{"id":253,"date":"2011-10-21T00:09:49","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T00:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/movieox.com\/?p=253"},"modified":"2012-01-25T05:22:42","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T05:22:42","slug":"ides-of-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/?p=253","title":{"rendered":"Ides of March"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quick version: Ides of March<\/em> does not suck, but neither is it awesome.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t liked it as much as other films Clooney has directed.\u00a0 Probably because it didn\u2019t have as sharp a plot as his past efforts.\u00a0 Good Night and Good Luck<\/em> was more than just a biopic; it was a sharp and biting indictment of a media that has become the force it was supposed to monitor.\u00a0 Confessions of a Dangerous Mind<\/em> was a hell of a spy movie that may or may not (probably not but still) be trueish.\u00a0 It was wonderfully demented.\u00a0 Leatherheads<\/em> was about how professional football (as a stand in for all sports) got where it is today.\u00a0 These are all fine films.<\/p>\n

Ides of March<\/em> is a political thriller and that is a difficult genre in which to raise eyebrows.\u00a0 Because: A: there are already several good political thrillers that are based on actual events.\u00a0 All the Kings Men, Primary Colors <\/em>and all that.\u00a0 2:\u00a0 Even if you make up a story you\u2019ll still be judged against the likes of The Contender <\/em>and Bullworth<\/em>.\u00a0 The field is rather packed.\u00a0 Also, all those films mentioned also have awesome endings.\u00a0\u00a0 And D:\u00a0 a bunch of films also use a political thriller element but also have a meaty spy story or a classic courtroom scene.\u00a0 So, if you want to make a film that\u2019s just about the intrigue of a presidential campaign; it needs to be juicy.<\/p>\n

Ides of March<\/em> isn\u2019t that juicy.\u00a0 It has an excellent cast that acts excellently.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got no problem with any particular piece of the picture; it\u2019s just that when they\u2019re all put together it\u2019s all rather tame and uninteresting.<\/p>\n

The sexual scandal doesn\u2019t seem all that scandalous to me.\u00a0 Sad?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 Would it ruin someone\u2019s presidential campaign?\u00a0 Yeah.\u00a0 Does the film make me care?\u00a0 \u2026No.<\/p>\n

There needs to be something more at stake than a bunch of politician\u2019s careers.\u00a0 I think the Clooney character is supposed to be the one man who can fix the U.S.; but they don\u2019t establish that well.\u00a0 He\u2019s a broad liberal candidate whose speeches are just lists of generic sound bites.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not really clear what the salvation would be (unless you\u2019re one of those folks whose worse nightmare is a Republican president; if that\u2019s the case you\u2019ll be on the edge of your seat) or why this guy is different.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take Bullworth<\/em> for example.\u00a0 That film made very clear why and how the titular candidate was different from his competition.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s missing from Ides of March<\/em>; there\u2019s nothing to tell us what if anything is actually at stake; other than some white dudes\u2019 jobs.<\/p>\n

But well acted, you won\u2019t be disappointed on that score.\u00a0 This is a solid rental.<\/p>\n

But if you like political thrillers rent The Contender<\/em> first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quick version: Ides of March does not suck, but neither is it awesome. I haven\u2019t liked it as much as other films Clooney has directed.\u00a0 Probably because it didn\u2019t have as sharp a plot as his past efforts.\u00a0 Good Night … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272,"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}