Oliver Stone's Decider biopic "W," starring Josh Brolin

Why couldn't anyone besides Oliver Stone be the first to take this on?

has anyone noticed that oliver stone is a weirdo?

No. Never have.

The writer did the Giuliani TV movie that starred James Woods.

winners all

hahaha oh man this is gonna be funny

I'm unclear if this is gonna be a birth-to-surge all-in life story

omg this is gonna be the best ever !!!

I lobby for James Woods as Rumsfeld

That James Woods Giuliani movie is insane.

im assuming we can rely on stone to paint the least flattering picture possible? but after that 9/11 bullshit im not so sure. i mean not one hint at a conspiracy or anything?

alls im saying is oliver stone just be oliver stone here - now is the time we need you.

who will play Cheney!?

Cromwell is a good choice

Thing is this is NOT going to be funny. It's going to be a completely humorless take on a subject that is almost impossible to make humorless.

who for Fredo Gonzales? Javier Bardem?

Don't forget how unexpectedly soft Nixon turned out...

oh come on hurting theres really no such thing as a not hilarious stone pic

kinda can't wait for this!!

and ya jhoshea otm

yeah I kinda like Nixon and it IS funny (Woods as Haldeman! Discovering all the doorknobs in the oval office are missing! Praying on bended knee with Kissinger!)

resemblance be damned, Steve Coogan for Tony Blair

steve carell for tony blair

shadoe stevens for tony blair

Steve Carell for 'Brownie'!

hmmm i like it

its too bad Burgess Meredith isn't around to play Cheney

oh come on hurting theres really no such thing as a not hilarious stone pic

Alexander was rough going (but did have some big roffles as they went)

the doors movie is one of the top comedies ever committed to film

Sacha Baron Cohen as Saddam

Robert Downey Jr as Condoleeza Rice

Cate Blanchett as Bono

omg if he did this in a natural born killers motif w/our casting suggestions it really would be the best movie ever

The only way I could even get through the trailer of World Trade Centre was to decide the whole thing was a piss-take.

Sacha Baron Cohen as Saddam

This would make it all worthwhile, especially if every other actor played things deadly serious.

Terrence Howard as Powell

Larry David as Cheney.

martin landau as wolfowitz

wait Landau's dead

Larry David as Cheney!!!!

yes

Martin Short as Nancy Pelosi

This will be terrible. Oliver Stone is such a hamfisted, pious director.

Cheney's the toughest to cast, and obv crucial. maybe Woody Harrelson padded in a bald wig.

This will be fantastic. Oliver Stone is such a hamfisted, pious director.

woody must factor in somewhere

Meatloaf as Roger Clemens

woody could be W.'s alcoholic devil past, resting on W.'s shoulder during crucial times and whispering sweet cocaine dreams in his ear

I hope he scouts for locations high on mushrooms for this one too (a la desert scenes in NBK).

Actually one of the worst things about it being so soon is that it will not include the drunken post-presidential downward spiral.

How much of the film will occur in DC vs various golf courses and vacation homes?

Laura's already cast, btw:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20186389,00.html

Stone, who wrote the screenplay with his Wall Street co-writer Stanley Weiser, has been openly critical of Bush's invasion of Iraq, but he has said the biopic will present a fair and accurate portrait, focused on things like his relationship with his father, President George H.W. Bush, his wild younger days, and his conversion to Christianity. Stone was quoted in Variety last January as saying, ''People have turned my political ideas into a cliche, but that is superficial. I'm a dramatist who is interested in people, and I have empathy for Bush as a human being, much the same as I did for Castro, Nixon, Jim Morrison, Jim Garrison, and Alexander the Great.'' Shooting on W is scheduled to start in late April.

ha, he DID direct Alexander didn't he? I completely erased that movie from memory.

Actually one of the worst things about it being so soon is that it will not include the drunken post-presidential downward spiral.

i see no reason to not include the occasional flash-forward

Cheney's the toughest to cast, and obv crucial. maybe Woody Harrelson padded in a bald wig

James Earl Jones would be perfect, if you can get past the skin-color thing. Darth Vader as himself.

Larry the Cable Guy as youthful W's coke dealer

(W shaves head, W flips out at gas station, W pregnant again, etc.)

egads that Kevin Smith movie.

Morgan Freeman as a magical Colin Powell

PS Hoffman ft Cheney.

not old enough

Fred Thompson

wait Landau's dead

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, March 27, 2008 4:41 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

rong!!

wishful thinking

hoffman for ROVE

YES

obv Kirsten Dunst & Michelle Williams as Jenna & Barbara

haha

who will play Daddy/41?

Dana Carvey?

betcha it's cromwell

haha xp

Pity they've already decided against Jon Stewart doing his Dubya impression as Dubya.

the late Fred Gwynne as John Kerry

No, not him, who played Lurch?

Ted Cassidy also dead

i see no reason to not include the occasional flash-forward

-- jhøshea, Thursday, March 27, 2008 4:48 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

how to spot the LOST fans on non-LOST threads

Morgan Freeman as a magical Colin Powell

Freeman actually will be Kofi Annan, mark my words.

weird, why did I think Landau was dead? he would be great for Wolfie

betcha it's cromwell

oh, right. hi, i can't read.

I don't see any problem with casting a corpse as John Kerry

obv Shakey, but Herman Munster had the lantern jaw

Hal Holbrook as Robert Byrd

i see no reason to not include the occasional flash-forward

-- jhøshea, Thursday, March 27, 2008 4:48 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

how to spot the LOST fans on non-LOST threads

-- nickalicious, Thursday, March 27, 2008 12:57 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

haha i was actually thinking this would be better as an endless multi-season tv show

Tom Noonan as John Kerry
Michael J. Fox as John Edwards

What about the movie Lurch?

Larry David as Ari Fleischer!!!

Mickey Rooney as John McCain

andy rooney as harry reid

Guy who played Jean-Do Bauby's dad in Diving Bell and the Butterfly as John McCain

Jeffrey Jones as Larry Craig (uncredited)

xp: is that Max von Sydow?

heavy on W-as-God's Chosen, apparently -- who as W's vision of God?

Guy who played Jean-Do Bauby's dad in Diving Bell and the Butterfly as John McCain

-- Hurting 2, Thursday, March 27, 2008 5:04 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

max von sydow??

yes!

no old Swedes

-- who as W's vision of God?

Duh, himself

Charlton Heston

in Planet of the Apes make-up

JM J. Bullock as Rummy
Whoopi as Condi

udo kier is the only cheney i want to see

http://www.players.de/40/bild1k.jpg

Lark Voorhies as Condi

Wanda Sykes as Condi

Eddie Murphy as Condi

Wally Cox as Karl Rove

dame judy dench as harriet meirs

Jeff Goldblum as OBL

anton chigurh as alberto gonzalez

Seth Rogan as Tim Russert
Ed Helms as Tom Brokaw

lord custos epsilon as this thread

Tommy Lee Jones as Al Gore

Actually I want Kevin Tighe (Cooper/real Sawyer on LOST, Col Andropolis on Freaks & Geeks) as McCain. FOR REALS.

lord custos epsilon as this thread

-- J0rdan S., Thursday, March 27, 2008 10:15 AM (46 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

Charlie Sheen as Rumsfeld

you guys are hard, hard men, xp

Actually I want Kevin Tighe (Cooper/real Sawyer on LOST, Col Andropolis on Freaks & Geeks) as McCain. FOR REALS.

^^^ YES. He is also great in Matewan.

Whoa yeah, perfect

John Turturro as Wolfowitz

Kevin Tighe would be great. The role would rival his work in Road House.

Now you're talking crazy Ned.

Wha bout Powers Boothe?!?!?!?!

Wilford Brimley as Cheney.

It's the right thing to do.

"It's not Rove."

