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Corp. Hicks looks at ELECTION
This is one of the films I have to discuss on SISKEL AND EBERT this Wednesday, I see it tomorrow, but heck.... Here's an advance look at the film from the point of view of a grunt (no offense Corporal Hicks!). So here ya go...
Corporal Hicks here ONCE again with a sneak peek at another up-and-coming
flick. This time the Colonial Marine Corp. was nice enough to grant me a
look at Paramount's new movie "Election," starring Matthew Broderick and
Reese Witherspoon. As before, upon receiving word of this screening, I
jumped into the drop ship and headed out for Paramount Pictures Studios in
Hollywood. I didn't really know much about this movie, other than who the
stars were and that it takes place in a high school. The cut I saw was,
indeed, the final cut of the movie.
On with the breakdown(spoilers involved):
The film takes place at a seemingly normal high school in Omaha. Broderick
plays a history teacher named Jim McAllister who loves his job
passionately and has been doing it for many a year. Witherspoon, who plays
Tracy Flick, is THE number one student in the junior class; she is involved
in everything and is EXTREMELY hyper. The crux of the movie focuses on who
will win the presidency in the upcoming student council election. Our
darling Reese is the frontrunner and is going ballistic trying to advertise
herself(she personally autographs 400 cupcakes on election day).
Broderick's character Mr. McAllister, however, is very uneasy at the
thought of young Tracy taking the election because he knows that she is the
kind of girl that will walk over anyone and anything to get what she wants.
In fact, there is a subplot early on about her having an affair with one
of her teachers simply because she's a little lonely. Thus, Mr. McAllister
convinces the very popular star quarterback of the football team named
Matt(who can't play ball anymore because he broke his leg) to run against
Tracy. Matt(Chris Klein, I think) agrees to run. However, in another
subplot, Matt has an obsessive lesbian sophomore sister Tammy whose
"girlfriend" broke up with her and went down on Matt just to piss Tammy
off. Thus, Tammy also joins the race, out to sabotage her brother. Then
things start to go really bad. McAllister cheats on his wife with one of
their closest friends; Tracy tears down all of Matt's posters; Tammy quits
that high school headed for an all girls "Catholic" school. But then, upon
finding out that Tracy won the election over Matt by 1 solitary vote,
McAllister throws away a couple of the votes so Matt is declared the
winner. All hell then breaks loose as everyone finds out about everyone
else. McAllister gets thrown out by his wife and quits his job, Tracy is
declared the real president, and Tammy starts another sad relationship with
an unsuspecting girl. The movie ends with McAllister moving to New York
and starting a new life while Tracy goes to Georgetown and ends up as an
intern for a senator.
Now for the real breakdown:
This movie disturbed me. It is extremely funny and is 100% true to life,
but that's what scared me. This movie is the best update of any kind of
John Hughes/1980's teen-angst flicks I've seen so far. All of the
archetypes are updated to fit 1990's sensibilities and the humor is
laugh-out-loud funny at times. The thing about John Hughes' movies was
that none of the characters really did anything that was REALLY offensive;
his movies were also often very optimistic. "Election" is really rather
cynical, unfortunately. The movie has such dark undertones to it that I
found myself kind of saddened by the fact that my generation "is" how it
"is." This is an extremely well-made film. The cast is absolute
perfection; there's no one else who could have filled those roles as well
as these guys did. The direction and editing also stand out. In the end,
though, I'd recommend this film to others; it really is a lot of fun. By
the way, there is a fair share of gross-out humor that makes it
hilarious(and R-rated), so beware young children!
That is all.
Corporal Hicks, signing off...
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Seems to be a pretty intelligent film, and produced by MTV, no less. Guess Pauly Shore was too doped up on crack that week, or that fucked-up VJ's (Jesse Something) asking price was too high. Intelligence and MTV. The world IS coming to an end.
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The day we start respecting MTV is a very scary day indeed.
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I must also agree. The sickening and true thing to me as I watched the preview was the character Reese Witherspoon plays. The weird thing is, there were people like her character I went to high school with. It made me sick that people cared so damn much. They reach that level and it just stops impressing people, it just makes you sick of them. I went to high school and graduated with Chris Klein. He's a good guy and I can't wait to see him in American Pie too. I'm also happy to see Election used a real high school. That's also something we haven't seen in a VERY VERY long time. We have normal looking people in a normal looking school. The story and the acting will make or break this one, and I think this one is going to work.
