Using his haunting elegy for Martin Luther King over the final scene, Estevez makes most of what's gone before seem entertaining enough but fairly trivial. This is not, after all, Grand Hotel.
Bobby (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:161
Fresh:72
Rotten:89
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: Despite best intentions from director Emilio Estevez and his ensemble cast, they succumb to a script filled with pointless subplots and awkward moments working too hard to parallel contemporary times.
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Nov 17, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $11,098,707
Synopsis: An ambitious labor of love from writer/director/star Emilio Estevez, BOBBY attempts to distill the hope, anger, and confusion that gripped the U.S. in the late 1960s. With the civil rights movement... An ambitious labor of love from writer/director/star Emilio Estevez, BOBBY attempts to distill the hope, anger, and confusion that gripped the U.S. in the late 1960s. With the civil rights movement still reeling from the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the country embroiled in the confusion of Vietnam, Senator Robert F. Kennedy's campaign preached a message of peace and tolerance. In a style similar to the sprawling works of Robert Altman or Paul Thomas Anderson, Estevez uses the June 4th, 1969, assassination of Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as the means to take a snapshot of the problems facing the country as the 1960's came to an end. The hotel is a microcosm of class and race, with characters bouncing off each other until the violent conclusion. African-American head chef Edward (Laurence Fishburne) presides over a kitchen staffed primarily by Mexican Americans who are the victims of the racist restaurant manager, Timmons (Christian Slater). Timmons is reprimanded by hotel manager Paul Ebbers (William H. Macy), who is having an affair with a switchboard operator (Heather Graham) behind the back of his beautician wife (Sharon Stone). Meanwhile, a young Diane (Lindsay Lohan) prepares to marry her classmate, William (Elijah Wood), in order to save him from going to Vietnam, and two collegiate campaigners for Senator Kennedy remove their ties to take their first LSD trip, courtesy of a resident hippie drug dealer (Ashton Kutcher). Though the sheer volume of characters--and celebrities portraying them--is often overwhelming, Estevez is deft at making each plot thread convincing and involving. Though BOBBY is not a biopic and will in no way be mistaken for the definitive statement on the man or his life and times, it is thoroughly adept at distilling both his message and the time in which he fought to deliver it. [More]
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, Harry Belafonte, Nick Cannon, Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, William H. Macy
Director: Emilio Estevez
Director: Emilio Estevez
Producer: Ed Bass, Holly Wiersma
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: Weinstein Company
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Reviews for Bobby
It's hard to dislike a film with such laudable ambition. But watching this feels like being kidnapped by a hippie parade.
You can understand why somebody would want to make a film about such a famous "lost moment" in American history, but this celebrity ensemble piece is misconceived and poorly managed.
The film plays more like an episode of The Love Boat than hard-hitting cinema.
So, yet again, Hollywood's elite has produced a political tract that plays fast and loose with history from an empty-headed, politically correct perspective.
A historical timepiece reverberating now. Preachy in parts, but Estevez’s Who’s Who of Hollywood lights up an impressive ensemble drama.
Few of the characterisations could fill the back of a matchbook, and, in refusing to see RFK as anything other than a liberal messiah, the film meanders through its political context with a white stick and a dopey smile.
Liberal Hollywood may well be looking for a uniting, inspiring figure of principle in these troubled times. Bobby Kennedy is a dull choice.
The profound grip of Bobby is that it’s about the murder of a dream, an eloquent requiem for what might have been, and a tragic reminder of how much that bullet cost.
Presents a blinkered look at the man and what he meant to Americans in the turbulent 60s, but nobody can accuse Estevez of lacking sincerity.
A remarkable ensemble in an uneven patchwork of loss, longing and the urgent necessity of a societal rethink.
does capture the mournful finale well enough to overlook the weaknesses of Estevez's script
While the movie is about one of our great national tragedies, it is not without hope.
The screenplay is a collection of half-formed ideas andpartial character traits masquerading as fully-rounded people.
Even if some plots go on a bit long and others veer into self-righteousness, it's a lovely balancing act, and worth a look.
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