A gripping drama edged with sly humour.
Comment
01/01/00
Primary Colors (1998)
79
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:73
Fresh:58
Rotten:15
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Well acted and suprisingly funny.
Runtime: 2 hrs 24 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: In Mike Nichols's PRIMARY COLORS, America's topsy-turvy political process is viewed through the eyes of Henry Burton (Adrian Lester), an idealistic young man who is seduced into managing the... [More]
Starring: John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Kathy Bates, Billy Bob Thornton
Director: Mike Nichols
Reviews for Primary Colors
Top CriticA great cast -- led by a charming Travolta, an effectively steely Emma Thompson and a perfectly foul-mouthed Kathy Bates -- relishes the lines and bites the hand that governs them.
01/01/00
Top CriticAs satire, it's toothless and indulgent; as drama of conscience, it's not a patch on real life...
06/24/06
Top CriticFor the most part, Mike Nichols' film is a brilliant piece of work.
01/01/00
Despite the political milieu's rampant cynicism, the movie remains optimistic -- no mean feat.
01/01/00
No review available.
07/12/02
The sad part is that while any old hack could have directed Primary Colors about as well as Nichols did, the kinds of movies that only Mike Nichols' brains and sensibility could produce hardly ever get made anymore.
01/01/00
Both a celebration and an indictment of the American political system.
01/01/00
A first-rate satire.
01/01/00
Director Mike Nichols never allows Primary Colors to get bogged down in a moralistic morass.
01/01/00
A slack, tepid picture stuck in a no man's land between satire and drama.
01/01/00
It used to be that we had to wait 20 years for the fictionalization of history -- now that gap seems to have closed to less than five years. Kinda sad. But also kinda entertaining!
12/06/05
Worth a look, but don't expect any great insights into the workings of the system ... or the workings of Clinton's mind.
01/01/00
Maintains a fairly deft sense of irony and emotional resourcefulness with regard to its subject, which is, most broadly, the complicated interrelations among politics, sex, ethics and the press.
01/01/00
A great political pot-boiler.
01/01/00
This entertaining but rather peculiar movie asks extraordinary questions, and I wish it were better equipped to give the answers.
01/01/00
It's hard for me fully to express how deeply rotten I think Primary Colors is. Adjectives like 'glib,' 'coarse,' and 'sour' don't fully do it.
01/01/00
Primary Colors has all the right intentions.
01/01/00
Striking an excellent balance between wry cultural critique and crisp entertainment value, the picture is as smart and funny as any comedy-drama in recent memory.
01/01/00
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