Myers's Dr, Evil I think would be most appropriate under the circumstances.

xpost

Now you're talking crazy Ned.

At the end of said movie Tighe bloodily murders a man with a gun. This I can see McCain doing.

Bill Cosby as Clarence Thomas.

GWB = Wile E Coyote
OBL = Roadrunner
DC = Daffy Duck
KR = Porky Pig

Who is Bugs Bunny? Ashcroft = Foghorn Leghorn?

but who will play obama & hills?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/dysign/ilx/drcheney.jpg
perfect.

Obama - Sylvester
HRC - Tweety

Bugs is a tough one, though.

Bugs-Bill Clinton

Bin Laden = Marvin the Martian

Toby McGuire for Matt Drudge.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Andrew Sullivan.
John C. Reilly as Josh Marshall.
Susan Sarandon as Maureen Dowd.
Some half-step between Terrence Howard and James Earl Jones for Colin Powell.
Parker Posey as Ana Marie Cox.

howard dean = the housewife in the sylvester/tweety cartoons

I saw about 3 minutes of "Little Bush" the other day. Holy Christ, Comedy Central, wtf is wrong with you to spend money on the shit.

^^^ yeah. 8 years too late and not at all funny either

well if lateness was an issue "That's My Bush!" wouldn't have been horrible too

lil tony blair was actually hilarious

well if lateness was an issue "That's My Bush!" wouldn't have been horrible too

did that ever even air? I thought they ran into all kinds of problems... basic premise sounded pretty lame anyway, I never saw it. Am I misremembering that that was Stone and Parker's brainchild...? Those South Park guys are pretty hit-and-miss concept-wise.

this will be one of my favorite scenes:

pilot: "just take your damn physical, georgie. we need you! I need you"

W: "I made a deal with the devil Johnny, and I keep my deals"

pilot: "but you're a good pilot! a pillar of the air national guard!"

W: "pillar of the air national guard by day, coke bars at night"

pilot: "if you walk away from this, you walk away from a white-hot future!"

W: "i got a white-hot rock of columbian cocaine in my future, then maybe some black-hot oil. For once I'm
gonna be the decider in my life okay?"

pilot: "you're the boss, georgie. you're our leader."

W: "shoot Johnny, let's go grab a beer. The KING of beers."

It aired. Regretably for all concerned.

can't laugh or cry.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IK9wVxNVF8w

Tim Bottoms was a scary W lookalike tho

I've been talking about Kevin Tighe as McCain for years! Years, people!

He'll have to wait for McCain's presidency, if any movie theaters are still standing by 2013.

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/03/27/oliver-stone-casts-dubyas-parents/

CALLED IT!

"Ellen Burstyn as George Herbert Walker Bush"

JUICE BY GEORGE!

I just wish it was a musical.

I can see OS sticking in a dance number similar to the end of the 2nd Jackass flick.

weird, why did I think Landau was dead? he would be great for Wolfie

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, March 27, 2008 6:58 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

lol Shakey i dunno

this will be one of my favorite scenes:

pilot: "just take your damn physical, georgie. we need you! I need you"

W: "I made a deal with the devil Johnny, and I keep my deals"

pilot: "but you're a good pilot! a pillar of the air national guard!"

W: "pillar of the air national guard by day, coke bars at night"

pilot: "if you walk away from this, you walk away from a white-hot future!"

W: "i got a white-hot rock of columbian cocaine in my future, then maybe some black-hot oil. For once I'm
gonna be the decider in my life okay?"

pilot: "you're the boss, georgie. you're our leader."

W: "shoot Johnny, let's go grab a beer. The KING of beers."

-- Cosmo Vitelli, Thursday, March 27, 2008 8:59 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

omar, can you get to work on some of these?

i'll slip this under oliver's door

from Jeffrey Wells' Hollywood Elsewhere blog (someone emailed him a script):

I'll post a thought or two about Stanley Weiser's W, formerly known as Bush, on Monday. I couldn't get my hands on a recently revised draft, but if the film that Oliver Stone will begin shooting next month is at all similar to what's on the page, W won't be any kind of breathtaking, guns-blazing, political-zing movie. It's primarily a modest, brick-by-brick character study about who George W. Bush really is deep down.

that might actually be interesting if it were any good (ie if it agrees with me about who he really is).

lol at gr80

after reading robert draper's semi-authorized bio "dead certain," i've got to say that bush is kind of a fascinating, weird, complex character. i could see this movie being watchable, at least (it helps that the only stone film i even sort of like is nixon).

I almost bought that book today! how is it?

i enjoyed it a lot, partly because it's clearly not a hatchet job. draper is totally sympathetic to bush's motives, likes him as a person, never condescends to him -- which makes it all the more convincing when he explains why bush failed in such a huge way. draper's writing style is a bit new journalism-y (let's just say he uses a bit too many exclamation points) but i'd rate it above any other book on the guy i've read.

how did i miss this thread?

you had other priorities.

Soon after a disastrous news conference in April 2004, Bush retreats to the White House den to watch a Texas Rangers game in the final scene of the script.

Popping open a nonalcoholic beer, he lapses into his favorite dream: playing center field for the Rangers. Hearing the crack of the bat, he looks up for the ball but he can't find it in the sky.
ABC News

Years later, after Dubya drains a pint of Wild Turkey and runs over a pile of trash cans while driving home, his angry father tells him to call Alcoholics Anonymous, prompting Dubya to sarcastically deride his dad as "Mr. Perfect. Mr. War Hero. Mr F-- God Almighty."

i am first in line for this

this is gonna be like that made-for-tv movie where cybill shepherd plays martha stewart x10000000

Clearly that scene was written by someone that hates baseball.

"early screenplay," don't expect to see everything there... But we need an Ari Fleischer! Jeremy Piven or Jason Alexander?

In one scene, Bush practices his parachute landing in the White House pool but forgets to properly release the harness and sinks to the bottom. In another scene, Rumsfeld doodles a drawing of Condoleeza Rice standing on a piano with a globe spinning on her finger....

He interrupts a meeting with Prince Bandar, in which he informs the Saudi ambassador about plans to invade Iraq, so that he can catch the rest of the 2002 Miami Dolphins-Baltimore Ravens playoff game. Bush is later shown choking on a pretzel and passing out during the second quarter.

stoked

i am first in line for this

-- and what, Tuesday, April 1, 2008 4:12 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

me too haha

Larry David as Ari Fleischer!!!

-- David R., Thursday, March 27, 2008 1:02 PM

there's gonna be nothing in this about his helping run his daddy's campaigns and becoming a serious political operative, rite? didn't think so.

hey, let's list bald jews

Piven's a good pick

anyone think they might have a screening of this at the white house?

if they do i'm so going!!!

I'd like to see the scene where Hunter S. Thompson pulls him out of an empty bathtub and throws him out of his hotel room.

"The first time I noticed George W Bush was when he passed out in my bathtub at the Hyatt Regency in Houston. He was with a guy who had come to sell -- Look, I'm not going to put this next sentence on the record. Let's just say that 'a friend of mine' was buying cocaine. I have friends in Houston from all walks of life. Lawyers. Professional men. Bush was hanging around with this crowd of what you might call gilded coke dilettantes. I remember Bush as a kind of a butt-boy for the smart people. This was in the late 1970s, when he was in his drunken-fool period. He couldn't handle liquor. He knew who I was, at that time, because I had a reputation as a writer. I knew he was part of the Bush dynasty. But he was nothing, he offered nothing, and he promised nothing. He had no humour. He was insignificant in every way and consequently I didn't pay much attention to him. But when he passed out in my bathtub, then I noticed him. I'd been in another room, talking to the bright people. I had to have him taken away."

god this is going to be so awesome

Piven would be great as Fleischer, good call

http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/extra/road_taken/images/fleischer_young.jpg?Log=0

"Let's play another prank on Dwight!"

