Vice (Movie) Review

Back a few years ago, Adam McKay made an adaptation of The Big Short, a story about the housing crisis in the mid 2000s. It was not the biggest hit, but it garnered awards. Vice is making that same kind of impact, though with lesser success critically and commercially. I think it's the subject matter, and with a film on politics and targeting conservatives, you can see where McKay was going.

The whole movie is centered around Dick Cheney. Outside of a brief scene of dealing with September 11th, the first half focuses on the pre-2000 days of him. McKay portrays him as a complete idiot who partied too much and needing to shape up for his wife, Lynne. After that, they show parts of his time being involved with Republicans in the White House. They don't explain too much, and I don't know if either McKay's liberalism is the reason or they didn't go through and see what made Cheney such a figure in being around Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. The third be because it's such a long movie, there was some cuts that were made. Either way, they make it out as Cheney working hard and following the ideals of Republicans, particularly with Donald Rumsfeld. A little humor at a few spots, but otherwise, it's serious.

For the second half, it goes on about Cheney being George W. Bush's Vice President. I don't know how accurate Vice is as McKay and company don't know the exact details. He goes in a direction that isn't too surprising. Cheney asks for a bit of power and Bush agrees. Most of the focus is on September 11th and the Iraq war. A couple other things, but overall, those two examples are what they go after. I get Bush was not too great of a President in the eyes of many, but I don't feel like I learned anything about Cheney's power. It feels like they had to rush through some of the parts of the 2000s, trying to cover all the big moments within an allotted time. They make him out as this big monster who could do anything he want. However, some of the stuff and reading some articles, is accurate in some ways.

Throughout the film, there is narration from a normal person and there is a lot of reliance on good and bad images and footage. I guess it's to paint the picture on life and how things go in certain situations. I do think McKay was trying to get the story out there on what Cheney was like. It's a mix of both what actually happened and a bit of a bias on his part. More of the bias being shown in the second half of it, though as mentioned, a bit of it being accurate. Thinking about it now, it does feel like an excuse a little bit to bash Donald Trump. Whether that's intentional, I don't know. I don't blame the mixed reception. It's rather hard to make a political film in today's world.

Christian Bale does a great job portraying Cheney. Amy Adams is fantastic as wife Lynne. Sam Rockwell does a good George Bush in appearance and voice. One strange casting choice is Steve Carell as Rumsfeld. He comes off as a goofball in most of his scenes. I understand Carell is more of a comedy guy doing tons of movies and television shows, but I think they could have done better in finding another person unless they made it that way. Another weird choice is Tyler Perry as Colin Powell. The few scenes of him are very meh.

Vice dances on that fine line of at worst being an okay film and at best, decent to good. It's far from horrible, but the cast made the best of the questionable script. It also dances on that line of being accurate but also having a bit of bias from McKay. Your mileage will vary. If you think it's worth watching, go check out it. If not, then you're not missing too much.

Score: 6 out of 10