Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Politics is a subject that really gets people fired up. Whether they are wrong in someone else's opinion or not, is an age-old question as to whom is on the more "moral" side. Of recent decades, the most intensely debated over and highest blood-boiling election for America was during this year. No matter who was destined to win, approximately one half of the nation was not going to be happy about it. And by this, didn't mean sitting back, arms crossed and pouting. This was anger, frustration and harsh controversy. A topic fueled so much outside media sources that it drove people nuts. The sheer number of ads that were being played a day were ridiculous. Perhaps far more than any other election that came before it. Yet like every election season, Republicans duked it out with Democrats; sending zingers at each other left and right, trying to persuade their current voters why they were wrong to vote the other side. But what probably nobody saw coming was the next president of the United States having a celebrity background (for a second time).This was exactly the punch line for this movie a mere decade prior to this strange moment in history. With Barry Levinson attached as writer/director, the story is about celebrity comedian Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) who decides to run for the next president of the free world. Behind the scenes a subplot about a new electronic voting system called Delacroy is preparing to be used for this election too. However an employee by the name of Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) finds a glitch in the programming and tries to warn the head of Delacroy named Stewart (Jeff Goldblum). Fearing she may go public with the info, Stewart has her fired. This is what ends up leading to Dobbs' winning the election. From there after the story focuses on Dobbs trying to pull the information from Green. All the while, Dobbs' manager Jack Menken (Christopher Walken) tries to convince him otherwise. As a political comedy, Levinson could have struck gold if he played his cards more directly. Including the sub thread about Delacroy's glitch was such a misfire.Of course this was released back in 2006 but the concept was the same on a political level. Voters want change and they want to hear it from an energetic, likable and honest individual. It may have seemed absurd then but compare it to now? By no means am I saying Donald Trump is any of those three but many people heard the man because of his outspoken nature. The only reason why this is being brought up is because it is a very odd parallel. The coincidence is just too well put together. There are just too many similarities. But this is exactly what is demonstrated with Robin Williams' character. Dobbs' is the funnyman; he tells things like they are and isn't afraid to be politically incorrect. It is quite possible perhaps more people would have been interested to see what the outcome would have been if the results for Dobbs winning the election wasn't because of a glitch. I in fact would be in extreme favor of Williams if he had run for president. It's really hard not to believe who wouldn't at this point.Yet Levinson's script says otherwise when half way through the setup, the focus shifts to Laura Linney's role. When that happens, the story becomes generic and overly reliant on the danger Eleanor Green constantly puts herself into. This is why the movie also suffers from erratic tone fluctuations. When Robin Williams is on screen, he's fun to watch and see him make wisecrack after wisecrack to whomever he's speaking too. This is another thing people might actually enjoy if a politician did this in real life. Would it work? That's debatable (no pun intended) but it would surely grab viewers in for a watch. People want media, which would be a great political campaign. Getting back to the movie, when jumping over to Laura Linney, it's the scared woman being sought after her corrupt boss. Just make the movie about Tom Dobbs as president; forget the whole election conspiracy junk. All the more interesting is that the cast also includes other real life celebrities like Chris Matthews, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.Even Christopher Walken as Tom Dobbs' manager is more comedic than Laura Linney's character. Her part is just a waste of a story. For Dick Pope's cinematography, all shots were well executed with no apparent issues. Pope has gone on to work for a number of entertaining films like Bernie (2011) and Legend (2015). Also early on in his career he did work on the iffy movie called The Air Up There (1994), which could have been better. Most shots were stable and keep focus on the matter at hand. The film score was nice to hear although it has never seen a public release. Graeme Revell, who normally produces action related music, made the composition to this movie. Unfortunately due to the uneven tone, the music changes frequently as well. There are cues that sound like they belong to a comedy and there are others that sound like they belong to a horror score. It works for both ends but it just doesn't fit in its entirety. This is also perhaps as to why the score wasn't released. It's a confusing cluster of themes. Though it's different for Revell.The release of this movie with such a premise feels like it knew itself before its time. The idea of a comedian like Robin Williams running for president is an excellent idea. Somehow though, director Barry Levinson got caught up on adding in a melodramatic subplot dealing with election glitches, which completely takes away half of the comedy.

