Directed by Jay Roach
(R)
**
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Will Ferrell’s broad new political comedy “isn’t in the business” of providing sharp insights, said Rafer Guzmán in Newsday. “Its main message is that politics pretty much makes fun of itself,” so the movie “scores its biggest laughs when its stars merely act like real politicians.” Ferrell offers a “flawless John Edwards impersonation” in the lead role, said Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post. As a “handsome, compulsively promiscuous” congressman who is suddenly facing a challenger handpicked by a pair of billionaire brothers, the star “develops a simpatico rhythm” with counterpart Zach Galifianakis, ensuring that their mudslinging creates at least a few funny moments. But Galifianakis is “never allowed to cut loose and get weird the way he did in The Hangover,” and Ferrell’s character “simply comes across as a rude jerk,” said Adam Graham in The Detroit News. Worse, the movie consistently traffics in crude, easy humor instead of attempting cutting satire. “Any episode of The Daily Show” offers “a better read on the American political circus” than this lazy film. “It’s an average Will Ferrell comedy, nothing more.”
