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

best movie i've ever seen.

A Disappointing Continuation

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

F. Ross Johnson (James Garner) is a born salesman and a self-made millionaire. In 1988, he's the wild-spending high-flying CEO of RJR Nabisco. The stock is stubbornly low. He decides to try to take the company private but he's worried about the debt at first. He is eager to promote the revolutionary new smokeless cigarette Premier but then he's told about its problems. Others become attracted to the deal and it becomes a greedy stampede in the search for a leverage buyout.This is a solid depiction of 80s Wall Street. It is all James Garner and he drives this movie with glee. It is top notch HBO although I still want a bit more cinematic style. It would be great to have music from the era. There are plenty of great costars but Garner overshadows them all. This is a big time TV movie.

Based on the true events of CEO Ross Johnson trying to take over his company Nabisco, watching Barbarians At The Gate all I could think of is had this film come out while the actual events were going on the real Ross Johnson would have had a great propaganda machine at his disposal.Barbarians At The Gate will never take the place of such classic films based on big business like The Power And The Prize, B.F.'s Daughter, Executive Suite or even Cash McCall which James Garner also starred in. I like Garner, but I don't think he ever got into what really made Ross Johnson tick.Garner's rival in the takeover process is Jonathan Pryce who's a Gordon Gekko type, but a real bloodless one. In fact Garner is the only one who seems like flesh and blood. I did learn that these folks who start out in corporate management really haven't a clue as to how the working man deals with things nor do they care to find out.A good effort, but Barbarians At The Gate falls way short of the mark.

I read once, in James Garner's Biography, that he did roles in quality TV like (Barbarians at the Gate). Now whoever wrote this lie will burn in hell forever, because this movie isn't quality TV, unless TV stands for Tormenting Vanity ! It's natural that too much of something is bad enough. Here you are a movie to know that better. The dialog is just TOO DAMN MUCH to unbearable degree. It could destroy the movie and us.The first 20 minutes are a headache. The characters speak with tons of elegant gibberish. The dialog has too many very deep information, and most of all it goes on non-stop too. Plus, it couldn't make any tie-in between us and the main character. I couldn't make any initial viewpoint towards him. They were busy making him talk, talk, and talk for all the time without presenting him appropriately. So, it was exactly like a stock market program, running annoyingly on-screen, without any drama but the tragic one in my brain !After that…the stock market channel breaks loose. There are more stiff characters in suits (too many, with no true presentation, so with the unbroken mentioning of their names I couldn't tell who's who ?!). And the case is that we have them talking in great energy, with more of the same – fully detailed – gibberish, without funny comedy, clear drama, something to understand, or a MOMENT OF SILENCE ! The scriptwriter of this movie is one rare person. He proved for someone like me, who watched countless good and bad American movies before, that America has real windbag scripts! That lethal flaw I saw in many not American movies. But who said that anyone or anything is perfect. Actually its dialog can fill 3 movies and 4 newspapers I don't buy ! The main event, as I desperately understood, is ironic, satirical, and supposedly hot. But this 1000-words-per-minute dealing made it like a sweeping speech torrent where nothing is distinct or intelligible from start till the very end; why they selected the lower offer ? The lead is portrayed eventually like a defeated knight, so why he's a knight ? Why they wanted to defeat him ? And how they did it ?!! I'll never know…from this movie ! To make the matter worse, (Glenn Jordan)'s directing was dead, literally dead. The image doesn't say a thing. I believe there isn't one in the first place, since none was portrayed by it. All what I saw is people talk while walking across closed rooms, and that's it. Without much concentration, you can notice that (Jordan) intended to wrap it up as fast as he can, even if so many things, if not all the things, died out of heart failure, or we did earlier out of apoplexy. Hence the outcome was the most long, unfunny and humdrum sitcom's episode in history !The sets are all the same. Forget the cinematography. The music is primitive electronic thing; aside from being wearisome, it fits more a kid's show. Save (Jonathan Pryce), all the actors talked the same tone. The good acting was like a fish in deep black water; hard to hunt, and hard to see. The editing made the movie so crowded without a space to breathe. Sometimes I wanted the cast to speak slower, sometimes I wanted a translation's boards, and sometimes I wanted to just scream !So, with no smart writing and no directing this lost its way, being a huge turn-off. Whenever I recall an American movie where its dialog ruined it, this is the first one to remember. I saw theatricals, but flu hallucination, with more vitality and less talks. (Barbarians at the Gate) isn't a comedy about money. It's a nightmare about something I, with considerable struggle, couldn't totally catch on!Uninteresting isn't the right word for it. It's SHUT UP !

Entertaining look at the in-fighting involved in the takeover of the Nabisco Co. The CEO of Nabisco wants to buy out the company, but is thwarted by the machinations of a big money rival. A rousing financial war begins leading to a satisfying grand finale. I liked the dialogue, especially the witty quips that James Garner was fond of throwing out. Jonathan Pryce was great as the chilling corporate raider. Thumbs up.