Head Of State 2003

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Ascends to caustic comic outrage every so often and is dopily amusing the rest of the time. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: What might work as an election-year stand-up routine is a lame duck on screen. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Funny despite its dated premise. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: ... I liked this premise in movies like Dave, or the Eddie Murphy movie The Distinguished Gentleman, where the unknown or the underdog becomes the candidate or even the president, but this is so poorly done. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's mostly just bland and occasionally embarrassing. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: Lacks zip, both in terms of its execution and conception. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A political comedy that refuses to address a single real political topic. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Rock is too smart to make this kind of so-so dumb movie. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Rock can't set up a decent-looking shot, and he doesn't care about niceties such as character development and all that narrative downtime in between jokes. But he nonetheless wrings biting humor from serious issues. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: It hits easy targets with broad swipes, and its simple message is the same as Disney kiddie fare: Be yourself. Read more

Denver Post: Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Does right by Rock, both as a performer and as a director. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Now safe is commendable in a car or a household appliance, but it doesn't measure up in a comedy. Safe just isn't funny. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: The low points are dull, cliche-bound, even amateurish. But the high points are razor-sharp and fearlessly funny -- a hip-hop feel with a punk edge. Read more

Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly: Actor-screenwriter- director Chris Rock makes the kind of movies that Chris Rock the standup comedian slashes and burns in his live routines. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: [Rock] and Bernie Mac ... provide a furious combination of stylistically different but equally effective jabs at the status quo. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: As a TV sitcom pilot, Head of State might have potential, but, on a multiplex screen, the execution (if not the premise) is thin. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What it does wrong is hard to miss, but what it does right is hard to find: it makes an angry and fairly timely comic attack on an electoral system where candidates don't say what they really think but simply repeat safe centrist banalities. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A pleasing and occasionally very funny movie that maintains a mild but consistent hold on its audience. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: It's fast and funny and easily the smartest thing Rock has done in a long while. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Chris Rock was busy directing, producing, co-writing and starring in this light comedy. Given his hilarious stand-up routines, one wishes he had spent a little more time on the script. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: It's a retrograde affair, wallowing in the mustiest racial and political stereotypes. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: It's pretty much a toothless dog. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Not the sharpest political humor I've ever heard, but it gets my vote for the stupidest fun I've had in a long time. Read more