Andy Samberg!

who should play fleischer's crazy "lbj did it" dad?

Tracer, do you have a link?

Hunter S. Thompson muses about Richard Nixon and 9/11

^^^love that article

I ain't playing that game, thanks.

via Cinematical:

Jeffrey Wright is reportedly in negotiations to play Colin Powell, Tommy Lee Jones is supposedly being sought for Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Duvall has been rumored to be the choice for Vice President Dick Cheney and now both Paul Giamatti and Toby Jones are being named as potentials for the part of Karl Rove (who Giamatti may have already channeled for his character in Shoot 'Em Up).

So PSH has said no to Rove, then.

I can't say I like any of those casting choices

I shouldn't have clicked on that link.

I didn't know Rummy & Cheney had been in both the Ford Administration and Lonesome Dove

my gf's dad is gonna be in this

/max

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2008/04/thompson_to_pla.html

The Bush administration is coming together -- and adding a key ally for good measure.

Oliver Stone has found the actress to play Condoleezza Rice in his upcoming "W," with Thandie Newton in final negotiations to star as the National Security Advisor-turned-Secretary of State.

Meanwhile, Ioan Gruffudd is in final talks to play former British prime minister Tony Blair.

yer too good for condi, thandie <3 <3 <3

http://images.celebscentral.net/images/celebrities/thandienewton/20.jpg

HAHA, ALL-HOTTED-UP CAST

Thandie Newton is way too young to play Condi. Couldn't he have gotten someone like Alfre Woodard?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i1155cb8195120add876286155ef704a6

http://gawker.com/assets/images/gawker/2008/04/Picture%2029-1.jpg

Real men of genius.

hahahaha

Rob Corddry as Ari! OK, this shit is getting weird now,

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/04/09/rob-corddry-is-ari-fleischer-in-stones-w/

wait is this supposed to be a comedy or not

no matter what its supposed to be it is going to be LAFFS

I mean, the Nixon movie had some chuckles, but how straight can the Fleischer scenes be with that casting? It'll be big-budget Daily Show.

Maybe Stone'll have Corrdry do something dramatic to show that He Is Serious -- shoot a mugger, abort a baby, pay for Maalox w/ cash instead of a Visa Check Card, etc.

Fleischer press conferences were already comedy routines anyway

ya - seems fitting.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20198476,00.html

That make-up's kinda scary.

Tough Talker Bush, 26, drunk-drives his car onto the lawn of his parents' D.C. home, and challenges his dad to a fight, ''Let's go mano a mano! Right here. Right now!'' Then, in 2003, when France fails to back the U.S. on its invasion of Iraq, Bush says of French president Jacques Chirac, ''I'd like to stuff a plate of freedom fries down that slick piece of s---'s throat.''

Practical Joker During a prep meeting on Iraq, Bush playfully locks Colin Powell out of the room. He then steals a mint from Condoleezza Rice and tells Paul Wolfowitz to trim his ear hair.

Scott Glenn as Rumsfeld; Cheney still unannounced.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a95876/bourne-actor-cast-as-donald-rumsfeld.html

This sounds even better than the scene in Nixon with Bob Hoskins Frenching the Hispanofag from "My So-Called Life."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3ic8cebb424120f3a576fdfb72633580f7

Richard Dreyfuss heads to the White House
To play Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone's upcoming "W"

By Steven Zeitchik

May 22, 2008, 08:44 AM
Related Content
Complete Cannes coverage
CANNES -- Josh Brolin has a vice president.

Richard Dreyfuss could soon make the trip to Oliver Stone's White House, entering final negotiations to play Dick Cheney in the provcateur director's upcoming "W."

The role is the last major position in the Bush administration to be filled; the West Wing is already occupied by the likes of Brolin (President Bush) Thandie Newton (Condoleezza Rice) and Elizabeth Banks (Laura Bush).

The 60-year-old Dreyfuss has never played a U.S. leader, but has had a few related roles. He starred as an opposition senator to Michael Douglas' commander in chief in 1995's "The American President," as Alexander Haig in a television movie about Ronald Reagan and played the president of a banana republic in the 1980s comedy "Moon Over Parador."

The QED-produced "W," which has been granted a waiver by SAG, begins shooting this month in Shreveport, La. QED has been selling territorial rights at Cannes' Marche du Film, with the idea that the movie will be released in October, before Americans elect a new president. A DVD release will follow in January timed to Bush leaving office.

I am starting to really look forward to this.

Perfect casting:

http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/1507787.jpg

Seriously. What I actually hope - I mean in my heart of absolute hearts - is that Stone plays this one so close to a documentary that it will look like a National Geographic program.

But Thandie as Condie? Hmmm.

The 60-year-old Dreyfuss has never played a U.S. leader

Not true, he played the prez in Clooney's TV remake of Fail-Safe.

Don't see him as a plausible Cheney tho.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8189/1507787fe2.jpg

http://media.tbo.com/photos/trib/2004/oct/1007drey.jpghttp://media.tbo.com/photos/trib/2004/oct/1007chen.jpg

'The 60-year-old Dreyfuss has never played a U.S. leader

Not true, he played the prez in Clooney's TV remake of Fail-Safe.'

OT but remember when this guy was gonna do a live version of network on cbs? that woulda been must see tv

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/3619/richarddreyfussvp6.jpg http://www.fp-es.org/images/artwork_8th_19_3.jpg

Cheney not Jewish enuf

i hope the part where he blasts a dude in the face makes it in

dreyfuss is perfect and I don't even particularly like him as an actor. very excited for this

http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/06/04/teaser-poster-for-oliver-stones-w/

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/wteaserposter.jpg

saw that!

was Dreyfuss officially signed?

anyone got the recent W quote about how econ stimulus would help "the machine-making place"?

"And so the fact that they purchased the machine meant somebody had to make the machine. And when somebody makes a machine, it means there's jobs at the machine-making place." --George W. Bush, Mesa, Arizona, May 27, 2008

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
and there's an audio gallery!

what a fucking retarded poster

apparently it has NO relation to the Stone film.

holy christ how did this escape my attention

iMdb:

Sayed Badreya ... Saddam Hussein

Jason Ritter ... Jeb Bush (rumored)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1082098/ lolol

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-w29-2008jun29,0,934790.story

DRESSED IN a suffocating Rangers warmup jacket earlier on that scorching June day, Brolin kept running into an outfield wall, trying to make a heroic catch as part of the film's baseball-oriented fantasy framing device.

Stone worried the leap wasn't quite athletic enough and chose to add the baseball's falling into Brolin's mitt through visual effects -- allowing the "No Country for Old Men" star to throw himself into doing everything else.

!!!!!

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-06/40497430.jpg

i own a polo shirt in that color

I R EXCITED

I don't see how this can be anything except "Mommie Dearest" levels of utter fantasticness.

gonna be kind of awesome if it does come out before the GE as planned.

Brolin's head looks huge in that pic.

Brolin getting deep into character? (w/ help from Jeffrey Wright)

http://www.towleroad.com/2008/07/fictional-georg.html

According to a sober source who was in the Stray Cat, a few profanity-laced barbs about Stone, his politics and the reported anti-Bush tone of ''W'' led to harsh words from Brolin -- who is known for his own short fuse. Then a few pushes (it's unclear who started the pushing) degenerated into punches being thrown.

A ''W'' crew member reports Wright initially tried to play peacemaker, but that changed ''after a racial slur was yelled'' and the actor got ''into it as well.''

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/zwecker/1055471,CST-FTR-zp15.article

Trailer has leaked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJh7Md5KuWc

so is stone actually playing this as a dark comedy then, or is that just bs to get people to see another overwrought political drama?

dont answer

When was the last time "What a Wonderful World" was not used as ham-fisted wickedness/violence contrast in a movie?

This still looks awesome tho.