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Reese Witherspoon seems poised to break into global superstardom. She was priceless in Pleasantville (arguably the most underrated film of 1998) and she made films like Fear and Twilight watchable. Her best work to date has got to be the delirious Freeway, which also starred a deranged Kiefer Sutherland. I'm looking foward to Election, mainly because it could serve as a showcase to Reese's considerable talents. Is there a definitive release date for this? It's been delayed for months and months.
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The film as a whole I found a bit lackluster (mostly thanks to Broderick's totally unsympathetic character and blase' performance) ... but Reese is simply flawless; none of her previous gigs prepare you for the sheer hilarity of this role. I couldn't help but think that there's gotta be a juicy, campy role for her in a John Waters film someday.
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The film as a whole I found a bit lackluster (mostly thanks to Broderick's totally unsympathetic character and blase' performance) ... but Reese is simply flawless; none of her previous gigs prepare you for the sheer hilarity of this role. I couldn't help but think that there's gotta be a juicy, campy role for her in a John Waters film someday.
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Ferris Bueller is in a movie as a high school TEACHER. ack.
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Reese makes me ill to my stomach when ever I look at her. Her chin is bigger then jay leno's entire face.
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I caught last nights episode, but they did not mention who the guest reviewer would be. They said next weeks films would be Pushing Tin and Lost and Found with David Spade (Rip It Harry!). Good luck!
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Really? I don't think Reese is too bad in the looks department - she's got a killer bod as well. But, what the hell did she go and get pregnant for??? Do you think it was a planned pregnancy with that fruit??? I don't know what the hell she was thinking... I mean don't they sell protection in Hollywood??? As to this movie, I dunno. Matthew Broderick is starting to piss me off - maybe it was Godzilla - but I just can't take him seriously anymore. Post FBDO, if he had just stuck to more films like Glory, he'd be doin' alright. Oh well. Harry - KICK ROGER EBERT'S POMPOUS FAT ASS!!!!!!
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It's great, by a guy named Tom Perrotta. All of his stuff is wonderful. He did a fantastic job capturing those teenage years also with Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies. What's interesting about the novel Election is that each short chapter is narrated by different characters, so that you're getting 7-8 conflicting perspectives on what's happening. Very interesting technique, particularly for a story set in high school. I also have high hopes because the person (forgot the name) who directed Citizen Ruth is doing this. Here's hoping that we finally get another high school movie aimed at an adult rather than teen audience. When was the last one? Dazed and Confused, maybe?
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You have to respect MTV for one thing -- it was highly revolutionary (albiet it cheesy crappy in the eighties and earliy ninties), but in the last few years they have become the tighest, best looking production on the face of the planet. ANyway who catch their most recent Spring Break '99 or Wannabe a VJ II, knows this. TRL is hot stuff, and shows like FANatic and Road Rules are genius. Tom Green will be a big man soon.
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Ah! Now I understand Harry's complete failure to put spoiler warnings on about two dozen reviews over the last six months, including this one. He's just getting as much practice as possible to go on S&E and reveal the entire plot of every film he reviews. Thank Goodness that AICN can routinely reveal the full story of films to the ending to me and save me the effort of actually paying attention in the theater or on video.
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i for one do not mind hearing how a movie ends. when was the last time hollywood made a character you really pulled for? for the most part you can guess how these movies are going to end with about 85% accuracy. kind of like the end of this post. i get the girl and evil is vanquished.
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...doesn't the 'm' in mtv stand for music?!?....if you wanna watch music videos and music related programming I suggest switching over to muchmusic alright...it's much better than mtv....as for Tom Green, he has his place on tv and up here in the nordlands we Canadians have known this for quite a few years now!! Cause we don't need to wait for some too-hip-for-it's-own-good music station to finally catch up to what's goin' on! Americans have comedy central but it's too busy showing showing South Park so what good is that?
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MTV still plays music videos? I will admit that MTV is cool for giving us Tom Green here in the states. Tom Green is probably the bravest person in the world, he has a death wish, an I did not think he would survive the soccer moms when he disrupted the game. The only thing on MTV this weekend was be a VJ contest, and they picked an african american female version of Jesse. I HATE TOTAL REQUEST LIVE! JESSE AND CARSON DALY ARE A PAIN TO WATCH, JUST AS BAD ARE THOSE TEENAGE GIRLS WHO GO INTO SEIZURES WHEN THEY GET TO TALK TO CARSON, AND THE TOP TEN IS ALL PRETTY BOY BANDS! I want my VH1!
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