Tag Archive | The Campaign
August 14, 2012  

The Campaign: Movie Review

The Campaign unites Will Ferrell with Zach Galifianakis, and the way comedy works these days, it’s a surprise they haven’t work together sooner. They play opposing candidates in a local election that gets ramped up by petty rivalries and the influence of big money, and turns two reasonable guys into monsters. And it’s funny.

The Players:

The Plot:

Cam Brady (Ferrell) has been running unopposed for his North Carolina senate seat for years, but his latest couple of slip-ups (namely calling a church going family and leaving a filthy message for his mistress), makes him look vulnerable to the Motch Brothers (Lithgow, Aykroyd), who use their riches to influence politics to benefit them. They draft a candidate in Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), and hook him up with a an image makeover counselor (McDermott). From there the fight is on.

The Good:

  • Funny: All one ever wants from a comedy is a couple of good laughs, and this has plenty. It’s fair to say that the leads are playing roles familiar to them, but they still know how to deliver in those situations, and both are on top of their game. But the stealth weapon of the film is McDermott, who kills in every scene he’s in.
  • Teeth: The filmmaker make no secret that they’re talking about how politics are run, and how superPACs have a huge sway over how a American politics. What’s interesting though is that Ferrell is playing the Democrat, and Galifianakis is playing the Republican – they don’t go for easy lay-ups most of the time, and on some level the labels aren’t what’s important or being discussed. The framework is Frank Capra, without question, but it’s an R-rated version of that sort of thing, and honestly, it says more about politics that Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
  • Short: Way too many movies these days are bloated as all get out, even comedies. One of the great things about The Campaign is that it runs about 90 minutes, and you feel like you’re getting a full meal.

The Bad:

  • Broad: Some jokes work, others just take things a little too far. There’s a good payoff to one joke where Cam Brady gets so insulted by what Marty’s done that he makes overtones to Marty’s wife to get revenge. Part of the joke is that Marty and his family are all overweight, and so it gets close to making a fat woman the butt of the joke.
  • Familiar: Part of the reason why the movie works is because you can trust the performers to do what they do best, but nothing they do is all that dissimilar to some of their most famous characters. Cam Brady is essentially Ferrell’s Bush impression, while Galifianakis is doing a modified version of his brother Seth character. This isn’t the worst thing, but it takes a while for the film to do anything new.

Overall:

A nice relief from some of the less interesting films this summer, The Campaign is tight and smart – even if it does sometimes make a misstep here or there. It’s easily the best comedy of the summer, and it’s one of the best mainstream movies of the year.

Rating: 8.4/10

July 30, 2012  

The Campaign (2012) Trailer

 

In order to gain influence over their North Carolina district, two CEOs seize an opportunity to oust long-term congressman Cam Brady by putting up a rival candidate. Their man: naive Marty Huggins, director of the local Tourism Center.

June 7, 2012  

Will Ferrell And Zach Galifianakis Go Head To Head In First Poster For The Campaign

Politics is a strange and mixed up world. While we should be voting for the smartest, most qualified people to be in our government, the whole thing is dominated by special interests and money that it’s insured every little election will be just as ridiculous as the last. The insanity of the political world has been the subject of comedy before, but this summer it’s all about Will Ferrell vs. Zach Galifianakis.

In The Campaign, which is directed by Jay Roach, the two comedic titans go head to head fighting for a congressional seat in North Carolina. Given the face-off at the center of the plot, it’s not hard to understand why its something that the studio would render literally for the film’s first poster. The one-sheet was posted over on the movie’s official Facebook page (you can follow the individual candidates hereand here) and you can see the full thing below

Due out on August 10th, The Campaign stars Ferrell as Cam Brady, a professional politician who typically runs unopposed, but one year a strange man named Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) decides that he wants to run for office as well. The film has a stellar supporting cast that includes Jason Sudeikis, Sarah Baker, Dylan McDermott, Brian Cox, John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd. To see more from the movie head over to our Blend Film Database