PG-13
Starring: Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver
Released: 1993
Genre (IMDB): Comedy, Romance
Synopsis (IMDB): An uncanny Presidential lookalike named Dave is recruited by the Secret Service to become a momentary stand-in for the President of the United States.
Cait says: I think I enjoyed this movie more when I didn’t know as much about politics and corruption… Ah, blissful naivete!
That said, there’s still some fun to be had here. Kevin Kline is one of those actors that I feel like can really do no wrong. (Even if the movie as a whole isn’t fantastic, I still love him in it!)
There’s some little laughs here and there, but it’s not outrageously funny. This is another one that I would probably classify more as a drama than a comedy. But I enjoyed the plot, and seeing the good guy take over. It really has a lot of heart. It makes me wonder what it would be like to have a president who truly was just out to do the right thing. I think that might be something I like about Dave. The idealism of honesty in politics. I’m sure nostalgia plays a role as well. Overall, I think it’s worth watching at least once.
Cait gives it: C+
Joe’s Synopsis:
“Deep-state hires a fake “president” to lead the country further toward liberalism”
Joe’s Review:
(This is one of a few anomalous movies that are “double feature” DVDs; it was either arrange them by the first alphabetical title or treason.)
I’ll start out by saying that there’s something innately funny with a fish-out-of-water story, especially someone who knows absolutely nothing about government of any kind who becomes a competent head of state.
There’s light laughs, nothing to knock you out of your seat; it’s got the usual suspense of “will x find out y’s secret? Will x tell y’s secret? (sorry, spoiler that x found out)”, and it’s got the standard heart-warming scenes and evil villain. This is a by-the-books 90-10s semi-comedy-movie-that-tries-to-get-the-most-hyphens, with only the presidency to really stand out. Oh wait, Man of the Year, but we’ll get to that later.
The best parts of this movie are Kevin Klein being charming, and the supplementary cast; there’s 2 Ghostbusters actors, 2 Beethoven actors — 3 in Beethoven’s 2nd. Oh yeah, I’m not doing 6 degrees. But Kevin Klein is good and Charles Grodin (who played the fiscally-minded dad in Beethoven, and the same in Midnight Run) and Stephen Root (who was in bicentennial man with Robin Williams, who was in Man of the Year-damnit, not doing 6 degrees). Anyway, it also has Frank Langella, who was in Muppets Most Wanted with Sean “was bloated” Combs, who was in I’m Still Here with Bruce Willis, who was in Pulp Fiction with Ving Rhames who was in Dave.
Good “background noise” movie that you don’t have to pay attention to as long as you read the Wikipedia blurb.
As Cait said to me, “this movie hits differently now”. It’s The West Wing meets Q, with some slight jokes.
Joe Gives it: 2/5 (D) (rev: legit review)
(Seriously, this has to be where all the conspiracy theorists got the idea that there’s a fake president and a shadow government — like, look how easy it would be to throw a single cog out of gear and everything would fall apart, but the Illuminati is able to keep it up for decades. And all that from a comedy…)