REVIEW BY DAVE SMITH
This movie is a disappointing mish-mash. It is made even more disappointing
because the subject matter has the potential to be a great movie. Emilio Estevez means well, but the fact is he is not a director
nor a writer. He has tried to direct before (Wisdom, Men at Work and The War at Home). None of these films met with
much success. This attempt is exacerbated by his attempt to also write the screenplay. The result is a script full of
cliches and trite dialogue.
Another point of frustration is that Estevez has put together a wonderful cast of
extremely competent actors who are thrust into situations which are predictable and artificial and who must mouth lines
which are amateurishly written. The cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, William H. Macy, Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher,
Helen Hunt, Laurence Fishburne, Elijah Wood, Harry Belafonte and of course his father, Martin Sheen. How did he manage to get all these
big names to do this film? Well first he must have put up a sign at the casting call...NO CONSERVATIVES NEED APPLY. It is well
known that one of the leading liberal families in Hollywood is the Sheen/Estevez family...not that there is anything wrong with
that! But it is a shame to see all that talent wasted.
Hopkins and Belafonte for instance, have nothing to do but play
chess and talk about growing old. Neither are effectively worked into the story. Other situations are so predictable, it's
just not any fun trying to guess what's going to happen. Will Lindsay Lohan actually fall in love with Elijah Wood whom she
is marrying just to keep him out of Vietnam? Of course she will! Will Sharon Stone forgive her cheating husband (William Macy)? Of course she will!
Will everyone featured in this movie be somehow involved with Bobby Kennedy's assassination? Of course they will...even though
many of them will only have close-up shots of their faces registering an appropriate look of horror.
The primary reason to see this
film is to see and hear Bobby Kennedy. The film features many shots of Kennedy and a number of his speeches. It is a
revelation to hear what he says knowing that he most likely would have been president if it weren't for his untimely
death.