Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

nadiatownshend From an entertainment perspective the film was enjoyable and the climax was satisfactory and fulfilling. In fact those end scenes built up to quite a powerful and thought provoking finish which was a nice turn in pace in comparison to the rest of the movie - which focused more on comedy. The film had a good mix of seriousness and humor.The Script was pretty tight and displayed some humorous moments which did not detract from the story. It also had real heart. The choice of setting was really interesting. It allowed the film was show how people go in to countries with no consideration of the consequences of their actions and then happily leave as if nothing ever happened. Sandra Bullock's character was pretty intricate and multi-layered which was really cool to watch and her acting talents were strong in bringing out the various aspects of the character. Also, I would like to note that showing a strong woman in politics was bold and great to watch as she tried to thrive in the dog-eat-dog world of male-dominated politics. Sandra did a great job in applying these difficulties to her character and how it ground her down in some ways and drove her on in others. There were some moments where I was laughing, or shouting at the screen (the bus scene) or truly felt the intensity of the emotions of the characters (the ending ). All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this film and can't believe I hadn't heard more about it upon its release. 9/10

vforvedad It's a good movie with allot of "cool people" smoking in every tense situation. Feels a bit like a cigarette commercial. Other than that the story and the acting is great, it even has some really powerful emotions. I thought smoking is not cool anymore because it kills so many people but I guess they are still finding a way to get to kids.

Stephen Abbott (Movie Steve) MILD SPOILERSI had to see "Our Brand Is Crisis" because I've managed political campaigns before. It was as good and as bad as I thought it would be. Good, because it does indeed show how political campaigns are run, for the most part, but bad because it has a stupid, but predictable, ending, and a Left-leaning bias throughout - which I guessed correctly was coming, and simply chose to discount in my judgment of the film.Sandra Bullock starts off the film having abandoned the profession of political consulting because of a bad event we learn about later. Personal scumbag Billy Bob Thornton - who plays one in the film, too – is her capable adversary. Both are running presidential campaigns in Bolivia.Here's what rings true: the professional rivalries between consultants (who, nonetheless can be civil to one another) the scenes of actual campaigning, the strategies, families being divided by politics, the stress of campaigns, the fun people have during them anyway, the candidate who doesn't listen to his consultants, the backroom intrigue, and the dirty tricks.What's silly is the whining about money in politics (in the intro only, don't worry) and the fact that someone who's been in the business doesn't seem to know that people are mean or that politicians do, in fact, lie.Some of Bullock's lines are hilarious. How she pulls one over on the Thornton character before a big debate is brilliant. How she pulls back and listens in the beginning (though admittedly, she was ill) is exactly how one SHOULD start off a campaign before crafting and announcing a strategy. And the need to sometimes change strategies in mid-campaign is also well illustrated here.The scene where the two candidate's buses happen to be on the same road, leading to a hilarious "backside" joke, is just the kind of stunt campaigns pull on each other, and there are several "dirty tricks" shown as well that are MORE than plausible.Bullock's character, "Calamity Jane," shouldn't be as surprised and alienated by the process as is depicted here, given her long history in the profession. But in films about political consulting – like the excellent 1986 Richard Gere/Denzel Washington film "Power" which this resembles in many ways, which I highly recommend – sermonizing about how bad things can get and what's wrong with politics and managing campaigns is typical, and expected. But still, they manage to get a lot right, and it's nicely entertaining even if you aren't a political consultant, so I recommend it.

Robert J. Maxwell This story of a political race in Bolivia didn't get much ballyhooed and I wasn't expecting much. Neither Billy Bob Thornton nor Sandra Bullock are unknown quantities, so we have an idea of their range. And who knows anything about Bolivia? Who could find it on a map? What is interesting about Bolivia, except for the cocaine traffic and the Aymara natives who have a reputation among anthropologists for being the most nasty people you could study? Well we can forget all of that anyway because in the frame provided by this movie the country's name shouldn't be Bolivia but rather "Bolivia." It about the stressful and demeaning business of electoral politics and the toll it takes on its practitioners."Primary Colors," about such a race in the US, was released in 1998 and one of the chief questions raised was, "Should we go negative?" Oh, we've come a long way, Baby. It would be a stunning revelation now if anyone asked, "Shouldn't we say something positive?" The negative approach shown in this film is in no way subtle. It's not surgically applied. Someone handed the writers and director a meat ax. Here are some of the tricks, so vile that they never even occurred to me. You find some filthy group like the Ubermenschen of America, contribute some money in their name to the opposition candidate, and then publicize the contribution. Simple.You can also throw all sorts of accusations at the opponent, no matter how ridiculous, and then wait until the lies take their toll or the opponent is forced to publicly deny them. It's a win win, as the Swiftboat movement demonstrated.The rumors -- so ready for contagion in this internet age -- don't even have to be declarative statement. They can contaminate the media even if they're phrased as questions. "Are Saddam's WMDs Now in Syria?" That's a real one. Here's one I just made up. "Is the Pope Really a Transgender?" Catches your attention, doesn't it? The beauty of negative campaigning is that none of it needs to be founded in fact. It only needs to be fed to a cooperative media until it becomes part of the public's data base, at least the data base shared by a certain sector of social space. And it needs to be swallowed whole by that sector. A fan told Adlai Stevenson, "Every thinking person will vote for you." Stevenson replied, "That's not enough. I need a majority."That anecdote, by the way, is one of several sprinkled throughout the dialog, both by the somber, cynical Sandra Bullock, and the bald, cynical Billy Bob Thornton, two opposites who understand and get along quite well with one another, rather like Mary Matalin and James Carville. The juicy lines don't all have to do with politics. Thornton to Bullock: "You know, when I leave here and go home I'm going to spend an hour pleasuring myself thinking of you."Two performances are worth extra mention. I can't recall a better one from Sandra Bullock. She's no longer a kid. She brings a darkly burnished quality to the role. Her default posture is a grim stance with her arms folded across her chest, a fleshy wall between her milieu and her heart. Zoe Kazan is quite good as translator. She doesn't get much space and except for an oddly pretty face would be background instead of figure. I just like her because of the breathless vigilance she brought to her few minutes on screen as a minion in "Fracture." Despite a last-minute attempt to provide some uplift, it's rather a bitter movie. Bullock compares politics to advertising. "You convince people they want something they don't need, you sell it to them, and you make a profit from it."