Read Negative User Reviews for Vice (2018)

3

richardradJan 21, 2019

Despite a fantastic performance by Christian Bale, "Vice" is a mess. At times the film is funny, but overall "Vice" is a smug, dull, one-sided lecture, suitable only for people who already loathe Dick Cheney. If you came to this film askingDespite a fantastic performance by Christian Bale, "Vice" is a mess. At times the film is funny, but overall "Vice" is a smug, dull, one-sided lecture, suitable only for people who already loathe Dick Cheney. If you came to this film asking how and why George W. Bush's Vice President was able to amass so much power, there are virtually no insights other than cartoonish depictions of the man, and his collaborators. Great movies about politics start conversations and provide fresh insights. This film, which is full of noise and cheap shots, does neither.… Expand

3 of 4 users found this helpful31

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1

ThomassJan 4, 2019

Atrocious. Black comedy is always tricky. This attempt is so heavy handed, so unfunny, I felt embarrassed for the actors.

3 of 6 users found this helpful33

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1

SwesalJan 11, 2019

Came in not seeing any trailers, or previews, but knowing that it was written, directed and produced by Adam McKay, who was heavily involved in my favorite movie "The Big Short".

Perhaps it is just because I don't care about politics atCame in not seeing any trailers, or previews, but knowing that it was written, directed and produced by Adam McKay, who was heavily involved in my favorite movie "The Big Short".

Perhaps it is just because I don't care about politics at all, but it is kinda the job of the writer, and director of the movie to make an interesting story to a wide audience regardless of the subject, and it fails miserably. I mean I am not that interested it the financial world ether, but I loved The Big Short, which I think is why I am so disappointed, I came in wanting to love this movie also. It is simply to awful, and so boring, and I don't even understand why it was called a comedy(I don't think I laughed at all), again like complete trash. The only thing good I can say about it is, Christian Bale is clearly a great actor.… Expand

3 of 6 users found this helpful33

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1

flubossFeb 20, 2019

How to give the biggest warmonger a nice image? With a script that's the opposite of the truth. Its sad to see all the hard work for this piece of "art" turning into a pure piece of propaganda. If all the diologues were accurate, people wouldHow to give the biggest warmonger a nice image? With a script that's the opposite of the truth. Its sad to see all the hard work for this piece of "art" turning into a pure piece of propaganda. If all the diologues were accurate, people would lose faith in their government immediately. It's also sad to see all these good actors who sell their craft for this.… Expand

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

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3

ccjacobs94Dec 27, 2018

The best part of this film is Christian Bale's performance as Chene. The biggest flaw is absolutely the selective perspective the movie presents. It's a shame the team behind this movie presented the vice president in such a blatantly skewedThe best part of this film is Christian Bale's performance as Chene. The biggest flaw is absolutely the selective perspective the movie presents. It's a shame the team behind this movie presented the vice president in such a blatantly skewed perspective.… Expand

3 of 7 users found this helpful34

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2

DeathloopDec 31, 2018

Almost entirely propaganda based on incredibly loose "facts" as they refer to them in the film.

2 of 5 users found this helpful23

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1

Mitchell0617Dec 30, 2018

The movie was all over the place. Funny at times, but extremely boring. Waste of money.

4 of 11 users found this helpful47

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1

k4r274Dec 26, 2018

Another absolutely slanderous movie from the Hollywood liberals. And you guys wonder why our nation is so divided. MORE FAKE STORIES. Some of you won't stop until we have no more nation because you continue to show no respect for ourAnother absolutely slanderous movie from the Hollywood liberals. And you guys wonder why our nation is so divided. MORE FAKE STORIES. Some of you won't stop until we have no more nation because you continue to show no respect for our country or our leaders that WE put in office. All of you must have forgot about September 11th. I haven't. USMC Vietnam Veteran.… Expand

6 of 18 users found this helpful612

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3

AndremaxFeb 24, 2019

Median acting and plot, most of the movie when isn't funny, it's deadly boring. Not even Christian Bale (about acting and the amazing makeup) could save this movie. One moment or another movie has interesting moments, which doesn't makesMedian acting and plot, most of the movie when isn't funny, it's deadly boring. Not even Christian Bale (about acting and the amazing makeup) could save this movie. One moment or another movie has interesting moments, which doesn't makes compensate two and a half hour lost in pure boredom.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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3

