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Swing Vote (2008)
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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Release Date:
1 August 2008 (USA)
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Tagline:
One ordinary guy is giving the candidates a reason to run.
Plot:
In a remarkable turn-of-events, the result of the presidential election comes down to one man's vote. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
1 nomination
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NewsDesk:
(91 articles)
Waterworld Blu-ray Review
(From Collider.com. 15 November 2009, 9:14 AM, PST)
DVD Weekly Roundup – Mon 28th September 09
(From FilmShaft.com. 27 September 2009, 5:52 AM, PDT)
(From Collider.com. 15 November 2009, 9:14 AM, PST)
DVD Weekly Roundup – Mon 28th September 09
(From FilmShaft.com. 27 September 2009, 5:52 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Costner's Charisma and a Couple of Sharp Jabs at Dems and Republicans
more (71 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Kevin Costner | ... | Bud Johnson |
 | Madeline Carroll | ... | Molly Johnson |
 | Paula Patton | ... | Kate Madison |
 | Kelsey Grammer | ... | President Andrew Boone |
 | Dennis Hopper | ... | Donald Greenleaf |
 | Nathan Lane | ... | Art Crumb |
 | Stanley Tucci | ... | Martin Fox |
 | George Lopez | ... | John Sweeney |
 | Judge Reinhold | ... | Walter |
 | Charles Esten | ... | Lewis |
| Richard Petty | ... | Himself |
 | Willie Nelson | ... | Himself |
 | Mare Winningham | ... | Larissa Johnson |
 | Mark Moses | ... | Attorney General Wyatt |
 | Nana Visitor | ... | Galena Greenleaf |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated PG-13 for language.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
120 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
UK:12A |
Canada:G (Québec) |
Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) |
Ireland:12A |
USA:PG-13 (certificate #44167) |
South Korea:12 |
Australia:M |
Netherlands:12 |
Singapore:PG |
Finland:K-3 |
Argentina:13 |
Mexico:A |
Peru:PT
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Kate watches video, including the surreptitiously-recorded video of Molly, on a Chyron Duet, a broadcast graphics machine. It can use video files, but it's generally not used for viewing video.
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Goofs:
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Bud wonders why so many people are outside his trailer, he tells Molly to turn on the TV. The screen shows Fox News Channel, but the TV has rabbit ears. Satellite TV subscribers sometimes need an antenna to view local channels.
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Quotes:
Molly Johnson:
Bud, if you blow this, I'm leaving.
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Movie Connections:
References "Entertainment Tonight" (1981)
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Soundtrack:
Always On My Mind
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FAQ
Who does Bud end up voting for?How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
Is this movie based on a book?
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"Swing Vote" is a good movie. It could have been great, but it isn't, but it is still good. At its best, it invokes Frank Capra's classic films on politics, including "Meet John Doe" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." It never reaches their level, though, and that failure to hit the top is a bit frustrating.
An older, dumpier, and shabbier Kevin Costner is the best part of the film. Costner is a star and that shows here. Even the grunge that is his costume in almost every scene can't disguise his charisma. Costner's voice has not aged and he uses it to great effect, especially in a final speech.
The film draws laughs by parodying our two major political parties, with a Democratic presidential candidate starring in the funniest anti-abortion TV commercial ever made (no doubt its competition was slim, but it is very funny) and a Republican presidential candidate touting his party's tender concern for the environment.
These excellent scenes make you wish that the movie had gone deeper. It doesn't, though. It veers off into dead-end soap opera subplots about Costner's daughter's boyfriend from school and her attempt to live with her estranged mother (Mare Winningham, in a role that should have ended up on the editing room floor, as it contributes nothing to the film.) The casting wasn't great. The two presidential candidates and their aids end up being cardboard cut-out stereotypes of Machiavellian evil (Stanley Tucci) and compromise (Nathan Lane). Kelsey Grammar and Dennis Hopper, as the candidates, never transcend their "Frasier" and "Easy Rider" personas. Other actors, perhaps unknowns, should have been cast in these two key roles.
Paula Patton, the woman who played what would have been the Barbara Stanwyck role in the Frank Capra movie, was pretty as a little doll and a complete bore. This is part of a pattern in today's Hollywood; female leads must have the perfectly perky looks of a plastic doll; there's no need for them to be talented. Male leads, like Costner, can be beat-up, and slovenly, but must be talented. Patton's role, that of the desperate, sharp, female reporter who gains inside knowledge of a national story, is underwritten, and she does nothing with it. It's a dead-end, and that's a shame. It makes me want to rewatch "Meet John Doe" in which Stanwyck worked so well as the female reporter.
Overall, though, this movie is better than much else at the multiplex, and it at least ventures into the world of ideas.