Attn: world; song is best without irony.

fucking cosign to infinity

oliver stone has a great sense of humor, abbott -_-

trailer needs more solsbury hill

Attn: world; song is best without irony.

Yus. I actually like a use of it at the end of the original Hitchhiker's Guide radio series, which while it follows a scene with ironic undertones acts more as a reflective, gentle balm.

the prob w/ using what a wonderful world w.out irony in a trailer is that it has to be totally contextless to be pure

this has probably always been the case

lol @ creepy capote guy playing rove

looks awesome

looks horrible

it looks awesome if you give stone way more credit than he deserves; ie believe he can actually play this off as a comedy rather than forcefully make some kind of political points that are only gonna dampen the response to it

it looks. . . horrible

it looks horrible

Fuck this movie, I want to see Brolin and Jeffrey Wright teaming up to kick redneck ass in a loooziana bar.

Excruciatingly horrible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0lz5ae4Bls&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-uv9mIF2yk

diskoatdapalace (3 days ago) Show Hide
0 Poor comment Good comment
Marked as spam
Reply
A bit David Lynch, a bit the Doors, probably even more Frank Zappa, Pee Wee Herman,The Who's Tommy,and the Rocky Horror Picture Show.Crazy and bound to be one of those 'You either love it or hate it' types of film events.

"'George W. Bush is a different souffle.... The film will be more fun [than Nixon]. Bush is dangerous, but he is also goofy, awkward and endearing. A lot of people still like him.'

"Presented with the ultimate question -- which man would he prefer be on a long car trip with -- Stone unhesitatingly chose Nixon over Bush. 'He was more intelligent. Bush has done outrageous things, and he has no guilt. He is a backslapper and a salesman. He's not very deep.''

"Stone, however, says both Nixon and W. ask the same question: 'Why do we keep going to war? Why do we keep creating enemies? Bush is the latest and perhaps the most dangerous manifestation. Vietnam was a nightmare. It's amazing that the same characters have returned and sold us another war.''

Stone said he "now believes that 1995 was an unfortunate time to have made Nixon, and believes that if the film had come out in 2006 "with all its parallels" to our current political predicament that it would have done much better. He says that it's interesting to see Nixon now. "We view him in a different context. He seems almost harmless compared to the current administration."

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2008/08/more_fun_than_n.php

nice posters.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2008/08/palens_best_ad.php

George W. Bush is a different souffle....

waht

Oh how nice if he could be flattened just by stomping around the room while he's in the oven.

There's something wrong with my sentence.

George W. Bush is a different souffle....

waht

yeah i know he forgot the accent on the "é"

bastard

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/10/wmovie200810

oh man look at the puss on Dreyfuss

isn't Step 1 of playing Cheney "put on puss"?

Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell, Toby Jones as Karl Rove, Dennis Boutsikaris as Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, Josh Brolin as George W. Bush, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice, Rob Corddry as Ari Fleischer, Bruce McGill as George Tenet, and Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld

many lols

this is gonna be a gas

Fierman: Wait, are you saying this movie is a comedy?

Stone: Well, it has to be done with an ebullience and a certain fun, because the guy is goofy. He's a goofball! And I think he endeared himself to people because he couldn't get anything right. Kubrick was an idol of mine. I grew up on Strangelove and movies like Network, and they made a big impact on me. So yeah, W. is a satire.

Fierman: What do you think about what's happening at the box office right now?

Stone: It's all about the muscularization of film. Comics changed everything. It's movies on steroids. I mean, look at Transformers. That made a fortune, but it's incomprehensible! Maybe I'm too old for it.

http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_7465

ok this is def going to be the bestest movie ever

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/22/oliver-stones-w-movie-an_n_128195.html

opens on my birthday! this was meant to be.

The TV spot ending w/ slow-mo pretzel choke is encouraging.

+ use of "once in a lifetime"

actually, the ads never, ever fail to crack me up. i'm so excited to see this dumb movie. the one where he glares at cheney and says "i don't even understand why you'd bring this up when i'm eating lunch" is a good point actually.

The more ads I see for this movie, the more excited I get about it.

the MPAA rating is PG-13, so less filthy verbiage than I was hoping for.

Can't wait to read nutjob reviews of this.

the MPAA rating is PG-13, so less filthy verbiage than I was hoping for.

so no "go fuck yourself" lines eh? :(

having just lived through 8 years of W I'm not sure I want to pay for another 2 hours

opens on my birthday! this was meant to be.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, September 23, 2008 12:04 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's what I said about Alexander

still, totally psyched about seeing this

Says nothing about the movie, but whoever edited the ads and set them to "Once in a Lifetime" is genius.

my "birthday party" has now been transformed into a bunch of people going to see this

I think you are allowed 2 or 3 "fucks" in a PG-13.

only if you're quiet

hahaha

the trailer made me lol

I think you are allowed 2 or 3 "fucks" in a PG-13.

Yes. For instance, Elisabeth Shue: "Don't fuck with the babysitter."

I think you're allowed fuck in PG-13 if it's used as in "fuck you!!" or "that's fucked up" rather than "I want to fuck you".

well, there goes George and Laura's first date.

does Clay Shaw make a cameo?

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006803.html

if David Poland likes, I'm skeptical.

Stone trying to be a Colbert w/ Colbert last night, failing

i dug this

The movie?

Stone trying to be a Colbert w/ Colbert last night, failing

Yeah, I saw this before work this morning, and it was kind of painful. If you go on that show, you kind of have to accept that you will be upstaged by Colbert, and the only option is to earnestly play along and not mind if it looks a little goofy.

Or throw water in his face.

http://www.jfk-online.com/jones.jpg

I think you are allowed 2 or 3 "fucks" in a PG-13.

Yes. For instance, Elisabeth Shue: "Don't fuck with the babysitter."

― jaymc, Tuesday, October 7, 2008 10:59 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

some movies from before pg-13 ratings have "fuck" in them too, like spaceballs and all the presidents men

actually spaceballs is from 87 so i have no idea how it got a pg except maybe the mpaa didnt hear rick moranis adlibbing the line

yes i dug the movie!

Those were Daphne Zuniga's halcyon days. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

xp Give us a teaser.

beetlejuice drops a couple fucks too & im pretty sure that was pg

in american teen which is pg-13 they start bleeping out the fucks after 2 or 3 or whatever the limit is

the freshman, which is PG, also has a "fuck"

new thread for this

yes we know there were goddamn fucks in PG films

The Right Stuff is loaded with 'em, usually in the form of a fuckin'-a, and also Shepard's prayer. I always figured there was some kind of astronaut loophole.

movies you cant believe are g/pg/pg-13

apparently Dreyfuss' Cheney explains Iraq by using a ham sandwich.

slocki what about the movie

it runs a mere 131 minutes.

Good interview with Oliver Stone in WNYC's Leonard Lopate show (on iTunes, etc.).

OST tracklist:

War Introduction from the W. Original Film Score - Paul Cantelon
The Whiffenpoof Song - Collegians Male Chorus
Claudette - Roy Orbison
Chattahoochee - Alan Jackson
Shot Gun Boogie - Hank Thompson
Bayou from the W. Original Film Score - Paul Cantelon
Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys - Willie Nelson
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights - Freddy Fender
Delta Waltz from the W. Original Film Score - Paul Cantelon
Robin Hood - Dick James
Deep in the Heart of Texas - Gene Autry
The Differencemaker from the W. Original Film Score - Paul Cantelon
What a Wonderful World - Eddy Arnold
Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller
War from the W. Original Film Score - Paul Cantelon
I'm Winging My Way Back to Home - Blackwood Brothers
With God on Our Side - Bob Dylan

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

and thus should fit nicely with the film I suspect

no "won't get fooled again" no cred

"once in a lifetime" in the trailer is like my top music-in-film moment of the year

Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys - Willie Nelson

Do you see? Oh good.

Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller

Needs to be featured in a scene where W. pees on the TX statehouse wall.

Hoberman asks, who cares? "The least-nuanced performance in a film full of cartoon characterizations is Brolin's Bush. A simian slob, modeled on Andy Griffith's raucous run-amok in A Face in the Crowd and given to bad-tempered pronouncements while stuffing his face, Brolin uses stupidity as a crucifix. He wards off sympathy as though it were a vampire...."

http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-10-15/film/oliver-stone-assigns-motive-to-dubya-s-m-o-in-w-but-at-this-point-who-cares-other-than-josh-brolin/

That's pretty much the exact impression the trailer gives.

comaplaining about the political timing/squandered potential "impact" of the movie seems kinda stupid.

True. But I think the bigger things to complain about here are the rush to get the first word in and then squandering that opportunity by doing a hack job that basically sounds like a superficial round-up of the already conventional wisdom and most-remembered moments.

I mean, the NYT profile of Stone describes an early cut where Bush was flying over Baghdad on a carpet. I'm guessing that's the version ppl here were panting to see.

Wasn't sure Armond would maintain his Stonelove, but he does:

http://nypress.com/21/42/film/ArmondWhite.cfm

comaplaining about the political timing/squandered potential "impact" of the movie seems kinda stupid.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, October 15, 2008 5:36 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i 100% agree

this is actually a much more chilled-out movie than you might expect. it also assumes you've made up your mind about the significance of the bush presidency and all he's been responsible for in favour of a smaller, character piece.

W. is the best example of American filmmaking courage since Munich.

ahahahahahah

I'm a bit disappointed that it ends before the second term.

I haven't the filmmaking courage to open the Armond review.

That is the stupidest Armond White review yet.

complaining about the public being unfair to Bush is pretty weird. Aesthetically, I don't have any problem with vilifying evil people. Armond seems to take issue with it for being "too easy" or something.

(and thus commends Stone for not taking the "easy" way out and attempting to make a more "balanced" portrait)

Think of how much more courageous Munich would have been if Eric Bana had stepped on a corn cob.

lolz

anyone who isn't excited by this song in the trailer is a damn fool is all im sayin, guys.

<3

seein this tonight!

yeah, and not really sure why I am so excited about it. i mean, i haven't even seen a trailer

thoroughly enjoyed this.

i've never been much of a stone fan but i liked it a lot. wonderful performances throughout — james cromwell especially — and surprisingly moving.

the only downer for me was that stone skipped the entire period between 1999 and 2002. leaving florida and 9/11 out of the bush story just seems wrong.

there is indeed a "go fuck yourself" but it went by so fast i couldn't tell whether it was from powell or cheney.

Powell

what a chore of a movie

long as fuck, not really gripping in any places

made me want a sandwich really bad though

Cheney says something about Iraq "fucking with us."

One historical inaccuracy I noticed: In a scene that was supposed to be set in 1990, W. complains to Bush Sr. that Bud Selig jerked him around about becoming baseball commissioner before deciding to take the position permanently himself. In 1990 the commissioner of baseball was Fay Vincent; Selig didn't replace him until two years later (as "acting commissioner") and did not become permanent until 1998.

congrats you have found the plot hole!

Hoberman asks, who cares?

Hoberman also shows his inattention to detail by saying W choked on a potato chip. The pretzel makers of America are now furious at him.

this was great. Thandie Newton's Condi was constant roflz

i really hated Thandie Newton's Rice. either Stone had her just play her as broadly as possible or Newton's not capable of anything better.

Shakey Armond Collier!

Does she get to say "I beleeeeve the name of the report was..."

couple minor things:

1) Armond's wrong about the corncob shot, its Dubya's host who steps on it, not Dubya. (Why this shot is in there at all is kinda inexplicable).
2) The exclusion of 9/11 is interesting. Partly because its absence directly implies that 9/11 had nothing to do with Dubya's motivations in office, and partly because maybe Stone didn't want to retread that ground...?

the Powell/Cheney exchange ref'd above is Cheney disappointedly telling Powell "you could've been president!" and Powell responds "fuck you."

remembering oliver stone's crazy conspiracy theorizing upon the occasion of 9/11, as reported in the new yorker, maybe he thinks it's safest to stay the fuck away from it.

it would've meant filming Nicholas Cage's firefighter embracing Josh Brolin on WTC wreckage.

i thought it was laura who stepped on the corncob! i figured it was just a 'wacky' way of introducing her.

is "stepping on the corncob" a frottage reference?

this movie has no plot

Welcome to the last eight years.

lol thats what it shouldve been called - i kept trying to imagine how baffling the movie wouldve been if youd never heard of george w bush

i was SHOCKED at how bad jeffrey wrights powell was - dude is usually so sweet

The real Powell did kill some people, you know.

i was SHOCKED at how bad jeffrey wrights powell was - dude is usually so sweet

:(

? What was wrong with the Powell performance?

Saying it has no plot is OTM though. The story is taken for granted and is framed as a light-handed, dual flashback series of vignettes. All the scenes are really short. here's no dramatic arc, no climax. I laughed my ass off though.

it was just that he didnt sound or act at all like colin powell

i thought it was laura who stepped on the corncob!

I don't think so - the shot immediately prior is of the hostess collaring George and walking through the backyard, then it cuts to a woman's sandal crushing the corncob, then back up to George seeing Laura.

I also enjoyed the preponderance of scenes involving people eating.

After watching Taxi to the Dark Side this weekend, I think it'll be a while before I can laugh at this presidency.

brolins bush is pretty hilarious

watching the cabinet meetings about the war is pretty harrowing.

brolin was great

totally left out the passive aggressive dick aspect of his persona tho

watching the cabinet meetings about the war is pretty harrowing.

I guess I have an outsized capacity for black humor then cuz when Cheney whipped out his Middle East Empire powerpoint presentation I was lolling hardcore

i was AMAZED at the size of josh brolins head

favorite moment: Dubya patting his dad on the shoulder saying "good President, good President" like you would to a dog after Poppy loses re-election

also earlier advising him to not think too much cause it just screws you up

I admit I was a little disappointed that Stone didn't go all the way with the Dubya-sees-God moment when he collapses during the jog. But it woulda been a little too comedic/over-the-top to have some silly Charlton Heston figure coming out of the clouds, I guess....

i went with a group of about six last night who were split down the middle w/r/t its merits. very much flawed - the Rice character & a couple of others were like mediocre SNL parodies. of course the daddy issues were beat to death. a lot of Bush's public verbal gaffes and infamous malaprops were clumsily reprised in the film's staff meetings - which themselves were equal parts lols & ;_;... but yeah the plot, as it were, was kind of threadbare.

Even so, i was definitely in the camp that ultimately enjoyed it. Dreyfus & Cromwell were great, as was whoever played Rumsfeld's daft ass. And I gotta say Brolin did a pretty surefooted job of evoking Dubya. Better than Travolta's "clinton" in Primary Colors, imho. one thing everyone agreed on is that it was just really, really sad. Too soon?

wo many xposts

yeah Wright's Powell was kind of weak.

I loved how all Rummy's lines were impenetrable pseudo-philosophical gibberish

and yeah for all the laughs it was pretty sad. ending shot was fantastic.

as was whoever played Rumsfeld's daft ass

The great Scott Glenn.

How was Karl Rove?

weirdly small, but good.

isn't it the dude from the non-phillip seymour hoffman Capote movie?

Yes.

i liked wright! i thought the scene where he's argued into supporting the war was great. and fuck you dick

every scene involving sports in this was so fucked up

- george bush choked on a pretzel while watching a dolphins/ravens playoff game on a sunday night, not on a saturday during a college game
- at the end of the movie when gwb supposedly swells with pride as the UT baseball team scores a run (we know this because the announcer says this) they are showing the univ of miami scoring (ryan bruan, in fact) on UT
- sammy sosa was still on the rangers in 1990, also bush wouldn't have regretted trading him until he broke out in 98

Why does Oliver Stone think Karl Rove is a gay, with all that flamboyant "fabulous" interjecting?