LewisDannyJan 23, 2019

The acting carries this movie; Bale, Adams and especially Steve Carrell (masterful performance of Rumsfeld) are the saving grace of a film that has tonal issues that The Big Short NEVER had. So much inaccuracy of factual events, and strangeThe acting carries this movie; Bale, Adams and especially Steve Carrell (masterful performance of Rumsfeld) are the saving grace of a film that has tonal issues that The Big Short NEVER had. So much inaccuracy of factual events, and strange pacing mean there is little to recommend this film. Easily one of the highly-talented Adam McKay's worst films by a significant margin.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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3

shermyJan 28, 2019

The visual conversion of Bale to Chaney was certainly a masterpiece. But the resultant character had zero screen personality. A boring emptiness. If that is what Cheney is really like, I would have preferred that the central character beThe visual conversion of Bale to Chaney was certainly a masterpiece. But the resultant character had zero screen personality. A boring emptiness. If that is what Cheney is really like, I would have preferred that the central character be George W. or Rumsfeld, both of whom had substantial personalities. Even Lynne Chaney would have been a better choice.

I'm a big fan of Bale, and to see him mummified by the Cheney persona was a disappointment. The role could have be played with less bother by any chubby actor who could monotone grunt very short sentences.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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2

AJGo85Feb 27, 2019

“I want you to be my Vice.”

Comedic writer-director Adam McKay tries, and fails, to bring the same energy and insight from his Oscar nominated examination of the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short, to the most notorious vice president“I want you to be my Vice.”

Comedic writer-director Adam McKay tries, and fails, to bring the same energy and insight from his Oscar nominated examination of the 2008 financial crisis, The Big Short, to the most notorious vice president since Aaron Burr. Vice is the story of the rise to power of Dick Cheney and how he changed the executive branch’s use of power forever and for the worse. The film opens with a title card informing the audience that this is an attempt to tell the story of the most secretive figure in recent American political history which is a difficult thing to try. It’s not a good sign when before the movie even begins it apologizes for itself.

Christian Bale plays Dick Cheney and we see him first as an aimless drunk in Wyoming in the 1960’s that, spurred on by his wife Lynne (Amy Adams), cleans up his act and becomes the right-hand man of Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell) during the Nixon and Ford presidencies. Watching him enjoy his quiet accumulation of power and the satisfaction and status it brings during the 70’s and 80’s is the most interesting segment of the movie. Once the film hits the W. Bush years when Cheney acted behind the scenes to increase his own personal power and wealth Vice should hit its stride, but instead it goes on autopilot and plays like a tired collection of Cheney’s greatest hits. Vice is very angry at Dick Cheney and condemns him plenty for his actions but that is like picking low hanging, blatantly obvious fruit.

Christian Bale is great as Dick Cheney. The strength of his performance is, naturally, from his skills and talent as an actor, not just from the makeup he is under and the weight he gained for the role. He speaks with that low growl I remember so well from the W. Bush years and imitates perfectly the small laugh and smile Cheney would sometimes let slip. Cheney was not much of a public speaker or campaigner so his wife Lynne steps up and rallies people to her husband’s cause. This is where Amy Adams gets to step out from the bland role of “wife of a biopic subject” to be an active player and interesting character. Bale is nominated for Best Actor and that is no surprise. Amy Adams has earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination, but she played essentially the same character, and played her better, in The Master. Sam Rockwell, in full goofball mode, plays George W. Bush and though he's barely in the movie, Rockwell has picked up a Supporting Actor nomination. The life of Cheney is narrated by Jesse Plemons playing an average American and Iraq War veteran who says he’s related to Dick Cheney... in a way. When we find out how he’s related to Cheney it causes cringes and eye rolls. In The Big Short McKay used a hyperactive and self-aware filmmaking style to excite and engage the audience about a pretty boring and convoluted subject: the stock market and investment banking. He used cameos from stars like Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez to explain complex financial ideas and practices using clever and easy to understand metaphors. There is nothing complicated about how Cheney grows and abuses power. He asks a lawyer if what he wants to do is okay. The lawyer says yes. There’s nothing hard to follow there but McKay has the narrator hold our hands through it anyway.

