Robin Williams turns in his smartest, funniest performance in at least a decade.
Man of the Year (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:139
Fresh:29
Rotten:110
Average Rating:4.4/10
Consensus: Weakened by second-half attempts at thriller and romance, this presidential comedy also fails to hit any sharp political notes, resulting in a confused and unsatisfying mess.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for language including some crude sexual references, drug related material, and brief violence
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Television
Theatrical Release:Oct 13, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $37,442,180
Synopsis: Robin Williams and writer-director Barry Levinson, who worked together on 1987's GOOD MORNING VIETNAM and 1992's TOYS, reunite for the political thriller/romantic comedy MAN OF THE YEAR. Williams... Robin Williams and writer-director Barry Levinson, who worked together on 1987's GOOD MORNING VIETNAM and 1992's TOYS, reunite for the political thriller/romantic comedy MAN OF THE YEAR. Williams stars as Tom Dobbs, the host of a comedy talk show who, fed up with the political system, suddenly decides to run for president. So off he goes on a national bus tour, joined by his manager, Jack Menken (Christopher Walken), and his head writer, Eddie Langston (Lewis Black), bringing his message of change to an eager public. Meanwhile, Eleanor Green (Laura Linney), who works for Delacroy, the company that has developed the voting machines being used by the government, discovers a serious glitch in the program that alters the results of the election. She tries to tell the company's CEO (Rick Roberts) and chief counsel/spokesman (Jeff Goldblum), but they want everything hushed up so their stock prices aren't affected and their upcoming international deal goes through. Unable to hold back the truth, Green looks to Dobbs for help while being hunted down by Delacroy. Levinson, the director of such successful films as DINER, AVALON, and WAG THE DOG--the latter also set in the political arena--has crafted a fast-paced, seriocomic look at 21st-century America, especially since the possible voting problems encountered in the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Part Jon Stewart, part Bill Maher, part Ross Perot, Dobbs is a funnyman who decides to do something about the sorry state of the country. [More]
Starring: Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, David Alpay, Lewis Black
Starring: Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, David Alpay, Lewis Black, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Linney, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, James Carville, Rick Roberts, Dave Nichols, Faith Daniels
Director: Barry Levinson
Director: Barry Levinson
Producer: James G. Robinson
Composer: Graeme Revell
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for Man of the Year
Rarely has Williams ever seemed so rote, so glaringly sleepwalking through a role.
When the thriller plot collides with the comedy, what’s left is mangled, twisted wreckage ...
Barry Levinson is a case study in narrative schizophrenia, with no idea what he wants his film to be.
Levinson has written and directed in many genres. But rarely has he made a film as indecisive and diffident as Man of the Year.
The biggest problem with Man of the Year is that, much like American Dreamz, which came out earlier this year, it simply doesn't seem to know what genre it aspires to be.
[A] piece of pithy political pap. Sadly, [this] Man has all the biting promise of a crooked two-bit hack accepting a corporate kickback at a Chucky Cheese restaurant.
It's the same lazy performance we always get, with Williams groveling for laughs via his patented physical shtick and repertoire of stale jokes that were already passé around the time Roman emperors began chucking Christian standup comics to the lions.
Sloppy political satire ... Williams has all the edge of Tom DeLay at a Greenpeace convention.
A failure as satire -- a failure as a political thriller and a failure as an ill-conceived romance. That's three failures in the space of one movie.
Ellie's the locus for the film's instability and lack of direction, while the guys get to tromp around in its more explicitly comic terrain.
A surprisingly complex and dark satire that skewers the media as well as the political process.
Writer-director Barry Levinson had better fortune (and results) with the prescient Wag the Dog than he does with his latest political satire, the uneven and uninvolving Man of the Year.
Following poor career choices in "RV" and "The Final Cut," Robin Williams is finally back doing what he does best: intelligent stand-up comedy.
The film's writer-director and headliner are guilty of committing the very crime they warn against -- entertainers taking themselves too seriously.
Robin Williams, surprisingly subdued here, makes his character as believable as a comedian-turned-president can be.
While they let Williams go, which is good, they don't give him enough time to do so, which isn't. What remains is a hollow political polemic with great acting.
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