Our Brand Is Crisis 2015

Alex Pappademas, Grantland: It's the first time I've watched a David Gordon Green movie and found myself wishing I was in the capable hands of a set-'em-up-knock-'em-down director like Jay Roach. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Can Sandra Bullock in top form overcome longtime American audience resistance to comedies about politics and maybe even get another nomination in the process? Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The movie wafts and drones and shifts gears so many times that it is never as funny, pointed, jaundiced or clever as it could have been, and much less politically significant than it should be. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Green and company put an artificial ceiling on the pic's satirical potential. Had they fictionalized the country, "Crisis" could have joined the ranks of "Duck Soup" or "The Mouse That Roared." Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Here, Green disappears deeper than he ever has before into workmanlike competence; the only personal signature is a funky, slow-mo dance party, which the filmmaker somehow manages to insert into every movie he makes. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Despite Sandra Bullock's best efforts, she can't make "Our Brand Is Crisis" much more than what it is: A predictable political comedy that hits all the expected beats and goes sappy exactly when you think it will. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: The film indulges in the unabashed goofiness that stoked Green's "Pineapple Express," and which Sandra Bullock demonstrated to raucous effect in "The Heat." Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [Bullock's] role as a weary Machiavelli in sunglasses and trench coat gives her little to work with but a stream of jaded one-liners. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Offers some nice behind-the-scenes glimpses of how political sausage is made just as America's political sausage is sizzling on the fire. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: For a movie about political messaging, Our Brand Is Crisis doesn't know what it's selling besides Sandra Bullock's lusciously buttery dye job. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: David Gordon Green's latest unpredictable addition to his resume is offbeat and appealing on some levels but is neither as funny nor as trenchant as it might have been. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Like the politicians and political consultants it mocks, "Our Brand Is Crisis" doesn't completely deliver on what it promises. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: A horror film wrapped in a fast-talking political comedy. Read more

Tony Hicks, San Jose Mercury News: The overriding message, which certainly isn't new, is that power corrupts and politics is a nasty game not meant for the little people. But in "Crisis," the point is not powerfully made. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Ultimately, "Our Brand Is Crisis" isn't as hard-hitting, trenchant or angry as it should be. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Green ... has little feel for the movie's comic turns, and his way with the drama is held back by his obvious and conventional sympathies. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: A slick political dramedy with bursts of personal humor but an overdose of Hollywood gloss ... Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: An excellent supporting cast includes Anthony Mackie and the terrific Ann Dowd as fellow consultants. Yet it all rests on Bullock. She's fun to watch. Read more

Scott Tobias, NPR: The film becomes a Sandra Bullock vehicle, and while it's buoyed by her typical comic aplomb, it loses sight of the bigger picture. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: You want to know how the Janes of the world happen. Is it money? Power? Ideology? You never find out. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The movie is funny enough to get its share of laughs but, in its angry heart, it's a tragedy - and the saddest part is that too much of this story is true. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Stumbles over a vast terrain of self-serving scoundrels (Trump trumps anything they can make up), but livewire Bullock never lets hypocrisy out of her comic kill zone. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The most important aspects of this striking story have been scrubbed away or laundered into Hollywood-style pseudo-psychological neutrality. Read more

Matthew Lickona, San Diego Reader: If everything was nastier, it might have made for a decent black comedy. If something was more heartfelt, it might have made for a decent personal drama. But in both the movie and the campaign it depicts, cleverness is the order of the day. Read more

Soren Anderson, Seattle Times: "Crisis" squanders its intriguing premise. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "Our Brand Is Crisis" is in that annoying category of movie that sends audiences away thinking, "It's almost good, but something is off." Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In Bullock, "Crisis" has a star who makes the whole thing seem better than it probably is. Read more

John Semley, Globe and Mail: Say what you will about the sneering, misanthropic political dramas of previous eras (Blow Out, JFK and so on). But at least they came by their cynicism in good faith. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Like the ruthless political strategists the film both satirizes and celebrates, Our Brand Is Crisis speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Much of what the film considers fodder for satire is too familiar to feel revelatory or shocking, while characters that start out believable behave in unrecognizably ludicrous ways simply because the script forces them to. Read more

Bruce Kirkland, Toronto Sun: [Bullock] has the knack of playing someone who is seriously flawed, yet still appealing for her smarts, her broken heart and her sharp wit. Read more

Brian Truitt, USA Today: The movie unfortunately gets stuck between edgy drama and broad comedy, and most of the humor lands with a thud, unless animals getting run over or an A-list actress mooning bus passengers get your vote. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Our Brand is Crisis hits a lot of clunky notes and the end is unforgivably cornball, but it's still one of the liveliest political black comedies I've seen in a while. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: If it's satire, it's neither sharp nor especially funny. Yet it doesn't deliver emotionally, either. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It's a case study, if nothing else, of starting with a dubious idea and making it downright awful. Read more