egoeccentric: oliver stone

Oliver Stone rushes out a biopic of the buffoon president of the USA. Barrel of laughs, surely?

Pros

Josh Brolin turns in an excellent performance as dubaya, getting everything from his voice to his inane winks and grins just right.
Many of the supporting characters are quite strong- particularly James Cromwell who resists the temptation of turning in a cheap impersonation of Bush Senior.
The film's tone is generally that of a serious biopic, rather than the all-out pisstake it might have been. And comes off better for it.
Bush is humanised. Much as we all love to hate the guy, he is a human being after all- and it's nice to see his public persona being put into perspective.
That said, the film doesn't treat him with kid gloves. Far from it.
I don't know what goes on inside the White House, but I'm inclined to agree with the movie's assertion that Dick Cheney is, in all likelihood, the devil.

Cons

At over two hours, the film is a tough slog. Granted, there was a lot of material to fit in, and a lot left out, but it's still too bloody long.
And to be honest, it's a bit boring too.
Several members of the supporting cast do churn out crappy caricatures. Tony Blair is wince inducing; and while Condoleeza Rice may be a bitch, she's not a cartoon character.
Some moments really jar with the tone. The inclusion of several 'Bushisms' reeks of effort, and these moments don't sit well with the apparent sincerity of the rest of the movie.
Fair enough, it's not a satire (even though it was kinda advertised as one), but if not- then what exactly is it? For a while I thought it was about a man living in his father's shadow, but that storyline doesn't really go anywhere... so after watching the entire thing I am still none the wiser.

An admirable effort from Stone to paint a full picture of Bush rather than simply take cheap shots at him. It's not what many people will expect, and it certainly won't be liked by everyone- after all, no one wants to think of Bush as human.

So boring as the film may be, it's nice to see that Stone isn't making the same mistake as W. himself by assuming everything is either black or white.

Oliver Stone takes on George W. Bush

Having already delivered a biopic of Richard Nixon, and famously addressing the Kennedy assassination with 'JFK', Director Oliver Stone is about to return his to the American Presidency, and this time his subject will be moron-extraordinaire George W. Bush.

Simply titled 'W', filming is due to commence in the next few weeks, with No Country For Old Men's Josh Brolin playing the titular idiot. As can been seen from the pic above, Brolin may not be as strange a casting choice as one might think. Don't worry, apparently the Bush-bashing we'll all expect will be present, with several amoosing scenes of GW's famous stupidity.

Plans are to knock the film out in record speed- it's expected to hit the screens before Bush leaves office, and possibly even for the election run-up. Lets hope Stone keeps true to his style and pulls no punches...