Nick's Flicks

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifanakis - "The Campaign"

                

                  The Campaign

                  3 1/2 stars of 5

Immoral and dishonest Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is about to serve his fifth straight term in congress for district 14 of North Carolina; only thanks to the fact that he’s never had an opponent. However, once his approval rating tanks after an explicit sexual phone call to one of his supporters leaks, two wealthy businessmen seize the opportunity and enter a candidate of their own in hopes of having a pawn in congress to control district 14 in their favor in hopes of selling it to China for a massive profit. Their pick? Socially awkward and uncanny Marty Huggins (Zach Galifanakis). With a position in the U.S. congress and control over district 14 on the line, stakes couldn’t be higher. At first Cam’s opponent seems more like a joke than anything else, but as he begins to appeal to the district 14’s citizens and climb in the polls, it turns into an all-out, no-holds bared match between Brady and Higgins; doing whatever it takes to sink their opponent and win the election. Who will win? Will district 14 be sold to China?

I walked into the theater with low expectations for “The Campaign”, the trailer looked hilarious, but most all raunchy comedies aren’t very good; the sexual humor usually dries up about halfway through, and then you’re left with a terrible drama laced with awful jokes. I was quite surprised though, “The Campaign” exceeded my expectations by quite a lot. It wasn’t all just lazy sex jokes, there was also a lot of original slapstick comedy to laugh at. I could say I got at least 25 good laughs out of “The Campaign”. With the presidential election right around the corner in November, this was the prime time to release “The Campaign”, especially with all of the jabs our candidates are taking at each other seemingly daily. There were two things I disliked about

“The Campaign”, 1) most of the jokes were hit or miss, I would either find myself laughing my butt off, or sitting there feeling stupid when a joke was just made but I didn’t get it. 2) The character Cam Brady was terribly thought up. There was just nothing to like about him, the protagonist usually has at least one good quality to keep you rooting for them; however in this case Cam Brady came off as just a mean jerk and nothing more, I actually found myself cheering for Marty Higgins at one point. The main thing that I was excited about “The Campaign” for was Will Ferrell and Zach Galifanakis. Two of the best actors in the comedy department (in my opinion), a political comedy seems like the perfect plot for the duo. All in all “The Campaign” provided a lot of laughs and is definitely worth viewing. On a scale of evening price, matinee price, wait for it on DVD, or skip it; I rate it matinee price and three and a half of five stars.