Movie Review: The Campaign (2012)

When a director has a long string of hits under his belt consisting of two major film series (Austin Powers and the Fockers), it’s a bit of a surprise to see Jay Roach step into the political arena. With two made-for-HBO TV movies, Recount chronicling the aftermath of the 2000 U.S. presidential election and Game Change following John McCain’s 2008 campaign with running mate Sarah Palin, he shows no signs of letting his political guard down by bringing us the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis beat down, The Campaign.

Cam Brady (Ferrell) has run unopposed for the last 12 years in small town Hammond, NC. He loves his wife Rose (Katherine LaNasa) and their two kids Cam Jr. and Jessica (Madison Wolfe), but seems to love controversy just a little bit more. At first it solely consists of his mistress Shana (Kate Lang Johnson), but when his affair leads to a drunken voicemail left on the machine of Mr. and Mrs. Mendenhall (Jack McBrayer and Elizabeth Welles Berkes), it results in a dramatic decline of support. As his campaign manager Mitch (Jason Sudeikis) puts it, he’s no longer climbing like the yodeling mountain climber on The Price is Right.

The nefarious Motch brothers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) see this as the perfect time to strike to get their idea of “insourcing” moving along. This means that they need someone crazy enough to beat Brady at his own game in order to build a sweatshop in Hammond to bring jobs, not to the townsfolk, but to Chinese workers which will double their already doubled revenue. The Motch brothers call up Raymond Huggins (Brian Cox) whose son Mitch (Galifianakis) may be exactly who they’re looking for. Mitch too loves his wife Mitzy (Sarah Baker), their two sons Clay and Dylan (Grant Goodman and Kya Haywood), and their two pugs. But his perfect world is in an upheaval once Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott) pops up as his Motch-appointed campaign manager to “make him not suck.”

Article Author: Cinenerd

A Utah based writer, born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT for better and worse. Cinenerd has had an obsession with film his entire life, finally able to write about them since 2009, and the only thing he loves more are his wife and their two wiener dogs (Beatrix Kiddo and Pixar Animation). …

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