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Movies / On DVD / Bobby
Bobby

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Bobby (2006)

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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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Release:

Apr 10, 2007

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Reviews for Bobby

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61 - 80 (sorted by date)
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While these many plots vary in effectiveness and banality, the finale%u2014Kennedy's arrival the hotel and the violence that follows%u2014is undeniably moving.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
11/25/06
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Ham-handed and TV-movie flat, it states the obvious, then states it again and again and again.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
11/25/06
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

Where is Aaron Sorkin when you need him?

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
11/25/06
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan

A dynamite ensemble cast gives a good try but writer/director Emilio Estevez bites off more than he can script in a too ambitious Robert Altman experiment gone mediocre

Full Review Source: Monsters and Critics | comment Comment
11/25/06
Ron Wilkinson
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

It's this disconnect between historical reality and dramatic indulgence that keeps an otherwise worthy film from being completely satisfying. There are moments, though, where even the most hardened cynic may have to wipe away tears of regret and loss.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
11/24/06
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

None of the characters is interesting on his own -- what makes them interesting is that, at the end of the day, they witness a murder. And Estevez hasn't even made that compelling.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
11/24/06
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Ultimately rises above its inadequacies; it's an earnest tribute to a time gone by, and to a symbol of hope.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
11/24/06
Moira MacDonald
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times

It's a tin-eared movie, in many regards, history rewritten by that C-student who tries to jam too many footnotes into every character.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment 1 Comment
11/24/06
Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel

Whatever Bobby lacks in nuance, texture and depth it makes up for in idealism, passion and nostalgia for the era.

Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | comment Comment
11/24/06
Duane Dudek
Duane Dudek
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Oddly, it works, creating a pastiche of idealism, humour, loss and sadness.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
11/24/06
Jim Slotek
Jim Slotek
Jam! Movies

A lot of quick, character-defining cameos, which makes the movie play out like a pilot for a sprawling prime-time television show.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
11/24/06
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

There's not much subtlety to be found in this fictionalized historical drama. Worse, there's not much interesting going on, either.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
11/24/06
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

It's little more than a collection of half-glimpsed lives.

Full Review Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News | comment Comment
11/24/06
Robert Denerstein
Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A compelling film of tender moral decency that boasts a number of moments not to be shrugged off.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
11/24/06
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post

So keenly felt and so deeply imagined I couldn't help but be moved, even grateful for its bleeding-heart nostalgia -- which winds up feeling rather up-to-date.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
11/24/06
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...signals solidarity with the kind of late-1960 s liberalism that the martyred Bobby came to embody. It's a nostalgia trip, and is less interesting for its vagueness.

Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | comment Comment
11/24/06
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Estevez's true kindred spirit... is novelist Arthur Hailey... the political themes in Estevez's film are frequently submerged in soap suds: Despite all its noble ideas, 'Bobby' is less like 'JFK' than it is 'Days of Our Lives.'

Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette | comment Comment
11/24/06
James Sanford
James Sanford
Kalamazoo Gazette

...while Estevez succeeds in catching some individually touching scenes, others are overwritten, phoney and irrelevant.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
11/24/06
Laura Clifford
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Ambitious, uneven and deeply affecting drama.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
11/23/06
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

With one film, Estevez has transformed himself from a middle-aged joke into a youthful auteur who has made something beautiful, something he can be proud of, one of the best films of 2006.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
11/23/06
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
61 - 80 (sorted by date)
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