The way-not-drawn-to-scale map of teh world with a gigantic Iran dwarfing the rest of Asia that Cheney pulls down in the power-point was major lols, and Brolin was fine, but ultimately this movie was a hollow, forgettable dud. I'm glad the chihuahua beat it this wkend

sammy sosa was still on the rangers in 1990

No, he was on the White Sox, but you're right about the last part. The Sox traded him to the Cubs a year later for George Bell.

Why does Oliver Stone think Karl Rove is a gay, with all that flamboyant "fabulous" interjecting?

what? i don't think the movie was trying to portray him as gay at all.

i also lol'd at the Fox News caricatures jizzing all over themselves during the Mission Accomplished circus.

tho i hesitate to call them caricatures, as there was very little exaggeration going on.

haha ya. "women are LOVING him"

"could you imagine a Democrat doing that?! Of course not!"

The woman who plays Ann Coulter was brutally attacked in her home Monday morning.

UH

That was a pretty debbiedowner thing for me to do. Sorry. It's just all over the news here since she's a local anchorwoman.

damn. what was her name?

US TV anchorwoman Anne Pressly found badly beaten at home
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3sRmbkYztmZI0Nrt0KBPjomlK1AD93UQVQ02

SHE'S NOT PLAYING ANN COULTER.

sorry to shout but if i was this poor woman i'd shoot myself on top of being stabbed -- she is given a completely different name in the film, she is rather explicitly meant to be generic media bimbo, looks nothing like ann coulter, and if she was supposed to be ann coulter i'm pretty sure stone would've had the cajones to CALL her ann coulter considering that everyone else in the goddamned movie was a real person.

everyone and their brother in the media is referring to her as "arkansas's ann coulter" or having played ann coulter in the film -- it isn't true. quite frankly the 30 seconds we get with the character she did play bore no resemblance whatsoever to ms coulter besides a) having a vagina b) being blonde.

END OF RANT.

if only everyone watched this film as closely as jordan did.

Have we verified that Ann Coulter has a vagina?

Wait who stepped on the corn cob again?

I haven't seen the movie personally, but I had been told she played Ann Coulter.

I can't imagine Stone would want to get Coulter moist (or whatever chemical consequences are precipitated by her ego-ecstasy) by dramatizing her on the silver screen.

her adam's apple starts to throb

Was it done like the "Jack Rose" character in Any Given Sunday?

Scott McClellan on W.

I am half-joking, okay, but gee..why couldn't the real Ann Coulter be attacked? Is it because her robotic components would blow a fuze and explode

Oliver Stone hasn't made a profitable film at the BO since Born on the 4th of July. That's 19 years folks...when will it end

JFK, NBK, and Any Given Sunday all made money.

surely others did as well

From that McClellan article:

" The most unflattering portrayal was that of Condi Rice, caricatured by Thandie Newton as a mere yes–woman, which is excessively denigrating but not entirely without basis."

Ouch!

World Trade Center made $162 million.

[I should have said "v profitable" I sppose since I was referencing this: " Of the dozen films Stone has made over the last 20 years, only the earliest—Platoon, Wall Street, and Born on the Fourth of July—were huge hits in the United States" -> http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/arts/2008/10/16/W-the-Movie?PMID=alsoin/Bankrolling-W. He's had a terrible track record for almost 15 years now, but is in that minute group of directors that can keep getting their projects financed - by forgiving foreigners]

xpost Yeah but think of the cost in human life.

Also, just on a personal acct basis, he's a monstrous human being even by Hollywood standards - so it's hard for me to not cringe at his repeated opportunities for failure more so than those other directors

the foreigners are forgiving because his movies make money.

maybe his next topic can be The War on Drugs starring himself, and he'll never finish it

"monstrous"? why should I care what kind of a person he is? All his investors care about is whether the dough rolls in - doesn't matter if its dollars, pounds, sheckels, or yen

like lolz did you here Eric Von Stroheim was a sadist? Woody Allen married his daughter! Billy Wilder was a jerk! etc

" The most unflattering portrayal was that of Condi Rice, caricatured by Thandie Newton as a mere yes–woman, which is excessively denigrating but not entirely without basis."

Ouch!

the best scene she's in is when the they've all descended upon the ranch pre-strike and he's leading them down a dirt road, getting updates, handing out directives, etc. she's sort of jockeying for position, trying to walk right next to him as Rove, Cheney et al struggle to keep pace (or are just bored/ put out) with W.

and then he realizes he's misjudged their location. pretty funny.

x-post not over here. When his heavily promoted thing abt a super unpopular president opens 4th after a dog movie that's been around for 3 weeks and gets mixed-to-negative reviews, that's sad -

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

W.'s on-target debut (SUCH LOW EXPECTATIONS -> $10m) still doesn't mean the movie will recoup its $30M mil budget , plus $25M marketing costs that included a surprisingly aggressive TV ad campaign emphasizing the script's humor. True, Hollywood never bets the farm on political fiction pics because they usually don't attract crowds. Small budget Wag The Dog and Bullworth receved a lot of attention but not a lot of business. Studio pic Primary Colors disappointed. Stone's own JFK was wildly successful, but his Nixon underperformed. Of course, none of these pics were biopics about a sitting U.S. president. It also served the pic well that Lionsgate had experience with this kind of controversial film: it released Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 which went on to open with a $24M weekend from just 868 theaters, and an eventual worldwide total of $222M. W. won't be in that league.

I don't really get what your point is. A lot of his movies make money. This one may not. So what?

I'm not saying his investors care how he is personally - and perhaps YOU don't care but yes other ppl who work in the biz, or have to encounter him, clearly do: his reputation is legendary and more than a few wish him the schadenfreude that is only reserved for the most heinous characters (Shyamalan, Bay, Weinstein, etc)

seems like a nice guy imo

Shyamalan, Bay,

the difference is these guys make terrible movies, without exception. Weinstein's just an exec so I don't care about him one way or the other

and again, he's a jerk = so what?

so your point is that he is a hollywood director who is disliked by a lot of people. why do you care

xp

people give jerks money all the time. particularly if they tend to MAKE money.

x-post

Bay makes spectacles, not movies; I think more people would enjoy his work if they came to grips with that.

Shyamalan made several good movies before disappearing far up his own ass.

*cue glasses pic*

I've hated all Shamalamadingdong's movies but obviously opinions vary. I've only seen a couple of Bay's "spectacles" and did not enjoy either of them.

I really liked "Signs" and "The Sixth Sense" and I think "Bad Boys II" is one of the most entertaining things I've ever watched.

My point is just to express frustration that he'll continue to get funded, that's all. I haven't seen anything of his I didn't regret since JFK, probably - but I didn't even bother with Any Given Sunday

>why do you care

Whoa..why am I not allowed to make a point here without being barraged by this...do I really need to tell you the personal 1st and 2nd hand accts of why Oliver Stone is a douchebag (which go back to a Any Given Sunday screening in 2000 for me, actually) without just expressing that I think he sucks?

the rock was pretty dope. the rest of bay's stuff sucks big-time. i have heard ok things about the island though.

Shamalamadingdong

^^^^this needs to stop

(let's just say it has to do with his treatment of women and end it at that. oh and also underlings he works with. and abusive behavior. thanks)

spill!

when will it end

I liked "The Island" a ton, too. And yeah, "The Rock" for life.

