Michael Ledo The film claims to be "inspired by true events" but is closer to a work of total fiction and is designed to make us look at our own candidates in an election year who claim there is a crisis and they are the only ones who can fix it.The movie is entertaining as the quirky and unorthodox Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock) is hired by a Bolivian senator in a presidential bid. Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida) is "not trustworthy, not likable, stuck up little a-hole." He also has a smirk and connections to the IMF. Bodine takes on the job because her opponent is managed by Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton) a master strategist who has beaten Bodine on several occasions.Castiilo's lack of charm is changed into being a forceful individual who can get the job done in what is now a "time of crisis." Bodine has a history with Candy as the campaign becomes personal. This is an interesting behind the scenes view of campaigns filled with humor and universal political themes.Good job Bullock.Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity. Sex talk.

TonyMontana96 (Originally reviewed: 06/01/2017) Here is a picture with mistaken identity, is it trying to be a comedy or a drama? Nonetheless it's adequately passable and I have no regrets having seen it. Sandra Bullock is very good as per usual and so is Billy Bob Thornton who sports a bold shiny head as her election team's staff rival. These two actors play off of each other rather nicely and the performances all round are somewhat decent as well, this includes Anthony Mackie, Joaquim de Almeida and Zoe Kazan and Renaldo Pacheco; although I did not care for the characters of Scoot McNairy and Ann Dowd. Furthermore I enjoyed a couple of well put together scenes such as when Bullock goes a little crazy and seems to be having a lot fun, such as pranking Thornton's character and assaulting a police officer while intoxicated. Unfortunately the picture has problems though; such as a real lack of decent jokes including an animal being struck by a moving vehicle, where Bullock's character says "it's like he would rather kill himself, rather than be in one of our commercials", this was not to my liking as they have to use an animal's suffering to get some cheap laughs which ultimately fell flat just like a good few jokes in this picture. Moreover I didn't care for some real bland dialogue either and not knowing whether it believes itself to be a comedy or a serious picture which I'm positive I already previously stated. However the real problem is the last 10 to 15 minutes which are stupid, meaningless and make little sense and sum up the picture as it truly is, a mediocre, if passable Picture that works more as a drama than a comedy but all in all, it does not work well enough to deserve a recommendation.

edwagreen A very appropriate film for our times.A campaign adviser, forced to leave earlier in an ethics violation probe, returns, but this time it is to Bolivia for that country's presidential election.Sandra Bullock works for a former president who is seeking a comeback. Described as an elitist, he seems to have no chances until he listens to Bullock and literally recreates himself.The film shows that these advisers have no shame and will do what it takes to get their person elected.When her client pulls an upset win, he, even as President-elect, resorts to his old ways immediately leading to demonstrations. Bullock really shows her mettle and that she is sick of the current political system by remaining and joining the protests.Her winning candidate is nothing more than a demagogue and we see the getting down to negative ads, revealing scandals and other mayhem along the way.

eddie_baggins As a big fan of director David Gordon Green due to his unique approach and memorable films like Pineapple Express and Joe, as well as the fantastically irreverent HBO comedy classic Eastbound and Down, I was willing to put aside all the negative reactions aimed at Green's latest big screen venture (or direct to disc here in Australia) Our Brand is Crisis and hopefully enjoy my time in his Bolivian set political satire, but sadly the negative response to this unengaging experience was entirely warranted.Perhaps the most "normal" film Green has ever produced, Crisis sees the sometime indie (Prince Avalanche) sometime mainstream filmmaker (eww Your Highness and The Sitter) restrain himself other than a few brief moments of random occurrences (an escaped lama and a dance scene that will remind many of Kenny Powers dance moves) and it's to the detriment of Crisis's based on a true story tale that Green can't inject his usual flavour to the tale of political campaigns and truth and lies as the film needed an extra boost of originality and energy its name cast can't deliver.At one stage billed as a possible star vehicle for Sandra Bullock to once more feature at the Academy Awards ceremony, Crisis gives Bullock the seemingly award baiting role as presidential campaign manager with a number of personnel issues "Calamity" Jane but Bullock can't save the film despite her commitment to the cause and while Green is usually a fine commander of the support cast he wastes potentially interesting side characters in the form of Anthony Mackie's barely noticeable Ben, Scoot McNairy's highly strung Buckley and Billy Bob Thornton's bald shining dome in the form of Jane's rival campaign manager Pat Candy.It almost seems as if the cast didn't know what they were aiming for, dark political satire? Sombre political statement maker? Or perhaps even a cautionary tale of America getting involved in things they shouldn't well be involved in? Missing the mark by quite a large margin, Our Brand is Crisis is easily Green's weakest project in sometime that so easily could've been something quite special had its potential been realised in any number of facets and in wasting a fine cast in a tale that's anything but engaging, this awkward film is highly unlikely to score well in the polls.1 ½ escaped lamas out of 5