an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The worst protagonist's rival role I've ever seen. He's supposed to be a professional in his role, but I've not seen a single action to make me believe it. The only tactics I've seen in the movie are: 1) paying a random person to smash an egg on the head of a politian; 2) make your client say a quote that you heard from your rival 5 minutes before the press-conference (like, what the hell? seriously?). Another moment I wanted to quit watching the movie was during the racing of 2 buses - what was the point? to show your ass off (literally) to your rival? to ride off the cliff and kill the candidate and hole crew? Seriously, after that moment, I didn't take this movie seriously at all. There are moments I liked, but they are very few, and thus I don't think this movie deserved more than I'd rated.

Hired to help with a controversial South American leader's reelection campaign, a semi-retired US political consultant gradually embraces the challenge in this comedy-drama blend from David Gordon Green. Sandra Bullock has the lead role and does well within the confines of how her character is written. She has several great speechmaking scenes in which she throws out quotes left, right and centre. The tension between Bullock and rival campaign manager Billy Bob Thornton is also well conveyed and the film becomes especially interesting as it becomes increasingly apparent that Bullock sees the challenge as more about defeating Thornton and less about getting her candidate to win. This solid dramatic core is nevertheless often forced to take a backseat to silly comedic shenanigans. Some of the gags are admittedly amusing, but most of them are childish (Bullock throwing food at Thornton's hotel window; Bullock mooning Thornton from a moving van, etc), while some simply come off in poor taste - regardless of whether or not a llama was actually hurt in the making of the film. Humour of course varies per individual and there are no doubt some who will find the project funny, but even so, the tone of the movie is all over the place with such a pronounced comedic edge. The best political satires tend to be quite dark after all. Never to mind, the movie gives Bullock a chance to show off her acting chops and a strong supporting cast includes Anthony Mackie and Ann Dowd. There is quite a bit to like here even if it does not all add up.

Jane Bodine (Sandra Bullock)is a hardened, political consultant recruited by an American political campaign team to overcome a huge lead in the Bolivian election and get their candidate, Senator Pedro Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida) elected as the new President. Although slow to take charge and rally the troops, "Calamity" Jane eventually becomes the energized, back alley brawler she is known to be and throws herself completely into the challenge and at the same time settles an old score with her nemesis (Billy Bob Thornton). While critics maintain that Bullock's performance was lackluster, I saw her character, Jane Bodine,as fresh, original, and nuanced. Billy Bob Thornton reaffirmed his versatility as an actor and the remarkable footage of Bolivia established the invasive nature of the American puppet masers. I rate this movie 8 out of 10.

it is a drama/ but at the same time tries to be a comedy. Sandra Bullock plays a rather depressing soul. She's "retired" from the political game but gets dragged back in to help a candidate, Castillo, win the Bolivian presidency. She's moody and has a potato chip habit and can't get over the altitude sickness. But when she sees the front runner has her advisory, Billy Bob, working for him, she puts her game face on. She wants a negative campaign and even puts out that Castillo had an affair to blame it on Billy Bob so Castillo will agree to the smear campaign.Her tactics work and Castillo wins. But the ending is very weird. Because he breaks some campaign promises, causing the public to riot. Sandra sees even though she won, perhaps it wasn't the best thing. At the end, it says she's some kind of director for a Latin American organization.FINAL VERDICT: Not to great. Not one of Bullock's best roles. I say, avoid it.