Bobby

[TylerDurden182]

Director: Emilio Estevez

Starring: See poster for the enormous cast.

Plot outline: The story of the assassination of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, on June 6th, 1968, which centers around 22 people who were at the Ambassador Hotel where he was killed.


Looks okay, but I'm not counting the days until its release.

[DareDevil]

GO CHRISTIAN SLATER! (someone give this man a good role)

I'll see the movie for the impressive cast, but next to that this is probaly going to be a dud.

[echo_bravo]

This movie looks like one big trainwreck.

[The FamilyJulas]

Originally posted by echo_bravo
This movie looks like one big trainwreck.

I have to agree...just the names on the poster of the cast sends up a red flag for me.

[Lazy Boy]

We'll see if the "Love Boat" comparisons hold water...sure it has some decent to really good actors in its cast (and some really awful ones), but I'm not confident on the abilities of Emilio Estevez as writer/director after some of his other vanity projects. Who knows, he might've matured as he got older...

[RandalGraves]

This looks like a mess...but I'll be checking it out on dvd prolly...

[ilovemovies]

The only actor in the ensemble that I don't care for is Nick Cannon. I like everyone else.

I think it looks good. Looking forward to this.

[Strider]

Meh. Bobby looks okay. I also have very little faith in the screenwriting and directing abilities of Emilio Estevez. Still, I'll be checking this one out, with zero expectations.

Strider

[gyro_44]

I had the opportunity to see Bobby last week at a screening.

The film takes place at the Ambassador Hotel on the night Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot. William H. Macy is the hotel manager and a haggard Sharon Stone his wife, who cuts hair in the hotel salon. Christian Slater runs the kitchen, and books his staff for double-shifts, arguing that they don't need the time off to vote because "most of them are illegal anyway". Demi Moore is overwrought as an alcoholic singing diva booked to perform that evening. Joshua Jackson and Nick Cannon are campaigners for Kennedy, and Shia LeBeouf and Brian Geraghty have an amusing subplot as junior aides who are supposed to knock on doors to rally support but instead drop acid with Ashton Kutcher.

A few of my favorite performances were from Anthony Hopkins as the longtime Ambassador doorman, who provides one of the better perspectives of the night's events, Freddy Rodriguez as a young Latino cook forced to give up his Dodgers tickets and Laurence Fishburne as the head chef, who makes allusions to racism and culture clash in a speech about his great grandmother's cobbler. Martin Sheen and Helen Hunt are almost inconsequential as a couple attending Kennedy's speech at the Ambassador.

Emilio Estevez writes and directs, and presents an array of characters of different backgrounds who are all intently watching on as the nation seems to be on the verge of great political and social change. He sprinkles in footage and audio of Bobby's impassioned speeches, showing a man of great hope, determined to pave a future where equal opportunities are available to all regardless of race, religion and social standing.

Would Bobby Kennedy have rescued America from the turmoil of Vietnam and its racial segregation? Estevez is obviously leaning to the left (his father campaigned for Bobby, and little Emilio even met him), but still, the movie makes us strongly believe that America's very foundation shook when Kennedy was gunned down. Unfortunately, it's also stuffed with what seems like filler - some characters are thinly sketched out, and sometimes the movie drifts into sermonizing. Estevez is not exactly a master storyteller, but give him credit for trying, and when what his characters are saying resonates, it resonates quite strongly.

Bobby simply doesn't have its focus centered often enough. What brings it great clarity, in the end, is Kennedy's extremely moving words of hope for a better tomorrow playing over the the shocked faces of its large ensemble during the powerful climax. But in getting there, you feel that some character threads could have been developed better, or simply tossed out in favor of something more interesting. Bobby retains a stirring message even without the most capable of handling, and I left thinking that America lost a lot that night, and things were never quite the same again.

6/10

[SpikeDurden]

Its not that it was bad, because it really wasn't. It was shot well enough, the production values were stellar, and the performers were fine, if not a bit bland, save for Freddy Rodriguez, who was excellent. And yet, as the film wandered on, aimlessly, mind you, and we saw all of their characters doing their thing, ever so often inter-cut with stock footage of Bobby himself, all apparently leading up to this hugely tragic & climatic ending, I found myself thinking, "Have I ever seen anything this pointless?" "Have I ever cared less about an ensemble group of characters played by such a wide variety of actors, including perhaps my favorite actor on the planet*?" And as these thoughts crossed my head, I gathered my jacket, and walked out into the cold, pondering to this moment what exactly happened. And now here I am.


*William H. Macy

[MadsenOMC]

Originally posted by SpikeDurden
And yet, as the film wandered on, aimlessly, mind you, and we saw all of their characters doing their thing, ever so often inter-cut with stock footage of Bobby himself, all apparently leading up to this hugely tragic & climatic ending, I found myself thinking, "Have I ever seen anything this pointless?" "Have I ever cared less about an ensemble group of characters played by such a wide variety of actors, including perhaps my favorite actor on the planet*?"

*William H. Macy

My sentiments exactly. I found the last 15 minutes to be fairly riveting, and I loved the RFK speech that played at the end, but the rest of the movie is boring as hell.