Video: Very clean video with maybe a couple of film spots now and then, Anamorphic for you anamorphic guys (ugly and downconverted for the rest of us)

Sound: Very good sound mix. Not too necessary for this movie, but very good nevertheless.

Extras: NO TRAILER!! Where is the trailer? The commentary seems pretty informative and not as dry as Ferris.

I'll agree with you on all the transfer aspects of this film, but the movie itself is just lame. If you bought this online don't open it just return it. I'm still mad I gave Hollywood $3 to rent this, but I feel a little better knowing that no store got more than the three Hollywood got. This ranks right up there with the piano, and dusk til dawn as the dumbest movies to ever cross my television screen. Save your money and buy a new pair of socks, you'll get more entertainment out of them than this movie. If i was alien i would give this movie 6 thumbs down, and I wouldn't even give it a comet, let alone a single star.

NcripSHUN-you didn't like this? I thought Election was one of the best films released so far this year... it is the most accurate, biting satire of high school aged politics I have seen.

Please tell me your kidding.When I went to high school, just five years ago, voting for class president was a joke, accurate in only that mtv released this film, thats in conjunction with all the other great films and programs that "company" is responsible for, after all they have given us Britney, Backdoor boys, and Five. The only accurate thing in the whole film is Ferris can't act, never could, and the blonde chick is hot. As for this being the best film of the year that you have seen, you might want to head on down to hollywood video and do some renting, you have alot of catching up to do.

Have to agree with ScottJ on this one. Well, maybe not on his description of Election as, "one of the most accurate," movies. Although the characters were more real than they are in your average Steven Spielberg movie, they were still exaggerated.

Anyway, definitely in the top ten of the year. Very funny (and entertaining).

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I hope you realize this "NcripSHUN". I loved the movie and I'm not kidding you. I hope you kidding about calling Matthew Broderick "Ferris" and the "blonde chick" has a name, Reese Witherspoon.

Wait, I'm sorry... Random memory time.

A couple of years ago, I was working in a supermarket when Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker came in. One of the girls I worked with saw them walking down an aisle and (I'm not kidding) yelled, "FERRIS!" He pretended not to hear, thankfully.

Horribly embarrasing.

I'm in high school, and electing the class president is a big deal. Some of the candidates take their campaigning very seriously, and the school itself places a large emphasis on the election.

My copy of "Election" just arrived this morning, and I haven't seen it yet so I'll post my thoughts sometime tomorrow. The girl who played Tammy in it is a St. Louisan who attends high school here, she was all over the St. Louis news when the movie was released.

--Heather

That's cool, Heather, Tammy is my favorite character in the movie. That young actress has a good career ahead of her.

I'd just like to add this movie is filled with hilarious ironies, that's what makes it so funny.

[This message has been edited by Gallant Pig (edited 10-20-1999).]

NcripShun:

I'm sorry to tell you, but you are in the minority, this movie was really good, it had a dark comedy humour that was very very funny. I would never recommend anyone buying a dvd without seeing it though, so go out and rent it. I think you will like it!

Actually I think that NCription guy is a "troll" posting flamebait.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I hope you realize this "NcripSHUN"--gallant pig then he adds Actually I think that NCription guy is a "troll" posting flamebait.
Think before you type. This really isn't a good movie, it has no entertainment value, it's over acted, Ferris should stick to running kids over in germany cause his career is washed up. Plain and simple this movie is just not that good flame or do whatever, if you want to be entertained don't rent this movie it's boring drawn out overacted, farfetched, and it comes from mtv..... save your cash Minority or not this movie sucks...my opinion take it or leave it-------LOVE THE FLAMEBAITING TROLL.....

I took the bait but then checked some of your other posts, if it smells like a troll, talks like a troll, and looks like a troll. Well you know the rest...

"Yes I do"

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I plan to (I already rented it from netflix). I don't know if it will be good, but based upon all the good reviews I've read, I'm guessing it should be. The critics seemed to love it. The only critic I saw that gave it a bad review, was the self pro-claimed "Christian Critic", who seemed to disapprove of it being too mean-spirited.

Anyways, I'll be sure to post my thoughts when I get around to watching it, but I'm really looking forward to it, despite the one forum member's complete hatred for it.

Thats the problem with reviewing movies, people don't always agree with what you write, but I suppose even Roger Ebert gets letters from people telling him he sucks and that his review was way off the mark. So here's the deal I didn't like the movie, you already know my problems with it, and since even i don't take anyones word for it ( I actually rented Life even though no one liked that movie except maybe some folks in the Life post) rent it, watch it then decide for yourself. I seem to have ruffled some feathers here so I'll just say this, you may like this movie, that's your right,I didn't movies for me are either supposed to be entertaining, well acted, an original story, or to take me away from reality, this movie FOR ME did none of thee above......but welcome to america a place where even ducks have a choice.....

I'm looking forward to your next review
(last word on the subject from me, go ahead and have the last word if you like)

Oh great, now I'm agreeing with "the self pro-claimed 'Christian Critic!'" What the hell has happened to me!

Actually, I am very mixed when it comes to this film. My biggest problem was that it doesn't seem to have a point of view. The film tries to pass itself off as an equal opportunity offender, which is fine; but the person (the filmmaker[s]) who is doing the offending don't seem to be judging people against any ideal scale. The characters aren't being mocked or ridiculed because they fail to live up to something; they are mocked and ridiculed simply for being alive.

There are some very good things about the film, especially Reese Witherspoon's performance. (Am I alone in believing her character is the most sympathetic one in the film?) I'm not going to go into any more details because I haven't seen it since it left theaters and my opinion might change once I view it again on DVD. Right now, I give it a marginal thumbs down, but it is close. If only I had laughed as much as I wanted to laugh.