Man of the year was the film that taught me that I had inadvertently seen a large amount of Barry Levinson's work. As I've previously discussed, I have a mind that tends toward the obsessive, so if I have seen a great deal of an individual's work, it's been intentional. Anyway, Barry Levinson directed Robin Williams and Laura Linney in his 2006 film Man of the Year. The Best Man gives audiences a glance at what would happen if a Jon Stewart-type, a political satirist, were to run for president. A film with a bit of a contrived romance that hovers between comedy and conspiracy theory, Man of the Year has its shining moments but exists as a film that will largely be forgotten after its viewing.All it took to start the domino effect of satirical political talk show host Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) to run for president was a vocalized suggestion by one of his fans. Taking on the Independent label, Dobbs enjoys a successful run traveling across the country pandering to the electorate that is bed up with party politics, the only trouble is Dobbs has no political experience (sound familiar). The more he travels, however, the more his unorthodox personality begins to take hold and people really begin to gravitate towards his message. On election day, the surprises of all surprises occurs when Tom Dobbs actually wins the popular vote and becomes the president-elect. The truth is, Dobbs didn't actually win the presidency. Delacroy, the company that won a lucrative government contract supplying polling places all over the country with their voting computers, may not have worked out all the glitches before election day. Delacroy employee Eleanor Green (Laura Linney) has discovered a major glitch in the system in which votes recorded for one candidate were shown being awarded for another. Eleanor alerted Delacroy C.E.O., but was placated that the problem was being addressed and wasn't as widespread as she thought it was. When election day revealed that the problem had not been addressed, Eleanor Green knew that the wrong man, Tom Dobbs, had been named president. Feeling a duty to bring the error to attention, Green seeks out the president-elect to tell him about the glitch all the while being tracked down by Delacroy representatives intent to keep her silent.I haven't seen many Robin Williams films, and the roles of his I have seen are all against type. It was fun to see him in a comedic role, obviously the genre he is most known for. Williams gave his satirical character a great depth with a nicely layered performance. As great as William's performance was, I was left feeling neutral to Laura Linney's characterization. An emotional role, Linney just didn't bring her character to life for me with her often over-emoting. Man of the Year does a great job transitioning between news footage and newspaper headlines to illustrate the rise of Dobbs the candidate. It is often the case that when a film attempts to show a lot of interviews or newsreel footage, it quickly becomes static and difficult for the audience to transition back to the filmed content. The contrived love interest between Linney and William's characters was seen coming a mile away and didn't pay off towards the message of the film. Man of the Year is a decent enough way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon, but not likely a film that you'll revisit on a regular basis.

Talk about deceptive advertising. While the trailers for this movie sold it as a political comedy, the tone of it is actually more serious and includes elements of romance and thrillers. Sadly, the results are less than compelling and rather stale. In MAN OF THE YEAR Robin Williams plays Tom Dobbs, a political comedian like Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, who decides to run for president on the suggestion of one of his audience members (which gets an applause and millions of emails). Venturing onto the campaign trail, he shakes things up by not following the norm when it comes to political conduct and being honest about the issues without beating around the bush. Subsequently, he wins in a landslide. Or did he? While there are elements of Robin's standup peppered through the film, the central conflict is actually about computerized voting machines. How riveting. You would think that Robin Williams re-teaming with Barry Levinson, who directed him in "Good Morning, Vietnam" and has done some excellent political satire in the past (e.g., WAG THE DOG), would be a slam-dunk but it's far from that. At best, it's poorly written with lots of tired jokes and half-hearted attempts at humor. At worst, it's a dull story that tries to liven things up but just makes a mess out of the plot. Still, all the actors involved do give good performances. Robin Williams, even though on autopilot, does decent work. Christopher Walken and Laura Linney also do a decent job. Pity that they were given something sub-par to work with. Ultimately, this film fails to say anything that a majority of Americans aren't already thinking, and the possibilities of a political comedian actually winning an election aren't fully explored. While well-filmed and acted, the story was too inconsistent and the themes underdeveloped. My advice is to skip it and watch one of Robin Williams' standup specials.

I've been a Robin Williams fan since the Mork and Mindy days. I had always been disappointed when he attempted "serious acting" and had always felt that straight comedy was his only true calling. For instance, The Dead Poets Society did absolutely nothing for me.Williams' role and performance in Man of the Year is different. I really, really enjoyed the movie. Robin is both comedian and straight actor. For the first time I appreciate his serious acting. This is a totally intriguing movie. It grabbed me and held my attention from beginning to end.The other actors are no slouches either. I have never seen Christopher Walken in what I would regard as a poor performance, and Laura Linney is exceptional.The movie addresses subjects which are of universal interest: politics, conspiracy and the desirability of never taking one's self too seriously. It's an excellent movie and the best Robin Williams performance among the many gems that I've seen.