Movies Columns
Unseen Movie Review: Man of the Year
By Robert Dixter
Oct 8, 2006, 2:34 GMT

Remember when you were in college and you would be at a frat party, and you had already spilled beer on your new sweater, and no girls were talking to you, and you later found out there were Cheetos stuck in your beard, and there was always that one friend who never stopped trying to make you laugh?

He didn’t always succeed but he was always there when you needed a good laugh.

And every once in a while he made you laugh so hard you were able to taste yesterday’s lunch. That guy reminds me of Robin Williams. 

He really is a wind up toy that just starts and never stops (kind of like my son’s talking Elmo, stupid Elmo always telling me what to do and how to live my life). Most of what he says is clever and is worthy of the polite courtesy chuckles you give your accountant, but every once in a while he’ll pull out a zinger that will leave you on the floor gasping for air and upset that your pants are now wet.  It’s really for this last reason that I still go see his comedies.

Robin’s new film ‘Man of The Year’ was directed by Barry Levinson, another hit or miss guy but with a target the size of Roseanne Barr’s underpants. When Barry misses, like ‘Envy,’ he misses so bad the studio actually hopes people will illegally tape it just so they can say someone saw it.

But when he’s dead on like ‘Rain Man’ or ‘Wag The Dog’ he can be brilliant.

The new movie is a pretty clever concept, what if a comedian ends up becoming President of the United States?

Robin plays the comedian in case you were wondering, although truthfully the film would be ten times more interesting if co-star Chris Walken played it. Can you imagine Chris doing stand up?

Barry is dipping his toes in the old political satire he proved so adept at with ‘Wag The Dog’ (a film I consider to be absolutely genius, where the story and performances just clicked for me). But Wag was written by David Mamet who is one of the finest writers working today and the only reason I sit through ‘The Unit’ on Tuesday nights. ‘Man of the Year’ was written by Barry himself, which leads me to wonder if he will be able to pull off the film, or will it end up in ‘Jimmy Hollywood’ territory?

Robin and Barry are old friends who have worked together before. Remember being shocked at how good ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ was?  I had no idea Mork could really act, nor did I know Bruno Kirby could be so funny.

That film proved that if Robin finally worked with a director who could harness his manic personality the end result could be pure gold. The movie was so good they teamed up again for ‘Toys’ which made no sense, didn’t get one laugh, and is the reason most people went home and kicked their dogs that night.

Again, in a time where every second journalist is writing a story about George Clooney running for office (don’t worry every first journalist is still writing about Paris Hilton and her legendary nights), ‘Man of the Year’ might really have something to say. I’m just hoping it says it like ‘Wag the Dog’ and ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ and not like ‘Toys’ or ‘Envy.’

‘Man of the Year’ opens wide USA on Oct 13.