NcripSHUN:

You haven't given any real reasons for why you didn't like the film, only that you didn't like the people behind it (if Mtv's involved it must be bad) and it was different from you life experience (class elections were a joke in your school.)

Also, Matthew Broderick's career is not washed up. As he has done for the majority of his career, he gives most of his attention to Broadway. And even with a de-emphasis on film work, he still manages to be in 1-2 Hollywood studio pictures per year.




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"If it were all in the script, why make the film?"--Nicholas Ray

*spoilers if you haven't seen the movie ahead*
Blip, are you talking about the CAP guy (self proclaimed christian critic)? I read his review of Election and hadn't realized what a raving homophobe he was: "Tammy's character is promoting homosexuality and giving it a good light", ugh..

I think you have a good assessment of the movie, but I have to differ on Reese's character being the most sympathetic one. I believe Tammy is the mosth sympathetic one, and the Reese (Flick) and Matthew's (Mccallister)characters come of as hypocrites. Remember Tammy saves Tracy from trouble (I'm sure she could have gotten suspended another way) and only seems to be looking for someone to love. Yeah she joined the election just to make her friend mad, but I saw it as something done in the heat of the moment. Mr M and Tracy on the other hand always have alterior motives and constantly contradict their thoughts and actions. My favorite scene however is at the end where Mr M chucks the pop at Tracy's limo in one final primal urge of hate.

I didn't laugh that hard in the theater, but now that I've seen this several times on DVD, it is probably the funniest movie in my collection, including office space (well maybe not fargo).

I liked the fact the director didn't cast hollywood type actors for all the roles, listen to the commentary and you'll hear where he got lots of the different actors from.

Gallant Pig:

I was refering to DodgingCars post about the Christian Critic and the fact that he thought it was mean-spirited. I don't know the critic myself and didn't even realize that he was a specific critic. I thought Dodging just couldn't remember the guy's name. I only agree with the critic in relation to what was said in DodgingCars's post. And I certainly do not share his homophobia.


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"If it were all in the script, why make the film?"--Nicholas Ray

Blip, no sweat, I wasn't trying to imply you are a homophobe, just interesting that someone would side with that fool, but now I see what you mean.. Yeah it's not very easy on the characters, no one really shines through and no one walks away 100 percent. between Mr. M and Tracy, I think Tracy got the better end of it. What a great irony at the end when he's talking about his apartment and they flash his rent payment on screen.

Later on buddy

Okay, I watched this last night. I don't understand what the big deal is that MTV produced it. It's not like it starred Kurt Loder and Serena Altschul.

I liked "Election," particularly the writing and the acting. Other aspects of the film I liked (Read no further if you haven't seen it yet): That Mr. McAllister is no better than his friend Dave, whom he originally admonishes. Not because Mr. McAllister was planning to cheat on his wife, but because he seduced Paul into politics just as his friend seduced Tracy. I thought Tammy was the most sympathetic character. If I felt any sympathy at all towards Tracy it was because of how severely misguided she is. She is the type of person who thinks that some people are destined to become special, not that they're born special (aside from her whole power hungry, shrewd mentality), and of course she'll do anything to get what she wants, but at what cost?

McAllister was only thinking of himself throughout the movie, and Tracy of herself, so I thought it was refreshing that instead of making everyone completely self-centered, Paul was thinking of Tammy and Tammy of Paul. Overall I really enjoyed "Election," and found it amusing (especially when Tammy's parents decide to send her to a Catholic school to "straighten" her out and don't understand her little grin).

--Heather


[This message has been edited by DVDer (edited 10-22-1999).]

Gallant Pig & DVDer:

Clearly, the film itself is most sympathetic to Tammy, who shares the film's belief of not really caring about anything and having a mistaken belief that there is some value in that. On the other hand, Tracy actually believes in stuff and things have meaning and value for her. In this way, she is the true outsider of the film; and, as someone who has rarely shared the tastes and opinions of the people in my own stratum, I tend to side with the outsider.

On another note (actually the same note): Last night I looked up reviews on the net to see if anybody else found Witherspoon's character sympathetic and I found one. Stuart Klawans in The Nation Here's the link:
http://www.thenation.com/

I couldn't link to the review directly, but just type in "Election" in their search function and it will be the first entry to pop up.

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"If it were all in the script, why make the film?"--Nicholas Ray

Yeah, Blip, I understand why Tracy is considered sympathetic. And though I felt somewhat sympathetic to her, I found myself not having much sympathy for the position she got herself into. That is fine that she actually believes in something, but she believes in it for the wrong reasons (in my opinion).

The reason I found Tammy to be sympathetic was that even though she "shared the film's belief of not really caring about anything and having a mistaken belief that there is some value in that" she did care about something. And she did find value in that, not in her belief of not really caring about anything (regardless of whether she'd ever admit it).

--Heather

Election was lousy - even to a fan of dark satire like myself.

In fact, most people didn't like Election. It only made $14.9 million in its theater run (from the-numbers.com, which tracks box office totals.) But that's a side-note - the public is known to shun great movies and flock to trash.

My biggest problem with the script. The movie just lacks focus: it tries to cover too much, and some (especially his breakup with his wife) comes off as distracting and superfluous. I call this "Claire Daines/Rainmaker Syndrome" - a sideplot that could be scrapped without really losing anything from the movie.

The acting is top-notch, and the movie does have its moments. Some of the satire, like American Beauty, is dead-on, but others just flop about aimlessly. All in all, I'd recommend this for rental, but that's about it.

- David Stein

I'm in high school, and most people could care less who wins student council elections--in fact, last year 2 of 4 positions had only one person running (and there are 3,700 kids at my school). As the movie points out, the only people student council elections matter to are the ones who are running.

I thought the movie was ok--not as good as I thought it would be.

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