actually running for the Democratic nomination for President in the year 2000 are beating about.
PLOT: A suicidal political candidate decides to hire someone to assassinate him a few days before his election race ends, and takes his knowledge of this fact, to tell people exactly what's on his mind, no matter how crude or out of line it may be. He also seems to take on an African-American spirit, and surprising to everyone, including himself, people actually begin to respect his newfound honesty.
CRITIQUE: An okay movie with plenty of insightful commentary on the state of American politics today, the plight of the poor and African-Americans in today's society, and all the unwritten political rules that we should all be aware of by now. Having said that, I thought that only some of the scenes in this film were genuinely funny, I did NOT appreciate the "rap character" that Bulworth's persona would take on from time to time (It just didn't feel right to me), and thought there was just too much focus on only one aspect of American political injustice (i.e. Is Compton the biggest issue out there?). Beatty and surprisingly, Berry, pulled in some neat performances, and the soundtrack was pretty cool, but I thought that the film just oscillated between too many genres, comedy, drama, romance, political, to satisfy any one completely. On a high note, Oliver Platt delivered one of his best performances ever, with a great rendition of the ultimate sleazy, hypocritical sidekick who changes his opinion on anything in a second, as long as it pleases the populace. All in all, a thoroughly original script, performed with some good actors, but Beatty's unbelievable "rap character" and the somewhat unfocused direction of the script, left me somewhat detached.
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Plenty of cameos in this film: George Hamilton, who is mentioned in the script as someone that Bulworth resembles, Jan Carl from Entertainment Tonight, talk show host Larry King, playing himself as usual, out-of-work actor, William Baldwin, as Bulworth's opponent in the race, and director Paul Mazursky. Look for the movie marquee in one of the black neighborhoods that shows a double-bill of SUPERFLY and BLACULA. Actress Halle Berry was the first runner-up in the 1986 Miss USA pageant. She was also named Miss Ohio in 1986, and Miss Teen All American in 1985. She was married to baseball player David Justice for about three years. Oliver Platt's dad, Nicholas Platt, is an ex-ambassador to Pakistan, Zambia, & the Phillipines. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Drama in 1983 from Tufts University.
Review Date: August 15, 1999
Director: Warren Beatty
Writers: Warren Beatty and Jeremy Pikser
Producers: Warren Beatty and Pieter Jan Brugge
Actors: Warren Beatty as Jay Billington Bulworth
Halle Barry as Nina
Oliver Platt as Dennis Murphy
Genre: Comedy
Year of Release: 1998
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(c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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