Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

lbhalos17 Aside from the acting, this is a laughable movie on just about every level.The President (un-elected) overrides every fail-safe, in spite of being advised otherwise including the legality of taking such action, to drop an atomic bomb on Iraq.The President finds himself in a diner, trying to negotiate with the Iraqi leaders while using an interpreter who hasn't been properly trained or vetted. He takes time to ask the opinions of people in the diner as time runs-out.At one point, the cook in the diner pulls-out his shotgun (which wasn't discovered by the weapons- search conducted by the Presidents' Secret Service detail of two) and shoots the Airman carrying the "football," injuring him. As he continues to point it at the wounded Airman, the two Secret Service agents allow him to fire a second round before ending his threat (with a now-empty double-barrel shotgun).The ending is just dumbfounding... Apparently the President, along with the French President, are the only two who KNOW that the weapons they sold to Iraq are dummies and won't arm. This is played-out as a great winning scheme by the President, as he nukes Iraq while watching their dummies fall fairly harmlessly in neighboring countries.I think this could've been a very good movie, had it been based more on fact than just the silly twist at the end. The bottom-line is that the President NEVER needed to drop a nuke on Iraq; he KNEW they were mostly defenseless. The world would probably stand behind a President who called their bluff. Then, they could easily be dealt with conventionally.

ealbanoski When I first saw this movie, I was taken aback by the originality of the screenplay. Fact is stranger than fiction, and in Lurie's script, he achieved a fine balance of technical expertise and bizarre plot twists. If you've ever wished you were a fly on the wall of a secret meeting regarding major life and death decision-making, then this movie is going to give you the ride you've been looking for. Kevin Pollak is phenomenal as the President, doing his best to do what is right in a very bad situation. He's very believable and leads us to believe in his rationale through his passion and understanding of the issues at the heart of this film. Sean Astin plays an irritant to everyone and nails the part, so much so you want to be the one to knock him out with one punch as the movie progresses. Timothy Hutton is brilliant in playing the President's adviser Marshall Thompson, who meticulously injects his strong opinions without upstaging Pollak's wonderful performance. The rhythm and tempo both actors maintain throughout is flawless. This movie was the sleeper of the year and proved that sometimes fiction can be as compelling as truth, given the right actors, a good solid script and competent directing. Therefore, I rate it 9 out of ten stars.

thomasmoore-1 One day a United States President will have to make this choice. This movie has the potential of fiction turning reality of any movie before its time. While the idea of using a nuclear device is something that no one wants, with the evil that plagues this world, this decision will be made. My only hope is that if this happens, it is for the right reason, (Such as facilitating the end of World War II.) Kevin pollack is very believable as a president, Timothy Hutton and and Sheryl Lee Ralph make for convincing advisers. And as a side note, the opening of the movie in black and white was a very nice touch, graphically. As far as the drawbacks, Sean Astin is usually very good, but his character was atrocious. This is a must watch for anyone to see how the world can change in the matter of hours. This has quickly become one of my favorite movies of all time. Watch this movie!

jbf-5 In order for a techno-thriller to work, it must at least be plausible enough for us to be willing to suspend belief. This film has absolutely no feel or understanding of even the most basic features of its subject matter. It tries to fake credibility while throwing around ridiculous non-facts such as a 100 megaton bomb, a B2 stealth bomber being casually tracked by Iraqi radar, a TV communications satellite that somehow is equipped with not only a real time TV camera but one that films ground level shots. When the movie shows a clip of the B2, we instead see an F-117 which looks absolutely nothing like a B2. The super duper satellite (actually just one of a small constellation of satellites the TV network supposedly owns) seems to be able to warp back 50 years at will because it captures familiar black and white footage that is obviously from one of the early H-bomb test in the Pacific Ocean. This is more remarkable still as the explosion is supposed to be taking place in the middle of a desert.The President and his advisors are playing out their full intercontinental nuclear game of brinksmanship in a little over an hour, and yet still have time to chat up the morons repeatedly at length in the diner. For some inexplicable reason the morons, including one gun toting one, have not been sent packing by the Secret Service but instead are allowed to butt into and sidetrack negotiations between heads of state in which tens of millions of lives are at stake. The only moron who is even mildly rebuked is a ludicrous right wing homophobic bigoted anti-Semite cardboard character of the sort only a Hollywood provincial pinhead could believe exists out there in fly-over land.All these features seem to be in the film to give it heft and credibility so that it can go about preaching some kind of demented apocalyptic message to us. In the course of their proselytizing, the films writers have their President off handily incinerate a large city of mostly innocents in order to demonstrate what a peace loving mensch he is.Alfred Hitchcock thought that actors were some of God's dumbest creatures. He obviously never met any of the writers, producers, or director of this film.