Shamalamadingdong

^^^^this needs to stop

― horseshoe, Tuesday, October 21, 2008 2:59 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

shakey mo on some "barack obamamamamamamama" shit

You Would Like To Be The Next M. Night Shamalamadingdong, But Your Blues Aren't Blue Enough And Sarah Michelle Won't Return Your Calls. Quick! What Nursery Rhyme Will You Use In Your Next Highly Deri

why am I not allowed to make a point here without being barraged by this...do I really need to tell you the personal 1st and 2nd hand accts of why Oliver Stone is a douchebag (which go back to a Any Given Sunday screening in 2000 for me, actually) without just expressing that I think he sucks?

you're allowed to make whatever point you want but not being able to separate an artist from his work seems like a bit of a stumbling block when it comes to properly evaluating film/music/art/whatever.

I mean Phil Spector's a wifebeater and a murderer, does that make "Be My Baby" a bad song?

phil spectordectorshmector

When you say "this needs to stop," do you mean corrupting his onerously pronounced name, or just him as a person...he just needs to STOP and spare us all? Because that's near-unanimous now

speaking of treatment of women, why was only Condi Rice the ridic. character in the cabinet, almost thrown in there for comic relief ? It became so atonal - and didn't really add anything except random lols

I think Elizabeth Banks did the best she had to work with

x-post I think Stone is despicable enough on a personal level, and he puts so much of him in his films (admirable at times) anyway, that it's harder for me to make the separation. But I still somewhat admire JFK (or rather, its editing)

shakey mo wanted to rape rachel ray, does that make "lol moar liek m night shamalamadingdong amirite" a bad post? wait, don't answer that

keep it up ethan

fightin the good fight

i bet rachel ray would put up a good fight, amirite

ethan

Shakey can't you just chill and leave it at why I may hate Oliver Stone for reasons you don't know, and that I am AWARE that that affects my discussion of his work, rather than bringing innocent, wonderful "Be My Baby" into this? Let's just go back to talking about the movie

ethananamadingdong

when i said "this needs to stop" i meant unfunny jokes about how INSANE shyamalan's name is. making fun of his movies seems pretty obligatory.

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,770 for "m night shamalamadingdong". (0.21 seconds)

SEE THIS HACKERY NEEDS TO BE STOPPED. GAH!

is everyone just really hungry or something

no, "shamalamadingdong" always makes me twitch.

Results 1 - 10 of about 458,000 for "this needs to stop". (0.25 seconds)

it's not going to stop til you wise up

fair enough

speaking of treatment of women, why was only Condi Rice the ridic. character in the cabinet, almost thrown in there for comic relief ?

um, everybody in the cabinet was pretty ridiculous/comic relief. I noted above that every single Rummy line was incoherent pseudo-philosophical babble. "Turdblossom" was totally obsequious, Cheney villainish, etc.

everyone in the cabinet was kind of a caricature, but also kind of human, except for Rice. i also thought Laura Bush was insufficiently characterized, but what are you going to do?

is J. Edgar Hoover in this?

everyone in the cabinet was kind of a caricature, but also kind of human, except for Rice.

really? how were Rumsfeld and Ari Fleisher "humanized"?

yeah, he plays barbara bush

yes he plays jenna bush

lol xp

i guess i think the performances were more than caricatures. all thandie newton did was mug. dreyfuss mugged + was believable as a person. an awful, disgusting person, but still.

with laura bush i just didn't really get why she liked him. maybe she felt sorry for him?

Mugging isn't always a pejorative.

okay, but i thought thandie newton sucked.

Lots of great performances in Stone movies consist of lots of mugging.

i'm not saying condoleeza rice has not been a yes-man for this administration; i just would have liked more from the movie than easy laughs at her face + voice.

Lots of great performances in Stone movies consist of lots of mugging.

best example is Tommy Lee Jones playing the warden as Daffy Duck in NBK (tho "great" might be going a little far)

NBK is the last Stone movie I saw, I think.

or basically anyone in JFK!

dreyfus + brolin both gave great performances that consisted of a lot of mugging; i know what you guys mean. newton sucked.

nohn bitzgerald kennedy

Joe Pesci in JFK = great performance that's completely absurd.

JFK is definitely the single most entertaining Stone flick

i called this movie a long time ago:

Atta was in my Illuminati group. I taught him everything. He was a wannabe. No one liked him. Thought he was a snitch. But I treated him good. He wanted his kid to grow up with a chance. My neck is killing me. I've had cancer for years. Been working with mice to find a cure. You don't leave the neocons. Once you're in, they got you for life. Chertoff's an untouchable. Highest clearance. Chertoff, Atta, Al Qaeda, all Agency. Cheney was there from the start. Set up Texas Al Qaeda. Ran guns to Saddam when he was on our side. Saddam was almost with us till we tried to whack him.

Everybody keeps flipping sides. It's fun and games, man! The neocons and Al Qaeda worked together for years trying to take down those towers. There's more to this than you could dream! Check out something called "Operation Liberty Tower." Big time project. They're in charge. But who pulls whose chain? Who knows? "Oh, what a deadly web we weave when we practice to deceive." Who took down the towers?? Why didn't you fucking stop it? Shit! This is too big for you, you know that? Who did the towers?? Fuck! It's a mystery! It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! The hijackers don't even know! Don't you get it? Fuck, man! I can't keep talking like this!

-- gear (gear), Saturday, September 16, 2006 5:42 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

we've really needed you here.

This was a fairly banal and gratuitous film; all I really learned is that W drinks Dr Pepper and O'Doul's. Someone shd do a good remix of the pretzel seen tho.

Thandie got big yuks on the UWS with her Condi lampoon, but she was in a different movie.

It was odd that one of the few scenes where we got the Old Oliver Stone was the big Cheney explains the Persian Gulf meeting, cuz it was more like Dreyfuss was playing a Bond villain. (but Dick was right -- we ain't *leaving*, and this means O)

i came out of this movie ready to punch someone

rather ambiguously stated

Thandie... was in a different movie

^^otm

the real Condi looked and sounded Newton-esque during her post-election press conference.

I think I would've preferred the movie Thandie was in.

This was a bunch of bullshit.

yeah this was really terrible

eh. I lolled

I laughed through JFK and still do. This was even as funny as a "Saturday Night Live" sketch. Poor Richard Dreyfuss -- he thought he was playing Donald Sutherland.

no, DR NO

*wasn't even as funny, I meant

It really felt like a made for TV movie. I'm not sure how much of that is related to the fact these scenes and issues are so current, though.

Great thread. Kermit the Frog's "Once in a Lifetime" completes some kind of life circle.

I think this is Oliver Stone's best film. It's his first since Salvador where I feel like there's something genuinely at stake in the drama of the lead performance, and it's odd how Hoberman didn't see Brolin's Bush as sympathetic, because this is the only Stone film that's really about a character. The key scene, edited for comedy in the previews but not funny, is Bush not being able to answer a question at a press conference about what he would do differently if given the chance. The entire movie is about why he can't think that way, what would lead him to not be able to think that way.

Seeing this and then reading that article in Harper's about conservative evangelicals in the military was sobering. Hoberman seems to miss how much certain kinds of faith can enable shortcuts past thought, including too much reflection about one's own corruption, and how corruption and zealous idealism can intertwine, and enhance each other.

I do think the performance has less charm than the real Bush, but Laura's love seems based on both sensing vulnerability and rooting for that unwavering, confident side. Maybe the sports inaccuracies (the most easily checkable of facts!) are added as a layer of "hey it's just a movie" faerie dust, in the way that nobody seemed to mind JFK's monumental slander of Lydon Johnson because it was such a fool paranoid worldview clogged with inaccuracies anyway. But W. says something true about Bush amid make-believe, and Cheney's ultimate-strategy speech is a great moment--and you can imagine something like that probably happened.

