Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

Great movie for the older members of a family

Tom Hawks and Julia Roberts do a good job, but I really think Philip Hoffman who is exceptional as the old, crusty, operative. My wife and I bought the DVD for our viewing and watched a couple of times when our son and daughter borrowed it to watch it with their friends. Everyone has really enjoyed it. September 18, 2008

A droll little "Charlie Wilson's War"

It's been a long time since I've seen a comedy which doesn't have to depend on toilet or sex jokes to make it funny but instead have great dialogue and an excellent cast in order for it to succeed. This film succeeds in spade due to Aaron Sorkin's(The West Wing, A Few Good Men) witty script and top notch performances from Tom Hanks as Wilson and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in an Oscar-nominated supporting performance as a CIA operative. Julia Roberts is also good as the Texas heiress but all the great lines are delivered by Hanks & Hoffman. If you like your comedy or dramedy with a light, droll touch--check this out!! Ironically it's based on a true story. September 16, 2008

Its a great story and Phillip Seymour Hoffman is VERY entertaining in it

This would be a 3.5* movie, except that Phillip Seymoour Hoffman absolutely nails his character and has some outstanding dialogue which is just hilarious. My favorite PSH character since Boggie Nights. August 25, 2008

Annoyed and insulted after watching this film.

With this cast - how could it be bad? Oh, what a disappointment. This film could've used a large dose of subtlety in many ways while taking the large effort it spent on unimportant BS and using it to drive home more meaningful points.

This was a wasted opportunity to tell an important story of our time no matter on which side of the aisle your politics reside.

I don't know exactly where to place the blame for this collosal load of crap, but here are a few brief observations:

- As for the characters, Hoffman's was very believable while Hanks and Roberts came across like caricatures - annoying and fake.

- Superfluous innuendo. Public butt-grabbing, nude hot tub parties, Congressman Wilson staffing his office with a brood of 25 year old hotties in tight skirts and sweaters, a constituent's daughter who can't keep her clothes on around him.... o-v-e-r-k-i-l-l. Distracting and unnecessary.

- The characters are quickly thrown together without enough background as to how and why. It's never clear, for instance, why Robert's excruciatingly wealthy Houston-based philathropist/glamorous b*tch character was so motivated to get deeply involved in equipping the Afghan people w/arms to fight the Soviets.

- Totally irrelevant side-scenes are thrown in, adding nothing at all - some random constituent visits his office to complain about being sued for displaying a nativity scene in front of a firehouse. Whatever - we get that Wilson is an elected representative. Why waste that time on some meaningless, trivial thing when much more important scenes could've been created that added depth and meaning to this film?

- Not nearly enough about the real politics and struggles surrounding this story. Big, gaping holes are left wide open while the viewer is distracted by the ridiculous triviality of Wilson's libido and drinking habits.

I gave 2 stars because Hoffman is really good and Hanks and Roberts do try - not sure how the dynamics got all screwed up but it can't be blamed wholly on their performances. It baffles me that movies like this get so much hype, and so undeservingly.
August 22, 2008

Whose War Is It Really?

If my dear Amazonian, you read no further than this sentence, know this: Charlie Wilson's War starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Hanks, and Julia Roberts (in order of best performances turned in mind you) as real world characters in what was really a war is a good flick...get it, watch it.

This movie, which is a very excellent movie, raises several important questions and issues. The first of which is that Tom Hanks sure looks better with a fuller head of hair than the one he sported in Da Vinci's Code and plays a much better Texas politician run morally playboy amuck trying to oust the Soviets from a little country called Afghanistan than he plays a crazy religious cryptologist that cracks the secrets of King Arthur's chalice or was it Jesus' last supper cup? Either way, Jesus, that Da Vinci code movie was not quite right and this little flick is a highly recommended view. Jesus, go get it now. Well not you Jesus because you'd probably rent the movie from Blockbuster or some place like that, because you know like you save and all, Jesus. But you Amazonian reading this...you're the one who should get this movie. It's good, really it is.

Evidently what I learned from the movie is that there is this real country called Afghanistan somewhere on the other side of the world and wars happen there all the time. The British tried to occupy the place and they got rousted by the tribal locals in a bad bad way. The Soviets also tried to occupy the place and then this religious nut job rich socialite from Houston up and decided Jesus told her to get the Mujahedeen some shoulder launched SAMS to knock those Hinds out of the sky and that was the way God needed to win the cold war. What? That sounds crazy but then so was the cold war and so are religious nut jobs from Texas and now from Pakistan or Saudi or Afghanistan for that matter.

So, evidently Charlie Wilson is from Texas' fifth district, a congressman who largely ran his office and his life like a scene out of Howard Stern's "Private Parts," and got converted to the cause of humanity by viewing a refugee camp in the largely unregulated border area in Pakistan called Waziristan and witnessed the lovely things mines can do. Granted the Soviets were probably a little harsher than most modern armys in the way they conducted their war but war is hell or so they say and yet it goes on day by day. I don't think it would be a spoiler for this movie to tell you that the Soviets eventually got kicked out of Afghanistan and this Houston rich lady was largely responsible. Now those Mujahedeen have re-named themselves the Taliban and Al Qaeda and are doing the same thing they've done for the last 100 years or so, trying to kick a foreign presence out of their country so they can get back to growing poppy fields and keeping their country pristine of roads and pavement and McDonald's and Starbucks. Oh, the tangled webs we weave. Someone should write a book on it, eh?

So Phillip Seymour Hoffman playing a renegade CIA agent is the real treat here. The man is a brilliant actor, let's face it. The scene of how he tries to manage-up with his CIA supervisor is a classic but unless you have really good job security in the place where you work, I'd recommend steering clear of giving your supervisor like feedback.

What are you waiting for? Stop reading this. Stop really. Just click on that helpful vote button because this review was written in an entertaining and informative style and then buy this DVD, you must really. It's the rage and what everyone will be talking about at Janet Reno's next dance party. ...mmw August 21, 2008

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