packers-8 No, it's truly awful. There is no factual basis for any of the movie, which is made up almost entirely of private conversations which there is absolutely no way to confirm the existence or contents of. So as it is, it's just a smear against Bush.If you hate Bush and conservatives, it will probably be enjoyable on those grounds. Otherwise, just skip it and try watching a historical movie that actually has some body.

ElMaruecan82 Everyone who saw Cronenberg's" Dead Zone" remembers Greg Stillson, a charismatic demagogue played by Martin Sheen, speaking the people's language, to finally lead the world to a Nuclear Holocaust just because he believed he had a destiny. This is not to say that George W. Bush played in the same league but the ex-President believed he had a destiny as well, and his tenure also changed the face of the world with September 11 as a convenient excuse. Seven years after the terrorist attacks, Oliver Stone had enough material to give an impartial portrait of then President George W. Bush.Was he the worst? I've often wondered that myself. Well, I don't think as a human being he was, and Stone makes a big effort to make him look genuinely sympathetic with pathetic emphasized, so does Josh Brolin who delivers one of the most underrated performances of the last decade. I think what can be said about W. is that he was the worst President at the worst possible time… his image of a reborn Christian after Clinton's disastrous second tenure earned him the ticket to the White House (although we'll never know what happened with these ballots in Florida) but after his election, there wasn't much to say apart from … the good Christian image and his 'family' background. And then came September 11, and it turned W. into the crusader of the Free World against the Axis of Evil.A movie like "W." might be seen as the attempt from a renowned leftist director to tarnish what's left from a disastrous legacy anyway: a sham war and a real crisis. But there's so much negative stuff to say about "W." that no film was needed for that, any Michael Moore documentary would've done fine. The portrait painted by Stone, if not flattering, is well-balanced and tends to explain how W. conducted the world to the most useless and pointless war whose consequences are still palpable now. It's cleverly structured, almost entertaining, going back and forth between the present and the past, where he had to live under the shadow of a respectable family and the constant burden to prove his father that he was as valuable as his brother Jeb. George wasn't the black sheep of the Family, but a well-meaning guy who wanted to prove his worth in a way or another.This is an interesting case of 'Napoleon' syndrome where the physical strength is replaced by the intellect. Basically, W. had too much to prove with each failure pushing him in the abyss of alcoholism and depression, much to his father's disappointment. George Bush Sr. is played by James Cromwell, who's far taller than the real Bush was, but that gives him an edge over his son, fitting the narrative as he physically towers him, and it's interesting that the only scene where George openly criticizes his choices (not eliminating Saddam Hussein, thus costing him a reelection), George is standing and his father sitting and weeping, waiting for Barbara Bush's consolation (Ellen Burstyn plays the strong-willed matriarch). It's not your usual oedipal case as George is torn between the will to please his father and to get off his shadow.And through his presidency, he succeeds by both honoring and killing his father, symbolically. Josh Brolin plays a wonderful Bush, fully confident in public, but in private, desperate to make the right choice. The two steps that lead to his rebirth were Laura Bush (Elizabeth Banks) who could see the potential of being the woman behind the promising great man, and a disastrous senator's campaign where he was attacked because of his wealthy background and alcoholism. W. understood where the problem came from, and translated his dependence from his father and booze to the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and this became his trademark, something many Americans could respond to. This is a guy whose choices of life were questionable but he openly admitted his mistakes, because he changed. He had a marketing plan all worked up, and the Republicans and conservative warmongers knew his potential. W. remains a naive character in his conviction that he's the one leading the show as his good-Christian facade was the perfect foil to more malevolent intents, magnificently conveyed by Richard Dreyfus' portrayal of Dick Cheney.A lot can be said about the performances, Toby Jones as Karl Rove, Thandie Newton as Condoleeza Rice or Scott Glenn as Rumsfeld, they are all good, and maybe Brolin was in a too-crowded a year to get an Oscar-nomination, but boy, was Dreyfus as Cheney chilling, when he delivers his speech about the necessity to attack Iraq, he's as cold and magnetic as Hannibal Lecter, and the scene is even scarier now that the harm is done. We knew it was all about the oil, we knew there wasn't any massive destruction weapons but September 11, for all the horror and patriotism it resurrected, called for a reaction, and that was the perfect timing to finally get rid of Saddam, and surround Iran. Nature hates emptiness and now, the same scenario is used in Syria, after Libya. And guess what? There wasn't no W., there was the supposedly greatest answer to his years of regression: Barack Obama.The interactions between W. and his team prove that the President hardly matters, it's all about the balance between economical needs and political interests. I guess Obama thought as much as W. that he 'had a destiny', as much as Nixon, who inspired another magnificent political biopic by Oliver Stone. He also had good intentions and we know which way they generally pave to. Obama ends his Presidency leaving a similar thirst for a resurgence of American ideals, exactly what made a President out of W's pedigree. Just imagine what this context can make out of a charismatic billionaire who controls as much as he pleases the media… maybe this time, we'll have our Greg Stillson.

