Sick Product of a Sick System

Load of rubbish!!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Game Change is the 2012 HBO film about the John McCain-Sarah Palin campaign against Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2008. First of all, this movie is very well acted by all in it, including the stars: Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Ed Harris, and Sarah Pulson. I absolutely loved Julianne Moore's representation of Sarah Palin, if you would've seen her coming, you would've thought it was Sarah herself, the hair and makeup crew did a fantastic job with that. In many scenes tensions run high and there is a lot of fighting, and the actors really come out and shine in those scenes, which was very cool to see. The chemistry between all the characters really clicked as well. The dialogue in the film is also very good and well put together. A lot of people claimed this film was just a bunch of liberals painting conservatives in a bad light, although that's not what they did at all. They simply took the facts that were in the book Game Change and visualized them through film. This movie was very well acted and written, Game Change will also make you very thankful for the outcome of the 2008 presidential election haha. 7/10 for Game Change.

A 2012 movie that went straight to television, won 3 Golden Globes----and is worth watching. John McCain (Ed Harris) is well behind in the polls for the 2008 Presidency. There are only a few weeks till voting day, and one of his smartest advisers, Steve Schmidt (Woody Harrelson) declares its time to gamble. They decide on a lady as McCains second in command----and what a lady she turns out to be. It is the Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin (Julianne Moore)...who knows as much about the American political process as I know about the sex life of the Bolivian field mouse ! Her T.V. interviews are now comedy classics---because of her inability to even understand the questions. Many people would have been crushed by her experience of total humiliation. But not the feisty Palin. Since her bizarre (and brief) time in federal Politics she has written a book which was as successful as Bill Clintons and Barack Obamas. Also, she has had her own T.V. chat show, and generally kept her profile high enough to be regarded as a sort of B grade celebrity. The 3 principal actors here are excellent (also Sarah Paulson as Nicole Wallace) This tale has many messages. One is, don't grab for power unless you know what your doing. (Or, unless you are Sarah Palin). An excellent movie.

Ed Harris and Julianne Moore star with Woody Harrelson and Jamey Sheridan in "Game Change," a 2012 film that looks at the 2008 campaign of John McCain, based on the book by Mark Halperin.Conscious of a need to go up against Obama, a black American, the McCain campaign suggests a woman, Sarah Palin (Moore), Governor of Alaska. In interviews, Palin seems acceptable and McCain (Harris) invites her to be his running mate.Alas, the manager of the campaign (Harrelson) and the former press secretary now working for the campaign (Sarah Paulson) soon realize that no one actually asked Palin any questions about foreign policy, the economy, or anything else. Yes, she's a woman, yes, she handles herself beautifully before an audience but don't ask her anything. The press becomes more and more annoyed as they keep Palin away.Palin accepts a certain amount of coaching but becomes overwhelmed by all the information, the stylist redoing her hair and wardrobe, the separation from her family, questions about her child's birth and her daughter's pregnancy, her son fighting in Iraq, the Saturday Night Live takeoffs, the negative news reports -- it all becomes too much and she has what is in essence a nervous breakdown. She stops listening and responding to anyone on the campaign.After she totally blows an interview with Katie Couric, McCain, who has been made blissfully unaware of the situation, wants to know why his numbers are falling. He suggests that Palin get together with her family in Sedona. There, she finds the strength to go on and aces her debate with Biden. Encouraged by her husband, she realizes that the most important thing is that she be herself and get out and talk to the people.From there, she becomes arrogant and impossible to deal with.Excellent film with a fantastic performance by Julianne Moore, who is perfect as Sarah Palin, the wrong woman in the wrong place. It's easy to see why she broke down -- she was completely inadequate for the job of vice president, and the bad decision to put her in contributed to McCain losing the election.As McCain, Ed Harris does an excellent job of showing a fair man with good intentions who does not want to do negative campaigning, but in the end, he is forced into it. Interestingly, he seems to be kept out of the loop. Harrelson has a showier role as Steve Schmidt, and how this man avoided a total nervous collapse is a real mystery.Even though we know how this came out, the film is still absorbing and incredibly interesting as it takes us through this disaster otherwise known as the 2008 Presidential campaign and the star who flashed so brightly for such a short time, Sarah Palin.

Make no mistake, Game Change is about Sarah Palin period. Most of the things you read about it will say it chronicles John McCain's 2008 Presidential bid from choosing Palin as his running mate to their eventual defeat. This is true to a certain degree but the focus of the film, the entire purpose is to chronicle Sarah Palin, and they do so absolutely brilliantly thanks to an incredible starring performance and a very well written intelligent script. The film is often riveting and very well put together. The pacing is perfect and perhaps one of the smartest things about the film is that it is mainstreamed so that absolutely anyone can understand it, follow it, appreciate it, and be entertained but still find a deeper understanding of both Palin and McCain. I'm a democrat to the core (which is not up for debate and doesn't matter at all), but watching Game Change gave me a whole new opinion, and vision of both of the lead characters. The film does not trash Palin or McCain, and in fact gives, what I believe, is an unbiased, fair and solid vision of the race and the people involved.I've never been really impressed with Julianne Moore though she's had some good roles. So in my opinion this was literally and hands down the best role of Moore's career. She doesn't just become Palin, she shows this woman's chemistry, charisma, brilliance, downfalls, shortcomings, quirks, personality...she brings her to life. Obviously Palin fans won't necessarily like the negative sides of her personality but Moore plays her with such empathy and power. I never understood Palin's draw that she had until I watched this movie. She was an every woman, she was America's mom and you see all this in the film. One of the only downsides to this movie was I could have watched Ed Harris play John McCain in an entire film on his own. He is brilliant. I don't like the constant barrage of cursing the he does (was this really a John McCain quirk?) but that's not Harris' performance but rather the script. He gives a powerhouse performance and commands the screen every time he is on it which isn't enough. Woody Harrelson gives a subtle and yet powerful performance as campaign manager Steve Schmidt. I actually his performance is slightly toned down to not overpower that of Harris and Moore. He still is one to watch with his emotions and facial intensity. The supporting cast is a virtual whose who of Television and movie actors. A few of the more stand out performances are given by Peter MacNicol, Sarah Paulson, and Ron Livingston.Part of the brilliance of the film is how to incorporates live footage in with the actors. The scenes where Moore as Palin debates with Joe Biden, splicing together actual footage of him was brilliantly done. Clearly director Jay Roach knows his way around the political game having previously done Recount and even using his knowledge as a comedic film maker and a political know how to make The Campaign (a surprisingly hilarious and completely unbiased look at the election process.) I understand John McCain has personally spoke out against Game Change calling it false and essentially garbage but I don't think the film is negative in any way. I think it is showing the ins and outs, the mistakes and the successes of their campaign. I am certain that a similar film could be made about Obama's campaign only with a different outcome. The film is really well made despite the grievous error (in my opinion) of having so much bad language jammed in there for no reason. The musical montage with Palin getting dressed is almost a step into too mainstream waters but these tiny little missteps aside, this is one great political film thanks to a smart script and two powerful lead performances well deserving of their Golden Globe Nominations. 8.5/10