Cheney’s final actions in the movie are meant to play like a final heartless betrayal signifying that he is beyond all hope of redemption, but Vice never presented him as someone with anywhere to fall from. That would only happen with a movie that attempted insight into its subject’s emotions and motivations and even dared us to sympathize with the unlikeable main character. In Nixon, Oliver Stone built up audience sympathies for Nixon and then let him squander and betray those sympathies making his fall all the more tragic even though you rooted for him to fail. With Nixon, Stone posed the question: What does it profit a man to gain the world if he loses his soul? (this Bible quote actually appears at the beginning of that film). In Vice, McKay forgot to ask any questions, attempt any insight, or speculate on motivations. This movie has only one message: this Dick Cheney is one bad dude. If you were born before the year 2000, you don’t need a movie to tell you that.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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2

hnestlyontheslyOct 7, 2019

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A mirthless facsimile of an otherwise rich and twisted skein of source material. The story of the origins of the longest war in American history deserved the Big Short treatment and instead got The Lovely Bones treatment. Vice struggles to find its tone throughout, at times diatribe, absurdist comedy, deadpan satire, but mostly a shallowly constructed PowerPoint of recognizable news moments.

Slate‘s critiques of Vice were concerned with Adam McKay’s to understand the takeaway hindsight has delivered us: the danger of this episode in American politics is not the Machiavelli that McKay paints Cheney, Rumsfeld and the others as, but rather the true believers who, for many years, thought that regime change and democracy could come to the Middle East with minimal loss of life and involvement. This was not an opportunistic one-off. It was part of a multi-decade set of policies advanced by conservative think tanks like Project for the New American Century and its iterations, which were populated by the likes of Kagan, Kristol, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.

I don’t necessarily think that adherence to this view of Cheney’s politics is the only way to tell interesting stories about him–the family drama of his betrayal of a daughter is a rich tragedy in and of itself–but it does feel a little like a bait-and-switch. The absence of positing a moral framework for Cheney’s decisions seems designed to suggest an inherited intellectual tradition for the current president, but isn’t there enough lasting damage from the Bush years without having to tie it into a new Republican presidency?… Expand

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1

BroyaxDec 27, 2020

« Vice » pour un vicieux salopard magouilleur (c’est-à-dire un excellent politicien) et « Vice » pour le Vice-Président du crétin élu W. Bush bien entendu, à savoir les deux imbéciles (entre autres) qui ont décidé l’invasion de l’Irak et« Vice » pour un vicieux salopard magouilleur (c’est-à-dire un excellent politicien) et « Vice » pour le Vice-Président du crétin élu W. Bush bien entendu, à savoir les deux imbéciles (entre autres) qui ont décidé l’invasion de l’Irak et inventé les armes de destruction fictives, déstabilisé la région entière et contribué à la création de l’Etat Islamique, cette bande de dégénérés islamo-fascistes… mais à dire vrai, le film n’insiste pas du tout là-dessus, hélas.

Le film se borne à nous raconter de manière à la fois confuse et ennuyeuse ce qu’on sait tous déjà, à moins de vivre sous un rocher… on sent nettement qu’il est très à gauche, très poussif dans sa démonstration et désespérément binaire dans son raisonnement de gauchistes bisounours (Guantanamo ? et alors ? c’est bien la meilleure idée qu’ont jamais eue ces magouillards vicelards de Républicains !).

De toute façon, c’est très mal joué et surtout surjoué par l’ensemble de la distribution qui se croient très malins… sauf évidemment Sam Rockwell qui sait donner une subtile ironie (et caricature) à son personnage, mais ça, c’est Sam Rockwell !

On s’emmerde donc énormément dans ce film à charge qui en rajoute sans cesse, ce qui nuit à l’intention louable initiale de dénoncer ces escrocs (c’est-à-dire le boulot d’excellents politiciens). De fait, ça tourne vite court, en plus de tourner à vide ! Bref, on s’en bat les burnes en force de tout ça et surtout de ce film-là.… Expand

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1

NickTheCritickApr 12, 2022

This film is the essence of everything I hate about McKay's style. Direction and editing full of exhibitionism that clearly outclass the images making the film pompous and presumptuous. Bale's great performance isn't enough to save thisThis film is the essence of everything I hate about McKay's style. Direction and editing full of exhibitionism that clearly outclass the images making the film pompous and presumptuous. Bale's great performance isn't enough to save this terrible film.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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