The Campaign 2012

     A North Carolina district has incumbent four-term Congressman Cam Brady running uncontested in an election.  He’s not doing a very good job but that doesn’t seem matter since there isn’t any opposition.  Two powerful men recruit Marty Huggins, a very unlikely candidate, to run against Cam.  The Moch brothers are comparable with the Koch brothers in wealth, status and agenda.  The Koch brothers are wealthy major contributors to conservative policy and advocacy groups in the US.  Marty is the son of a Republican heavy hitter.  Marty's father plans for their campaign vehicle to be based on establishing factories in the district that will import cheap Chinese Labor.  Tim Wattley, a professional campaign manager is hired to run Marty’s campaign and groom him for this political contest.  The prospect of winning changes Marty and his family dynamics.  He begins to line up with the grand plan of the Moch brothers.  Cam feels his only chance to win is to play dirty?

     Very funny, it does have some raunchy scenes that could have been eliminated for a better movie.  Since politics has gotten so bad that anything can happen, some of tricks in this film have happened.  The film is begins with a family with young kids listening to a very raunchy answering machine message?  There is some nudity and jokes about sex and the indiscretions of a married man.  There is a LOT of swearing but the subject matter is a comedy gold mine.  Since this is an election year, you may think differently about the electoral process in general after viewing?   3 ½* (I liked this movie)

85 min, Comedy directed by Jay Roach and written by Chris Hency, Shawn Harwell with Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, John Lithgow, Dylan McDermott, Katherine LaNasa, Dan Aykroyd, Brian Cox, Karen Maruyama, Grand Goodman, Kyra Haywood, Jay Roach, Shane Harwell, Adam McKay, Madison Wolfe, Josh Lawson.

Note:  Imdb 6.1 out of 10 with 122,899 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 66% critic 54% audience 66% with 204 critics 51% with 123,133 user ratings, Roger Ebert 3* out of 5*, The Guardian 3* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, Common Sense Media, S. Jhoanna Robledo, age 17+, 1* positive messages, 0* role models, 1* violence, 4* sex, 4* language, 3* consumerism, 3* drinking drugs & smoking, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 49 reviews, Letterboxd 2.5* out of 5*. 

Special Note:  Cam's US Flag lapel pin starts out as small and as the the numbers come back from the polls the flag grows to 4-5 times larger.  Cam's slogan "taking care of business" is a reference to the hit song with the same name.  Zach Galifianakis based the character of Marty Huggins on his fictitious twin brother Seth.  Zach created and first performed this character in his DVD special Live at the Purple Onion 2006.  Zack has an uncle who was a Representative in North Carolina and this is the location of this film.