Vice (2018)

I lean so far left that I struggle to stand upright and maintain an open mind. But a bad movie is a bad movie, I don't care which side of history it is on.

VICE is an uneven and dishonest mess, a real disappointment from director Adam McKay, who did such a fine job with THE BIG SHORT.

Other reviewers-- amateur and professional-- have raked VICE's many flaws over the coals. I'll reduce my complaint to one glaring omission which brings into focus how tendentious this movie is:

We are shown the NYTimes editorial by Joseph Wilson that angered the White House into retaliating: someone (the movie blames Cheney, which is plausible) leaks the fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA agent, blowing her cover.

The Times may have been innocent in "Plamegate," but it, and nearly all of mainstream media, has blood on its hands for having supported the Administration's blatantly false claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Cheney alone isn't responsible for the invasion of Iraq-- far from it-- yet that is what McKay very clearly implies, leaving the media off the hook.We shouldn't forgive the media, or McKay for giving the Times a pass.

On the upside, Christian Bale's performance is as close to a perfect imitation as I can imagine, and Sam Rockwell brings expert comic subtlety to his portrayal of Bush II.

Fmovies: I can't say anything that's already been said. Christian Bale is phenomenal as always, continuing to prove that he may be the best actor working today (props for not using a fat suit GARY OLDMAN). Adam McKay thinks we are all idiots and thinks he's a genius. I think this type of humor and edge paid off in The Big Short but it felt wrong in a film that emphasized Cheney's influence on the deaths of thousands of innocent people. The post credit scene has gotta be the worst one in history, it's not funny and it made it even clearer that McKay thinks so lowly of his audience. Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carrell, Sam Rockwell, Naomi Watts(!) how do you assemble such an outstanding crew of actors and fail to blow away your audience?

I was really looking forward to this movie for a long time and for a variety of reasons, despite my aversion to Dick Cheney and his policies. I love the cast as well as satire/dark humor, and loved "The Big Short" (which I saw in theaters in 2015 and rated a 9 out of 10.) A dark satire about an unpopular and infamous vice president was always going to be a difficult task to pull off, but I was not expecting anything near the startling failure that this film turned out to be. I genuinely can't believe that this film turned out to be such a mess.

First and foremost, the editing in the film is simply horrendous. I understand that McKay wanted to do this film in an unconventional style, which I normally would support given that the conventional tropes of the biopic genre have grown stale and old. However, the film's juxtaposition of quick cuts is too jarring for even the most seasoned viewers to keep straight. Sometimes the use of quick cuts is necessary (i.e. war footage,) but other times it is questionable (repeated analogous or symbolic references) or completely ridiculous. The film's perceived self-awareness is all over the place, trying to make itself seem more comedic and dumbed down at times, as if the viewer needed to be punished, and its often-bizarre narration is just silly. The acting tends to weirdly alternate between being overdone and undercooked--which is truly puzzling given the film's outstanding cast.

Also, McKay failed to understand this time how to deliver stark political commentary without seeming schlocky or over-the-top (a la Michael Moore and Oliver Stone.) Speaking of Moore and Stone, the film is essentially a love child of both of their filmographies--and that's not always a good thing. The reason is because the film seems to not always be concerned with proper presentation of facts. I'm a lifelong Democrat and no fan of Cheney myself, and while much of the film is likely accurate, some of it probably is not (which the film seems to inadvertently acknowledge as it commences) or presented misleadingly. The bizarre editing also causes grave damage to the possibility that more viewers will see the film as credible. And while the film will certainly infuriate liberals, it not only offers no commentary on solutions on how to best move on from Cheney's (and now Trump's) worldview--it explicitly feels solely like preaching to the choir from beginning to end. While McKay rightly criticizes Fox News in the film for its use of schlocky, highly biased and opinionated information, he fails to understand that sometimes his film feels like a liberal version of a Fox News broadcast rather than a more thorough and potent critique of Cheney. After the outstanding "The Big Short," I'm truly puzzled that this film turned out this bad. 3/10

Vice fmovies. This film is held together by some truly outstanding performances (Bale and Adams, in particular). It will no doubt be compared to writer/director Adam McKay's film adaptation of The Big Short. But while that story covered just a couple years, Vice spans nearly 4 decades, significantly more difficult to fit into a 2 hour film.

