A disarming political satire perfectly calibrated to the national mood and to its revitalized star.
Comment
07/31/08
Swing Vote (2008)
37
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:141
Fresh:52
Rotten:89
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Despite Kevin Costner providing his most charismatic performance in years, Swing Vote fails to find the right mix of political satire and heartfelt drama.
Theatrical Release:26-09-2008
Synopsis: Writer/director Joshua Michael Stern (NEVERWAS) tackles American politics in his second feature film. Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner) is just your below-average Joe. He works in an egg factory, likes... [More]
Starring: Kevin Costner, Paula Patton, Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper
Director: Joshua Michael Stern
Reviews for Swing Vote
Swing Vote is the broadest, most meaningless kind of mainstream comedy.
07/31/08
Tonally and thematically all over the place. It's a political satire that is too soft and yet too cynical. It's a familial drama that wishes to tug at the heartstrings, but is done in by cloying prefabrication.
07/31/08
A mediocre Hollywood movie with a trite message about civic responsibility.
07/31/08
Well-intentioned and soft, this is yet another failed attempt to update the Capraesque (and Capracorn) political comedies of the Depression era. Do American films always have to reduce macro, real-politics to the micro, interpersonal level?
07/31/08
Swing Vote lopes along and is best taken as a tale of a father and a daughter coming through a rough patch to a better place, rather than anything to do with real-world politics.
07/31/08
The movie is a genial comedy, but it has significant undertones.
07/31/08
Top CriticI wanted to like it, and I liked many things about it, but man, slicing off about 20 minutes and three subplots would sure improve it.
07/31/08
By the time Bud sincerely apprehends his citizen responsibilities, Swing Vote has swung irrevocably toward condescension.
07/31/08
Smartly written by Jason Richman and Joshua Michael Stern (who also directed), Swing Vote isn't a realistic film -- it veers off course with a subplot involving Molly's absent mother -- but it often has the ring of truth.
07/31/08
After years of misfires, Kevin Costner has hit upon a strategy to make himself likable in a movie: by playing someone completely unlikable.
07/31/08
Swing Vote swings wildly between spot-on satire and bold-faced parody without ever quite striking a comfortable balance, and it’s nothing if not overstuffed.
07/31/08
...like watching James Stewart smile his way through The Lost Weekend.
07/31/08
Welcome to the first significant movie of Election 2008.
07/31/08
Lots of booze in mostly winning political comedy.
07/30/08
Swing Vote is more subtle and insightful than the dumbed-down comedy the marketing campaign would have us believe it to be.
07/30/08
Swing Vote may muster a few easy laughs, but the film is no contender.
07/30/08
In this climate, Kevin Costner’s boldly heartfelt new film Swing Vote is strange indeed.
07/30/08
Swing Vote is guilty of being the same thing that so many political candidates accuse each other of being: a flip-flopper.
07/30/08
A Shirley Temple movie camouflaged as political Capra-corn.
07/30/08
Latest News for Swing Vote
January 13, 2009:
With Costner's yokel having a decided preference for being handed a beer rather than a ballot, he does a pretty darn good job of exposing the phony platitudes and pandering of candidates, in a movie about bad news politicians and even badder parenting. 
More...
January 09, 2009:
With Costner's yokel having a decided preference for being handed a beer rather than a ballot, he does a pretty darn good job of exposing the phony platitudes and pandering of candidates, in a movie about bad news politicians and even badder parenting.
More...
August 18, 2008:
Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer Sued for Cribbing Swing Vote Script
Former Bush assistant and political pundit Bradley A. Blakeman claims the political comedy, in theaters now, was lifted from a script he spent eight years writing. More...
August 03, 2008:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: The Bat Still Going Strong, Three Weeks In
The Dark Knight won't losen its grip on the box office gold, but the Mummy is a very close silver. More...
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