Cinefill1 -W. is a 2008 American biographical drama film loosely based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. It was produced and directed by Oliver Stone, written by Stanley Weiser, and stars Josh Brolin as Bush, with a supporting cast that includes Ellen Burstyn, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Scott Glenn, and Richard Dreyfuss. Filming began on May 12, 2008, in Louisiana and the film was released on October 17. -W was Oliver Stone's third film in a trilogy he made about the Presidency, set in the time from the 1960s to today: the set began with JFK and continued with Nixon. Critical response: W. received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports 59% of critics giving the film positive write-ups, based upon a sample of 212, with an average score of 6/10, compared to audiences giving a 42% positive review (3/5) based on 109,205 ratings. The website summarized the reviews of the film by calling it "A surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of the 43rd American president, W. is fascinating in spots, but merely rudimentary as a whole." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 56, based on 36 reviews. Giving the film four stars in his review, Roger Ebert wrote that it was "fascinating" and praised all the actors, noting that Richard Dreyfuss, in particular, was "not so much a double as an embodiment" of Dick Cheney. In contrast, Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post called the film "a rushed, wildly uneven, tonally jumbled caricature." Film critic James Berardinelli negatively compared the film with Saturday Night Live skits, saying of the actors that "None of them are as dead-on as Tina Fey as Sarah Palin." The Bush administration never officially commented on the film. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who is portrayed in the film, called the sibling rivalry portrayed in the film "high-grade, unadulterated hooey" and said that Stone's exploration of the family dynamic could have benefited from actual conversations with the Bush family. Slate Magazine 's Timothy Noah, however, noted that "most of the film's more ludicrous details" are actually directly taken from non-fiction sources, and argued that the film was too kind to Bush in omitting certain historically recorded dramatic events, most notably Bush's alleged mocking of murderer Karla Faye Tucker, a woman put to death during his tenure of the Texan governorship. However, the incident is disputed by Bush himself, and as such is also unconfirmed. In a March 2010 "Screen Test" interview with The New York Times ' Lynne Hirschberg, Josh Brolin claims Bush did in fact watch the film. Brolin said Oliver Stone met with Bill Clinton in China and Clinton told Stone he'd lent his copy of W. to Bush. Reportedly, Bush himself "liked it very much" and "thought there were sad moments." The film appeared on some critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News named it the eighth best film of 2008, and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times named it on his top 20 list (he did not assign rankings). Newton's performance as Condoleeza Rice was criticised as 'awful."

ten-often I put off seeing this until 2012 because of the reviews here. When I finally watched it I was irritated that I allowed short-sighted reviews to ruin my chance to see it in a fun group setting. I have since learned to read between the reviews.This was a fantastic performance by Josh Brolin, who nailed the publicly perceived persona of Dubya so well! The movie was a brilliant satirical depiction of the caricature the mass public created of Dubya. It was also a great impersonation of the public opinions of Cheney and other characters from this infamous administration.This, while depicting true events and basic facts of the life and presidency of this man, what a balance to maintain! While portraying the caricature, it still gave a sympathetic portrayal of his childhood, family relations and life events which actually had me wishing I could help the adolescent and young man rise above the emotional turmoil which created the grown man he became. It was done well.