Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

So much average

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Swing Vote (2008): Dir: Joshua Micahel Stern / Cast: Kevin Costner, Madeline Carroll, Kelsey Grammar, Dennis Hopper, Paula Patton: Drama comedy about our importance as individuals. Plot regards an election whereas the elected President rests upon a vote that didn't register. Kevin Costner plays Bud, a single parent whose daughter casts his vote when he is too drunk. Due to complications with the voting machine his vote becomes the deciding factor. This is an intriguing concept and director Joshua Micahel Stern does a fine job blending comedy and drama. Often contrived and the ending may disappoint viewers. Costner is charming in his portrayal of a father who is suddenly swept from his ordinary lifestyle and given a spotlight that will strike him as flattering and an opportunity to take advantage of its benefits. Madeline Carroll is a gem as his daughter who seems to be bright beyond her years. Kelsey Grammar and Dennis Hopper are superb as candidates who both attempt to bend Costner's vote to their favor. Paula Patton is featured as a news reporter after the insight details of this media story. The film never attempts to paint either candidate as a villain, which allows the film an honest edge. While Costner has had his share of career duds, this presents one of his more engaging performances. It has a great theme regarding our place in our country. Score: 8 / 10

There are some good mysteries left in the world. The Loch Ness monster. The dark matter. Atlantis, etch. Another mystery for me is how this small gem received a mere 6.0 in IMDb!Anyway, this movie is nothing short than a small masterpiece! Based on a made-plausible, but not really so realistic scenario (which shouldn't be anyway, since this movie is a metaphor), it addresses ,with humor and sensitivity, all the basic issues in today's world of politics. Its hypocrisy. Its luck of real empathy. Its volatility and opportunism. And although the messages conveyed here relate to vastly- more-than-the-US political scene, in effect to most of today's modern politics, the obscurities and insanities of the US political system (like the electoral college) are clearly hinted here, despite the movie's intentional exaggerations (because, uh-mm, IT IS a satire!) Political hypocrisy and opportunism are, of course, the main focus of the movie. How easily political leaders change their agendas in order to win? And how much of THEIR agendas do they really make, instead of being swayed left and right by their opportunist political consultants? (Some people commented that in reality they wouldn't change views so easily, because that would get them into trouble with their other voters! But this is a metaphor, not really aiming to be realistic, but rather to show how spineless politicians can sometimes be , if the stakes are high enough!) The second message is a message for all of us, and it is conveyed by Molly's brilliant quote, one of the brightest ever uttered on TV: "All the world's great civilizations have followed the same path. From bondage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy back to bondage. If we are to be the exception to history, then we must break the cycle, for those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it" I spent a while reflecting on from civilization to civilization, and it was mind- boggling how true that quote is (ancient Greecs, Egyptians, Romans, Byzantines... you name it!!!)! It was as if someone distilled 3000 years of history and came down to a single message! If there is something worthwhile to take home from this movie, this is it!Finally, the third major message, that went unobserved by most is the one concerning the place of children in our world. Children, wonderfully represented by Molly(and in smaller extent by Jed), carry massively more than their due weight of the world, having to suffer from the adult's insufficiencies and indifference (despite Bud's sincere and best intentions of course). But with them lies all the hope for the future! All throughout the movie, Molly represents all the most decent (and caring) traits in her world (her voting attempt being irreproachable since is central for the plot), and in that respect she stands out from all the adults in the movie! There are a lot of secondary messages, about the major flaws, contradictions and inequalities of US political, social and economic system, but of course all these are known and have been seen before. But wait, there is a core of optimism amidst all that! By the end of the movie all the main characters (most notably Bud and the two presidential candidates) show redeeming qualities: the last talk between Boone and Bud and Bud's introduction to the debate say it all! And perhaps, the best accomplishment of this movie is that among all the satire and the wrongs exposure, it manages to retain a sense of understanding, even sympathy for its main characters who all, more or less, show specs of consciousness at the end. That alone elevates this movie from a flat, strictly denunciatory statement to a lot more qualitative work, giving it a lot more humanely approach. Thus, all the important messages are conveyed, but with traces of hope, understanding and entailing awareness within them. And this is a hard-worked but wonderfully meaningful mix to end up with!WARNING: Major spoilers ahead...Despite all the above, however, I have to note that in my opinion, the ending should be different. Instead of Bud finally taking a vote, the movie should end with Bud DENYING to vote (or voting "blanck"), thus leading to new elections or the election of the President by the Congress. This would have made a lot more fitting ending, staying close to the movie's spirit but also closer to the true people's will (its why I give this movie a mere 8/10). But even so, this film strives to maintain strict neutrality, and this is one of its biggest accomplishments (if the end was showing what was Bud's selection, it would have ruined the movie at all!) There is no doubt in my mind that the creators of this movie (director, writers, producers) are real patriots, striving to pass all their messages and points about US along with genuine satire, while virtually omitting any clichés! The end product is a really hard and well balanced mix. I am just sorry that a lot of people didn't get that, although they should! I cannot finish without commenting on Bud's daughter, Madeline Caroll. The little girl was simply amazing, delivering a remarkably mature performance and stealing virtually every scene she was in, outshining even Kostner most of the time! Surely she has a great future ahead. All the other cast, starting from Kevin Kostner, was simply remarkable too. So, all in all, a wonderful movie with important messages that everyone, especially with a sense of humor and political sensitivities, should definitively see!