McKay's use of a narrating character is sometimes helpful in providing context and continuity, though I think it worked better in The Big Short.

As a bio-pic, Vice does a good job of capturing Cheney's drive for power and his devotion to his family. Complicated people are generally difficult to depict in film, but McKay and the team he assembled gave it an effort worthy of some awards.

I found some of the editing a bit quirky to the point of distraction, but I definitely recommend seeing it. Be sure and stay to the end.

After I first saw the trailer for this film, I wasn't expecting such a funny, yet unsettling film. Christian Bale plays Dick Cheney, an intelligent man whose thirst for power sees him become the most influential American Vice-President ever. Bale's performance is commendable, but Vice's supporting cast - consisting of Amy Adams, Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell - complete the movie. Writer and Director Adam McKay brought this true story of power (and it's abuse) and politics to life with his unique perspective, and the skilled editing makes this film all the more enjoyable. In my opinion, Vice is a must-see film of 2018. 9/10

I was able to see this at an advanced screening. What got me excited to go see Vice, along with the stellar trailer, was Adam McKay's involvement as the writer/director. His work on the Big Short was amazing and he's shown a lot of growth as a filmmaker. This was a big subject and with his ability to explain complicated issues, I was sure I was in for something memorable. I left the theatre impressed with the fact that he was able to replicate his style in Vice. He has the unique explanations and jokes down pat and while I wanted even more, the movie kept me entertained throughout with lots of laughs and some gripping drama.

With McKay being a famous democrat supporter, do you think he was a big fan of Dick Cheney (played here by Christian Bale)? The movie is definitely of the mind that he's a manipulative force that cares little for humanitarian solutions to terrible problems throughout the world as opposed to a patriotic visionary. But despite that, I was shocked that the movie tried to give Cheney some humanity through his interactions with his daughter Mary (Alison Pill). He also has a couple of tender moments with his wife Lynne (Amy Adams). I read interviews that McKay did where the question was if his movie about Cheney would be poorly received by both sides of the American political aisle. Is it too harsh for conservatives but too light for liberals? I think this is accurate, Cheney is sculpted throughout the movie he starts out as a dolt but slowly grows into his role and develops fangs of his own. It may be too middle ground for some, but I thought they played it almost right. Cheney's ending monologue shows how he really feels about his legacy (its right out of the House of Cards playbook and it was the best moment of the movie for me) but I'll credit McKay for holding back a little bit as opposed to going for the jugular.

If the subject matter doesn't immediately catch your eye, maybe the star-studded cast will. Christian Bale stars as our protagonist Dick Cheney, he's a total chameleon and I honestly forgot I was watching someone performing as Dick Cheney. The awards and accolades he's going to get for this are well deserved. The supporting cast are equally up to the task, Amy Adams does a wonderful job as Lynne. She's a veteran and she is owed just as much credit as her male co-stars for taking what could be a forgettable part and doing a lot with it. I thought Sam Rockwell did a more understated job as George W. Bush than I expected. He plays up Bush's confusion and ignorance, but his portrayal isn't as malicious, and I think he was great. Steve Carell has turned into an elite dramatic actor, he gets the job done here, I think he has the least amount of meat to his part but he's solid. There were lots of recognizable faces in cameo and brief supporting parts, some of my favourites were Jesse Plemons, Alfred Molina, Tyler Perry, Alison Pill, Naomi Watts and Don McManus.

I'm happy to keep showering this movie with praise but I also didn't completely fall in love with it. The first third to half of the movie can drag, it contains a lot of pertinent information about Dick and Lynne Cheney and while there are moments, there were stretches where I was waiting for it to pick up the pace. Vice has the wild sense of style that I wanted from it, with the cutaways for jokes and visual representations and they brought the laughs. I just wanted more of that in Vice. The trailer for this movie portrays Vice as a straight comedy, this movie also packs a