Man of the Year: Critic Reviews

Robin Williams would never stand a chance, either as a presidential candidate or as a TV talk-show comic, a major drawback in a what-if scenario so self-congratulatory and smug.

In a pre-election season full of drama, contention and surprise, Man of the Year arrives on the scene with the blistering impact of a spoonful of cold mashed potatoes.

Cynicism or stupidity? It's hard to say which has the run of this idiotic satire in which Robin Williams plays a talk-show host who runs for president on a ticket of cleaning up politics.

When great premises go wrong, the result is movies like Man of the Year.

Man of the Year is a movie that can be smart-funny and astutely topical.

Man of the Year has to be one of the most frustrating dropped balls in recent multiplex memory.

In short, it would have been great if it had stopped, oh, 12 minutes in.

A few moments do not make a new Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Frank Capra can continue to rest in peace.

A few observations about the hollowness of party politics, plus Robin Williams doing lots of funny shtick as a Jon Stewart-like comic running for president, have been thrown together with low regard for logic or consistent tone.

Man of the Year isn't Movie of the Year. It might have been an ironic condemnation of electoral fraud and the malignant sway of corporate profits. But for a while, anyway, it had my vote.

At a time when politicians are most in question, [director] Levinson feels no qualms about depicting the process as a hilarious and yet dangerous farce.

There's a Preston Sturges lesson in Man of the Year: Entertaining folks is its own civic duty. At times, making citizens laugh (and think) might be the most honorable profession of all.

Williams' scene as Dobbs debating his presidential opponents alone is worth the price of admission to this film. It is laugh-out-loud hysterical.

Levinson has written and directed in many genres. But rarely has he made a film as indecisive and diffident as Man of the Year.

[Barry] Levinson has written and directed in many genres. But rarely has he made a film as indecisive and diffident as Man of the Year.

Mainly it's a shambles, though for once Williams gets to do what he's best at (his stand-up shtick), and the absurd story, no matter how carelessly assembled, keeps moving.

Barry Levinson, director of films as diverse as Diner, Bugsy, and Wag the Dog, is a national treasure. So, it is with deep disappointment that I report Man of the Year is dross.

In Man of the Year, a thriller without thrills collides with a mirthless comedy.

Man of the Year is a well-intentioned mess, a dated, yuk-it-up sloppy civics lesson with such a lack of conviction that it backs away from the very questions it poses.

Though Williams can still make us laugh, Man of the Year doesn't deserve your vote.

Pic eventually overcomes an awkward start and turns into a satisfying candidate for the disposable movie dollar with a story that stays on your mind.

Man of the Year is longer than the FDR administration, less funny than Calvin Coolidge and deader than Abe Lincoln.

It's a nearly tone-deaf satire of American politics and the culture of celebrity, a comedy without enough laughs, a satire without enough bite.

Man of the Year is a moderately funny little movie that isn't pointed enough to successfully skewer its political targets.

It's a comedy, a political thriller, a love story: Barry Levinson's Man of the Year tries to be all things to all people and fails on every count -- a little like the generic, ineffectual politicians it's pretending to excoriate.