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Movies / On DVD / Bobby
Bobby

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Bobby (2006)

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Reviews Counted:161

Fresh:72

Rotten:89

Average Rating:5.6/10

Consensus: Despite best intentions from director Emilio Estevez and his ensemble cast, they succumb to a script filled with pointless subplots and awkward moments working too hard to parallel contemporary times.

Rated: 15

Runtime: 2 hrs

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:26-01-2007

Synopsis: An ambitious labor of love from writer/director/star Emilio Estevez, BOBBY attempts to distill the hope, anger, and confusion that gripped the U.S. in the late 1960s. With the civil rights movement... An ambitious labor of love from writer/director/star Emilio Estevez, BOBBY attempts to distill the hope, anger, and confusion that gripped the U.S. in the late 1960s. With the civil rights movement still reeling from the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the country embroiled in the confusion of Vietnam, Senator Robert F. Kennedy's campaign preached a message of peace and tolerance. In a style similar to the sprawling works of Robert Altman or Paul Thomas Anderson, Estevez uses the June 4th, 1969, assassination of Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as the means to take a snapshot of the problems facing the country as the 1960's came to an end. The hotel is a microcosm of class and race, with characters bouncing off each other until the violent conclusion. African-American head chef Edward (Laurence Fishburne) presides over a kitchen staffed primarily by Mexican Americans who are the victims of the racist restaurant manager, Timmons (Christian Slater). Timmons is reprimanded by hotel manager Paul Ebbers (William H. Macy), who is having an affair with a switchboard operator (Heather Graham) behind the back of his beautician wife (Sharon Stone). Meanwhile, a young Diane (Lindsay Lohan) prepares to marry her classmate, William (Elijah Wood), in order to save him from going to Vietnam, and two collegiate campaigners for Senator Kennedy remove their ties to take their first LSD trip, courtesy of a resident hippie drug dealer (Ashton Kutcher). Though the sheer volume of characters--and celebrities portraying them--is often overwhelming, Estevez is deft at making each plot thread convincing and involving. Though BOBBY is not a biopic and will in no way be mistaken for the definitive statement on the man or his life and times, it is thoroughly adept at distilling both his message and the time in which he fought to deliver it. [More]

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, Harry Belafonte, Nick Cannon, Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, William H. Macy

Director: Emilio Estevez

Director: Emilio Estevez
Producer: Ed Bass, Holly Wiersma
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: Weinstein Company

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for Bobby

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Quite apart from the fact that it's spectacularly uninventive and uncontroversial, it's just such a luvvie-fest.

Full Review Source: BBC Radio Five Live | comment Comment
01/29/07
Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode
BBC Radio Five Live
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Strong on stars but short on real drama. Impressive but ultimately unmemorable.

Full Review Source: Sunday Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
01/28/07
Mark Adams
Mark Adams
Sunday Mirror [UK]

This dim movie invites suicidal comparison with Altman's ensemble pieces.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
01/28/07
Philip French
Philip French
Observer [UK]

It makes you wish you were watching a biopic of Robert Kennedy instead.

Full Review Source: Independent on Sunday | comment Comment
01/28/07
Nicholas Barber
Nicholas Barber
Independent on Sunday

If Estevez’s drama had been as strong as [RFK's] speech, Bobby would have been a far better film.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment Comment
01/28/07
Cosmo Landesman
Cosmo Landesman
Sunday Times (UK)

Using his haunting elegy for Martin Luther King over the final scene, Estevez makes most of what's gone before seem entertaining enough but fairly trivial. This is not, after all, Grand Hotel.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
01/26/07
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

It's hard to dislike a film with such laudable ambition. But watching this feels like being kidnapped by a hippie parade.

Full Review Source: thelondonpaper | comment Comment
01/26/07
Stuart McGurk
Stuart McGurk
thelondonpaper

You can understand why somebody would want to make a film about such a famous "lost moment" in American history, but this celebrity ensemble piece is misconceived and poorly managed.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
01/26/07
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

The film plays more like an episode of The Love Boat than hard-hitting cinema.

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
01/26/07
Johnny Vaughan
Johnny Vaughan
Sun Online

Meandering, maudlin and totally missable.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
01/26/07
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

So, yet again, Hollywood's elite has produced a political tract that plays fast and loose with history from an empty-headed, politically correct perspective.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
01/26/07
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

A historical timepiece reverberating now. Preachy in parts, but Estevez’s Who’s Who of Hollywood lights up an impressive ensemble drama.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
01/26/07
Jonathan Dean
Jonathan Dean
Total Film

Few of the characterisations could fill the back of a matchbook, and, in refusing to see RFK as anything other than a liberal messiah, the film meanders through its political context with a white stick and a dopey smile.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
01/26/07
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Liberal Hollywood may well be looking for a uniting, inspiring figure of principle in these troubled times. Bobby Kennedy is a dull choice.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
01/26/07
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The profound grip of Bobby is that it’s about the murder of a dream, an eloquent requiem for what might have been, and a tragic reminder of how much that bullet cost.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
01/26/07
James Christopher
James Christopher
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's uneven but when Bobby's at its best it's unbelievably good.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
01/26/07
Richard Luck
Richard Luck
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Presents a blinkered look at the man and what he meant to Americans in the turbulent 60s, but nobody can accuse Estevez of lacking sincerity.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
01/26/07
Stella Papamichael
Stella Papamichael
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A remarkable ensemble in an uneven patchwork of loss, longing and the urgent necessity of a societal rethink.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/25/07
Angie Errigo
Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sprawling and fragmented, this multi-strand film comes together with a surprising punch in the end.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
11/02/06
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

[Estevez's] attempt to shoehorn what he sees as the grand themes of the period into a choppy, unsubtle and insubstantial script is embarrassing.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
10/30/06
Dave Calhoun
Dave Calhoun
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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