The subject matter here is a little too much to digest. During a presidential election, New Mexico with its 5 electoral votes, has a tie in the popular vote and one voter must vote again, and as a result of this one vote, the presidency shall be decided.Besides having a ridiculous concept, our voter, Kevin Kostner, should never have been allowed to re-vote for reasons that you will see if you bother to see this film.His young civic daughter is a take-off of Abigail Breslin. (Surprised that she didn't land this part.)Naturally, both political parties wine and dine this potential voter. From his concerns, each political party is forced to accept a different viewpoint on the issues that they usually take.

Gave this a nice 5/10 because half of it was good, half of it was not.It started off pretty charismatic, introducing a young and devoted daughter in a broken home. I liked the movie already, given it's realism. A few "lazy guy" jokes later, it gets into the plot. The election is close. Not by distance, it's election DAY. But both candidates are very much at 50/50%.The protagonist, Bud, doesn't want to vote. His daughter sneaks past a sleepy poll booth guy, and votes for him. A malfunction occurs when the power is cut. She sneaks out with the stub. She WALKS to the bar and DRIVES a TRUCK home. She's like, 11. But whatever, she's semi-intelligent. But the movie doesn't even try to explain how she manages it. The next day, the error is detected and some officials are sent to Bud and give him 10 days to vote again.It's kind of hinted at, Bud tells this officials, "Why can't I just... whisper it to you...?" so he can get on with his life. No, that would be TOO simple, wouldn't it? So ten days it is.Cue presidential managers, the driving force behind both platforms. The movie doesn't exactly fall flat from here, but it's a bit predictable that it soon will. It's them that really make the presidents look like jackasses.On various occasions, the presidents appeal to Bud's simplistic good nature to get his vote. It's a humorous process, seeing a republican promising gay rights, and a democrat giving a pro-Life campaign.Cue sad part. The daughter falls out with her father. She finds her boy/friend, same age, ALSO manages to drive a truck down a highway in what the movie made look like a rather long ride. No cops. No logic. It skips the explanation for a second time.So far this sounds pretty harsh, and I DID like the movie, for the first half. But as soon as the "sad part" started, it didn't pick back up. The movie forgot it was a comedy and drifted into a drama. Introducing the drug-addict mother who shakes and jitters as she tries to explain to her daughter that she'll be famous any second now. Daughter learns truth, goes back with dad.Bud, by the end of the movie sees the "error of his ways", or whatever, and hosts a special type of presidential debate.Bud smiles at his daughter as he pulls the curtain over the voting booth, end movie. Angry at first, but then I understood why it didn't show us who he voted for. I appreciated that the movie stayed neutral.But at the end, I didn't appreciate how the movie just dropped it's comedic value.A 5/10 may be a bit harsh but I did not, by any means, hate the movie. I enjoyed it. But there are just as many holes of logic and explanation as there are in the political system.