HBO's Recount, no thread?

[Herbert Anchovy]

Slick fare, as usual.

Middle-age Laura Dern's a ringer for the epithelial Katherine Harris.

 

[hockeybeat]

Slick fare, as usual.

Middle-age Laura Dern's a ringer for the epithelial Katherine Harris.

Dern, Leary and Spacey were great.

 

[shockey]

excellent, excellent job. dern was sensational. 8) 8) 8)

 

[JBHawkEye]

It was a better movie than I thought it would be.

I thought Laura Dern was probably a little over the top. But the rest of the cast was very good.

 

[pressmurphy]

Gotta say I'm getting a little tired of HBO's left-leaning fare.

I can't seem to find any info on their next showing of "Chappaquiddick Revisited."

 

[shockey]

It was a better movie than I thought it would be.

I thought Laura Dern was probably a little over the top. But the rest of the cast was very good.

over the top???!!! she was playing katherine harris, for cryin' out loud!!!!

 

[JBHawkEye]

It was a better movie than I thought it would be.

I thought Laura Dern was probably a little over the top. But the rest of the cast was very good.

over the top???!!! she was playing katherine harris, for cryin' out loud!!!!

I know, I know. But I thought it was a little too much.

Like I said, the rest of the cast was very good.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

You know that the writing was left-leaning but all-in all I thought it was very well done and showed both sides in a fair light. A couple of comments.

- Kevin Spacey's character telling Dennis Leary's character "You say **** alot" was a great line.
- Tom Wilkinson was great as James Baker. After his Benjamin Franklin in John Adams - he's becoming HBO's go-to actor.
- Ed Begley Jr. also did a fine job as David Boies
- I think it was hindsight that led them to take some shots at Al Gore and Joe Lieberman

 

[JBHawkEye]

You know that the writing was left-leaning but all-in all I thought it was very well done and showed both sides in a fair light. A couple of comments.

- Kevin Spacey's character telling Dennis Leary's character "You say **** alot" was a great line.
- Tom Wilkinson was great as James Baker. After his Benjamin Franklin in John Adams - he's becoming HBO's go-to actor.
- Ed Begley Jr. also did a fine job as David Boies
- I think it was hindsight that led them to take some shots at Al Gore and Joe Lieberman

Apparently the guy who was played by Leary thought he was a little too foul-mouthed as well, from one of the stories I read.

The shot at Lieberman was pretty obvious.

 

[Cape_Fear]

I thought it was pretty good.

It may have been a little left-leaning, but Warren Christopher didn't like the way he was presented.

 

[lantaur]

I thought it was pretty darn entertaining, especially when you consider you know how everything turned out. I think followers of either party could find something to complain about, which means the movie was pretty fairly balanced.

I can't wait until 2016 when HBO puts out a movie on the Obama-Clinton fun ...

 

[ArnoldBabar]

Just finished watching it like 10 minutes ago. Very compelling. I'll never forget coming home from work on election night, watching the news channels until like 6 a.m. (as Rather slowly lost his mind) and thinking, "I can't believe i'm going to bed not knowing who the next president is!" Turns out, I'd have had to stay up a looooong time.

The scene with Spacey and Leary in the alley was greatness. And Wilkinson is one of the best actors working. Nobody could have done his roles in "In The Bedroom' or "Michael Clayton" better.

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

I think they went out of their way to poke fun of Dan Rather. The on-air clips they picked of Rather made him look like a doofus.

 

[Lugnuts]

Loved it. It seems to have been based on a book Klain and Bash contributed to, so that's why the story was tilted more to their perspective.

 

[Football_Bat]

Tom Wilkinson is becoming quite a highly-in-demand character actor. If you recall, he was the laid-off middle manager in "The Full Monty." He had probably the funniest line in the movie: "I got a stiffy!"

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

Got to inspect this more closely this afternoon and agree that it was fair to both sides, as it needs to be. The movie is ambitious and risked dullness, but never was.

 

[westcoastvol]

I thought it did a pretty good job of illuminating the buffoonery displayed by the left, the right, the...aw **** it, everyone.

I'd agree with the Dan Rather point, but the problem is, they used actual clips. The actual news clips were a sensational touch.

 

[Oz]

The scene with Spacey and Leary in the alley was greatness. And Wilkinson is one of the best actors working. Nobody could have done his roles in "In The Bedroom' or "Michael Clayton" better.

Finally got around to watching it today, via Netflix.

Agreed on the alley scene, that's when I really started to get into the movie. And agreed on Wilkinson, who I first remember as Cornwallis in "The Patriot." Definitely worth watching during an election year.

 

[hondo]

Loved Spacey and Leary. Also enjoyed the scene where the Palm Beach supervisor of elections is squirming very uncomfortably when she's being asked why the ballot was designed the way it was.

Hope the Democrats in that county are still losing sleep with the knowledge that they would have won Florida, and the election, if they had let a 16-year-old from a high school graphics art class design their ballot.

 

[DanOregon]

Odd timing, but I watched this tonight (Netflix) just a few hours after Scalia's interview on 60 Minutes his "get over it" response to the Bush v. Gore question made me feel very uneasy. It's not like things wouldn't have been different for the last eight years if Gore won. The gutless decision (while I have no problem with the Supreme Court stepping in and ruling one way or the other, the legal yoga it required did not serve the country well) reeked of partisanship.
The way the networks screwed the pooch on their projections, the fiasco that followed, learning of how screwed up our elections are, the faux protests, a pretty disheartening beginning of the new millenium.
And for all the griping about HBO's lefty tilt, you should remember that John Adams was an original righty.