I even like the Condi performance--she looks like she's constantly struggling with the intelligence gap between her and her president, and her own short-cutting of reflections about corruption. You can see a continuum of irresponsibility from this through Generation Kill, Ugly American certitude down the food chain, that's probably something like the real-life latticework of U.S. power.

because this is the only Stone film that's really about a character.

this is an interesting point, probably true (except for the Doors, maybe?)

ya i thought this was fucking awful, didn't even get past the 1st hour tbh, and it stopped getting any lols after first half hour. i think that's when i started to realize that, 'wow, this is actually a full length feature?" it totally felt like a made for tv movie.

trailers were GREAT tho, many lols

should've just stuck to those

tbf i really like josh brolin tho and he did an okay job

i didn't like it, but it's not awful.

I was tempted to watch this to complete my "Brolin in Texas" trilogy after seeing Planet Terror and No Country for Old Men.

See I saw it as part of a "Brolin-as-creepy-bad-guy" trilogy with American Gangster and Milk.

"Oliver Stone ran into Bill Clinton in China. Clinton told Oliver that he had loaned Bush his DVD copy of 'W.' He said W liked it very much. He said W thought there were sad moments."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/t-magazine/02well-cover.html

G.W. Bush was a totally lovable dude in this movie. It made me see why people voted for him.

wtf at Jonah Hex movie

also WTF had no idea he was in RKL that's bizarre

I assume this is in the Josh Brolin interview and that RKL is a film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfrngGUr_j8

RKL = Rich Kids on LSD. they were a band.

god do people even remember this movie? brolin is a big star, and i feel like no one even remembers that he played the sitting president of the united states in an oliver stone film.

he's not really that big of a star; viz. oldboy

this movie was completely forgettable is the issue. toothless and forgettable

Case in point. I'd completely forgotten about it until the thread was bumped.

there was one good part of this movie

it was when bush and advisors are debating something in the oval office. suddenly a grumpy voice mutters something and stone either cuts away or pans over and it's revealed that cheney was there all along, standing against the wall

haha wasn't it, like, richard dreyfuss, too?

yup, he's grimacing and kind of hunched over

stone should have made a biopic of that dude

"loving husband, trusting parent, the greatest threat to the ideals he purports to believe in"

Cate Blanchett as Bono

― nickalicious, Thursday, March 27, 2008

should have been more scenes anticipating post-presidency visual art techniques/aesthetics

should have had george senior discussing being a sock man and saying "bieb"

bump

this one was pretty good

it was innnnnnteresting but 'good' is a bump too far

could've used more laughs but it was oddly sympathetic. well, as sympathetic as you could be to a congenital idiot with daddy issues that ruined the country.

i think at the time it came out it felt kind of weird and jolting to see a sympathetic take on GWB. dunno if it's 'good' or worth a revisit but it kinda stayed with me more than i expected.

I thought this was v good - unusually restrained for Stone, and it felt small in scope almost to the point of claustrophobia, it's primarily concerned with this weird hermetically sealed environment that Dubya exists in and in that sense it was very good at teasing out his motivations and internal conflicts even when he (submoron that he is) was totally oblivious to them.

has anyone watched stone's 'untold history' miniseries from a year or so ago?

yeah they're the fuckin bomb. Episode 6 about the Cuban Missile Crisis was incredible. they're edited at a ridiculous pace for TV documentaries though, that would be my one small gripe.

I liked W. I do wish there were more scenes of bush and his cabinet wandering through wilderness. Love love love the visual portrayal of Rove, he looks like a fucking Dilbert character or something.

it's primarily concerned with this weird hermetically sealed environment that Dubya exists in and in that sense it was very good at teasing out his motivations and internal conflicts

Yeah, otm.

gimme a fucking break this was fucking terrible, like a fucking 2 hour unfunny SNL skit

i also think it's an insanely difficult and probably futile task to sucessfully portray public figures who have the level of visibility of bush, et al. while they are still in office running the country. just ends looking like bad impressions and bad makeup regardless of how good the acting is

I watched this again because of this thread--third or fourth time. I don't like it that much, but for the same reasons other people level at Nixon, which I do. The only performances that work for me are Posey, Cromwell, and Dreyfuss; everybody else seems grotesque, especially Brolin and Newton.

brolin is on letterman right now and is pretty hilarious. he's kind of awesomely handsome right now; getting a bit of a ronald colman vibe from him these days.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Ronald_Colman_-_publicity.jpg

he plays hard-bitten working-class characters so often (maybe because of his weathered face and physique?) but his own speaking voice and cadences have a faintly dandyish quality.

no love for josh brolin hm

i'm a brolin fan. he's always had some great presence, i think i first noticed it for real when he owned russell crowe and denzel washington in their shared 'american gangster' scenes.

i hope he's dealt with his alcohol problem. that made me sad.

lookin sharp

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/11/13/1415839588362_Image_galleryImage_Picture_Shows_Josh_Brolin.JPG

Terrific in Inherent Vice.

big ups to brolin, lol.

has anyone seen W since 2008? i feel like it would be really weird to see again.

Everyone was so mad about Bush back then, hard to remember what the big deal was

wasn't a Democrat

hard to remember what the big deal was

O rly? Go back and take another look at the Iraq War, at waterboarding & Abu Ghraib & 'dark sites', and at the financial crisis that almost brought down the world. Even before 9/11, go back and look at his inheriting a budget surplus and promptly turning it into a huge deficit via tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%. That fucker ruined whatever he touched.

he doesn't deserve mere ironic dismissal into the memory hole. our red-hot contempt should never be allowed to fade away.

hard to remember what the big deal was

this is an insane thing to say.

this was on netflix last summer so i watched it for the first time since seeing it in the theater. it seemed...oddly slight. considering the characters, the stakes, the fact that it was a dude tackling a sitting president, etc. i am not an oliver stone hater -- thought at his best i think he only rises to the level of enjoyable batshit melodrama -- but it lacked even the a-cokehead-reads-the-nation intensity that gives his crappy work some verve.

many xps

2008 feels like yesterday. At first I thought silby meant what was the big deal about the movie. Bush years cast a long shadow. Feels like we're still in them. The movie is slight bc it was rushed: principal photography started in May 2008 (!!)

doesn't feel like yesterday to me - sometimes I remember that Dubya was President for two terms and it feels vaguely unreal

in part because even with Obama's massive flaws, it feels like we've made real strides on important things (gay marriage, abortion rights isn't purely on the defensive, people actually talk and care about police brutality/personal rights/privacy, etc.) vs the nadir of the Bush years that felt like the end of anything positive happening

also because he nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, how the fuck did that ever make it past more than a couple of interns spitballing names

Harriet Miers looks like Virginia Woolf compared to Kellyanne Conway and Donald Trump.

karl rove looks like he was drawn by garry treudeau or berkeley breathed

(in this film)

This is Stone's last good film. Cast is great, scope is tightly focused.

waiting for Brolin to play Rick Perry in a biopic

"thought at his best i think he only rises to the level of enjoyable batshit melodrama"

i swear i am not a chuck palahniuk fansite moderator when i say: natural born killers was something more than this. i have no idea if it was him at his best and it was certainly batshit, but that was some sort of cinematic something or other that was very memorable on the big screen.

i still feel like he doesn't get enough credit for the use of SOUND in that movie. and i never understood why more people didn't follow his lead. it was a true sensurround experience. i was totes impressed at the time.

kinda didn't need another 20+ year of IT'S THE MEDIA DO YOU SEE???? after that one. but what are ya gonna do?

(although part of me feels like he just saw wild at heart and said to himself: i can top that!)

nbk is definitely...an experience. it's like an american takashi miike movie.

also one of the few movies where i like the extended cut more. if only for the shot of tommy lee jones's head on a spike.

I like Stone in batshit epic mode, The Doors, JFK, NBK, Nixon. I've never seen W, but if it's like that, I'd definitely see it.

and as far as 90's heads in duffel bags go, i think U Turn is kinda underrated.

plus, the cast of U Turn is just ridiculous. where is the behind the scenes footage of jon voight, billy bob, nick nolte, and sean penn hangin' with j-lo?