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This Film Is NOT a Crook 2010-03-05

Reviewer: Rev. E. Antonio Hernandez

As a rule, I do not like the stellar Oliver Platt being underused, and worse, used for comic relief.

Having got that off my barrel-chest, this is indeed a film not to be ignored, not to be missed.

The story of the David Frost interviews of President Richard Nixon need no dead-horse-beating here; this film is the subject and it is a home run! Howard's finest work by far, and he's had some sagging box office lately.

Frank Langella has always buried himself in roles. This film, as a study of Pres. Nixon's character and presence, could not have been played better by anyone on earth. When Oliver Stone picked Sir Anthony Hopkins to play Nixon, everyone laughed. It was a poor move. Dan Hedaya ("Dick") was absolutely hilarious as a caricature. This film needed badly to avoid that "Nixon Trap".

Langella is powerful, charismatic and as fearsome as Nixon could be in private--all the things not generally known about Nixon. One almost feels for Nixon thanks to Langella's terrific portrayal--and one almost falls for him too. Without nonsense, without strain, Langella IS Nixon here. It is this that makes the film, it is this detail that spreads like a canopy over the film and cannot be missed.

The late-night call Nixon makes to Michael Sheen's Frost, while decent poetic license, is in fact the type of thing Nixon might have done anyway--it is in any event true to Nixon's character (and character flaws). It is a blast to see Nixon willing to come clean in the end, and his on-camera meltdown. Langella did it better than Nixon. In fact, Langella is a better Nixon than Nixon. Perhaps with this film people will lose this occasional obsession about Nixon's character.

Michael Sheen is hard working, talented and my nerves are grated by him. I do not know what the hell it is or why, but I cannot say I'm such a great fan of his. He gets every note perfectly, and is passable as Frost, but he just rakes at my ears with his voice and frankly pisses me off with his eyes and smile. Sheen has an acting machine in him that seems to regurgitate the same character time and again. This film didn't miss the chance to nail Sheen: early on, he's on the phone with Nixon who regally slams the receiver down in Frost's ear. Funny, there's an IDENTICAL scene in "The Queen", with PM Blair getting an identical slam from Her Majesty. Sheen even rolls his eyes and purses his lips in exactly the same way. Did Ron Howard ask him to do that?

Annoying, too, was the mockumentary crap inserted at odd intervals. What is this, "60 Minutes"-on-Ron-Howard's-actors?!

Get this movie, but don't miss the chance to get the true interviews. You could teach your children with this stuff--especially how not to fall for the charisma of slick, crooked liars.

Frost / Nixon DVD 2010-03-02

Reviewer: Raymond V. Magallanes

Excellant movie. Very good price, quick delievery. What more can
you ask for ?

I Beg Your Pardon 2010-02-25

Reviewer: !Edwin C. Pauzer

In 1975, President Ford decided to grant Richard Milhous Nixon a full and complete pardon for crimes he may have committed in the past. He was pardoned before there was even a trial or an arrest. To Americans who wanted accountability for what he had done, this was a mockery to their sense of justice.

This is where our movie begins. David Frost is a comedian turned talk show host who has lost his program in New York, and resurrects himself in Australia. He is considered a light-weight, but he is also ambitious. He plans to interview disgraced President Richard M. Nixon, even though no major network will fund him or give him air time. Well played by Michael Sheen, he feels that this is one chance to remain in the limelight or he will sink into oblivion if the project fails.

Richard Nixon, played by Frank Langella wishes to resurrect his career and move back East, and to prominence once again. Swifty Lazar, a public relations agent, played by Toby Jones, plays the seedy, vertically-challenged hustler for the president arranging the interview for a half-million dollars. This sets the stage for both men attempting to use each other to resurrect their careers.

Each side has a team to coach the principals. Both sides know the four interviews are "do or die." Kevin Bacon as Jack Brennan coaches Dick Nixon, and Sam Rockwell as James Reston Jr., and Oliver Platt as Bob Zelnick are pushing Frost to go harder on Nixon. Reston can almost taste the justice dripping from the camera, the justice he felt he had been denied, and the research he has found for Frost that is a bombshell. And you won't find out until the fourth interview in the movie, just as it happened in real life.

The performances are intense without being overacted. Once in a while Frank Langella is allowed to demonstrate his acting range, and he stretches this one the furthest, turning in a superb performance of Nixon with his gestures, a face that grimaces with suspicion and emotion, and a voice that reminds us of Nixon. He appears a pathetic and deluded figure, who is intensely lonely and seeks vindication.

The direction by Ron Howard is excellent, but Howard never quite achieves the status of others like Frank Capra, Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, or David Lean. He doesn't with this one either, which makes it a great movie to watch but not a great movie to buy. One viewing should be enough to excite or remove your curiosity about an unprecedented event in American history. (Well, he never promised us a rose garden).

I would recommend his next attempt be a look at the secrecy that permeated this last administration, an administration that did not trust the people but demanded the people trust them. Perhaps it will lead to the accountability that many Americans believe escaped the last occupant of the White House.

It should be very suspenseful.

More revisionist history from Hollywood 2010-02-22

Reviewer: Drive-In Kid

If you are interested in the Frost/Nixon interviews, you are better off watching the real thing. This movie invents entire conversations and events that never happened. I think it is because liberals like Ron Howard aren't satisfied with the actual historical record. It simply is not critical enough of their political adversaries. So, like any good propagandist, Howard just makes stuff up and tries to pass it off as actual history, similar to Oliver Stone and Michael Moore. The climactic "phone call" scene in this movie is completely made up. It was not some minor dramatic plot device either, the entire arc of the story pivots at that point.

There is a character monologue towards the end of the movie attributed to James Reston. The irony is that he is lamenting the fact that television sometimes does not properly convey the "truth", but he goes on to say the Frost/Nixon interviews somehow succeeded in doing that. Interesting this would be in a film which completely demolishes the historical truth of the event it is chronicling. It was nice to see the film failed financially as most people weren't drawn into this pointless exercise.

excellent 2010-02-18

Reviewer: William R. Nicholas

David Frost was the equivelent of an Asrailian Mike Dougles when he decided to interview Richard Nixon in 1977. He could not get backing,and sank his own millions into the project.

Nixon wins at first playind dodge ball with Frost, but when Dick drunkenly calls David one night--after the project looked like a dive-Frost gets the personal insight he needs to crack Nixon open.

Typical Ron Howard, triumph over adversity. The acting here is great and the story is entertaining. This movie does not go into nearly the detail on tricky Dick that Oliver Stone's Nixon is; that film may be good backround for Frost/Nixon. Frank Langella's sketch is not close to being as dark as Anthony Hopkins.

But for acting and story, this is exellent.