Primary Colors
He Was Born To Run.
Jack Stanton (Travolta) is a virtually unknown Southern governor on a quest for the White House with his strong, savvy and equally ambitious wife, Susan (Thompson). Running against the odds, the Stantons need all the help they can get from their extremely colorful political team. Together, they take off on a hilarious, heart-wrenching and ultimately history-making roller coaster ride to the top.
Member Reviews
Spot on satire with pitch perfect performances and a colourful script. - moviemonger
Primary Colors is one of the weakest movies I've seen in a long time. The sole redeeming feature of this movie lies in the fact that it attempts to illustrate how corrupt our elected officials can be. It has been said that Primary Colours illustrates the fact that the American public deserves the politicians it elects because of the banal nature of the public itself. But I say that the politicians today are so uninspiring and so devoid of character that what matters to the public is indeed the length of their hair or the amount of weight they've put on. Elections today are about choosing the lesser of two evils, and the only interesting issue is which candidate is the greater evil. It seems to me that the biggest mistake made here is that Primary Colors ends up being a sappy sentimental forgive-and-forget exercise in story-telling, whereas, by all accounts, the novel by Joe Klein (initially published under the anonymous pseudonym) was bitingly honest and far more candid. In fact, movies like Wag the Dog, for all their lack of realise, had a sarcastic and witty edge that struck a chord, and Primary Colors fails to accomplish this. One can get a lot out of Primary Colors, but it's solely because of the subjects addressed and its take on American politics, and not because of the screenplay, the plot, or even the characters. Primary Colors is not harsh enough to effectively execute its own premise (that politics is a slimy business---as if we didn't already know that).Fun (though slightly long) political satire. - estefan
John Travolta gives a spot-on impersonation of Bill Clinton in this very smart political satire from Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Emma Thompson also does suitable work in the Hilary Clinton role. Though it is very obvious which real-life persona these characters are meant to be, that is all part of the film in connecting real-life events to the fictional ones portrayed on screen. That makes for a very entertaining two hours that take the already known political cliches and have fun with them. The final twenty minutes start to slow down as we stop looking at the campaign trail and instead enter an un-interesting sub-plot that's just plain long-winded. But, the first two hours are fascinating enough that the film is definitely worth recommending.Big, Bright and Brash Hollywood Style Film - Gregg
Story of the tumultuous U.S. Presidential campaign of a Southern governor named Jack Stanton (John Travolta) who closely and intentionally mirrors Bill Clinton. The story is told from the perspective of a idealistic young campaign manager who is also the son of a famed civil rights leader (Adrian Lester). Along for the ride are the candidates wife Susan (Emma Thompson) who seems cold and distant but sticks with him through all the adversity, an eccentric strategist and fellow 'good old boy' (Billy Bob Thorton) and an old friend (Kathy Bates) who's job it is to deal with skeletons in the candidates rather larger closet by putting the proper spin on them.
The films highlights are four very good performances from the principles (Travolta, Thompson, Thorton and Bates) along with a very good script. Adrian Lester is fine as the young campaign manager at the center of the story, but it is not intended as a standout role especially when surrounded by the aforementioned quartet in much more dramatic roles. The film also features some good supporting performances and cameos.
Overall the result is an interesting perspective on what a political campaign (at least in the U.S.) is really all about and what makes a good leader. Despite all of the characters improprieties he is still shown in essentially a positive light.
Member Reviews
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Spot on satire with pitch perfect performances and a colourful script. - moviemonger
Primary Colors is one of the weakest movies I've seen in a long time. The sole redeeming feature of this movie lies in the fact that it attempts to illustrate how corrupt our elected officials can be. It has been said that Primary Colours illustrates the fact ...Fun (though slightly long) political satire. - estefan
John Travolta gives a spot-on impersonation of Bill Clinton in this very smart political satire from Mike Nichols and Elaine May. Emma Thompson also does suitable work in the Hilary Clinton role. Though it is very obvious which real-life persona these characters ...Big, Bright and Brash Hollywood Style Film - Gregg
Story of the tumultuous U.S. Presidential campaign of a Southern governor named Jack Stanton (John Travolta) who closely and intentionally mirrors Bill Clinton. The story is told from the perspective of a idealistic young campaign manager who is also the son ...