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.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

What is the difference between a small time con-man and a politician? Trick question. They're the same! (Unless you want to argue that the politician isn't small time I guess.) Anyway hilarious rib-ticklers aside… When local hustler Jeff Johnson capitalizes on a naming similarity and vaults into the US Senate, he immediately sets about reaching towards all the well manicured hands holding out money and favours.Seeing a handsome and well spoken black man gives party high-ups ideas, they latch onto Johnson and give him simple instructions "Shut up and smile big".This works well initially when Johnson amazingly is fast tracked through to positions others in parliament wait years for, but then things change for Johnson… As the DVD cover might say Johnson comes into contact with a well meaning and determined young woman named Celia, who catches both his eye and his heart. Celia introduces Johnson to some of the more 'real-life' situations that are all too often ignored by politicians seduced by big business and big budgets.Will Johnson himself learn to grow a heart when all around him are heartless, or will he simply become another greedy unfeeling politician? This was the early 90s and was obviously a project lying in a studio drawer waiting for a big star to sign on and green light it. If it were Stallone they would have played off the 'big dumb guy with muscles' angle, Bruce Willis would have smirked his way through proceedings and a bunch of peripheral actors would have seen it vanish from shelves and cinemas within weeks.But they got Ed near the height of his powers, as well as his smile and laugh Murphy gets to unleash his array of voices and characters to provide a few decent chuckles, and it must be said that the supporting cast are all pretty reasonable in a paint by numbers affair.I liked it. I don't remember it. But I remember I liked it.Final Rating – 6 / 10. The Distinguished Gentleman is hardly necessary and is as light as a supermodel, but it is a likable flick with a laugh or two and a half-hearted political lampoon that breezes over severe corruption and how empty campaign promises are.

This movie is cool. It is about a conman who decides that a lot of money can be made in politics and so he decides to become a politician. Fortunately he has a similar name to a congressman that just died and so using his name he rides the coat-tails of the late congressman and gets himself elected. Thus he goes into Congress with the belief that he is conning the nation only to discover that Congress is actually full of conmen. The scene in which he arrives in Washington, and is then praised by his peers for getting elected on somebody elses' name goes to show how this con is not treated with suspicion, but with praise.It is an interesting movie because it attacks politics and politicians.Thomas Jefferson Johnson (Eddie Murphy) is a conman and believes that he is in control of everything. He is a very intelligent man and is able to squeeze his way into everything. He gets into Congress and then manages to promote himself into the Power and Energy Committee, the one with the most money.This movie makes politicians out to be people with no real ambitions other than to make money. They have no real goals or passions but lean towards those who throw the most money at them. Capital is the god in politics, not ethics, and those who try to push ethics end up in sticky situations. Eli, a politician preacher, stands for ethics and ends up on the wrong end of a sex scandal. Dick Dodgers, who is the bad guy in the movie, cares only for money and prestige. He says to the public that he will look into powerlines causing cancer and turns on his promise after because the electricity bosses are throwing lots of money at him.Jefferson learns slowly that ethics in politics does not exist, nor does free will. He is under the wing of Dick Dodgers to the point where people know that he does whatever Dick Dodgers tells him to. He believes that he has a freewill but in reality he does not. He is what is called "Dick Dodgers boy", he has no freewill were politics is concerned. He is to sit down and shutup.The Distinguished Gentleman is a very funny movie, and interweaved with the comedy are scathing attacks at politicians. I enjoyed it the second time, having a greater idea as to where politics, and American History, is concerned. Though I cannot necessarily say that it is an original film (no film is really), but reminds me of an on 1930's movie, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, however there are a number of subtle differences. Namely Mr Smith is naive and innocent, and was elected as a part of a scam, which Mr Johnson is the scam. However, both come to realise what Congress is really all about, and the film finishes with them standing up for their beliefs, and through clever use of the rules, manage to shut the conspiracy down (if only for a short time).

This overlooked Eddie Murphy from 1992 gem is much better than most critics would have you believe. Murphy plays a charming con man who swindles his way into Congress through voter inattention -- they think he's the incumbent, who is actually deceased. What starts as a game to merely soak the job for all it's worth turns into an unlikely effort to make a real difference. Several scenes are laugh-out-loud, particularly early on. Though a shade overlong, the story is engaging enough to keep the viewer's attention, and it serves up some nice potshots at how bloated and self-serving government has become. One of Murphy's best 'non-family' entries.

This is passable 80's Eddie Murphy winding its way into the 90's. The premise is o.k. mostly works. Of course there has to be the inevitable "I didn't care at first but now I do" moments. You can't have a movie about our superiors in DC without the requisite message that Good must thwart Evil. In this case it is a little waif bald from her radiation treatment as a result of cancer from dastardly power lines. Yeah, that issue still resonates.The first half of the movie is prime Eddie and punctures the fatuousness of Pols in general. Then it takes a left turn and pretty much spews out basic Hollywood rhetoric - Big Business Bad, Big Government Good. It almost spoils the movie entirely. But it pulls up a little and ends humorously enough.Murphy has put out worse, so by comparison, this deserves a 6 out of 10.