The Campaign

Jay Roach’s new film, The Campaign, has been released to coincide and take advantage of the race for the US presidential election, or, as I’m reviewing this so late down the line, I should say it was released to pick up on the interest surrounding Obama v Romney from a few months ago. Electioneering is pretty dull for most people, but it’s ripe for satirical treatment. This being a Roach film though you’ll be unsurprised to hear that this is hardly Bob Roberts, but though the comedy here is mainly broad, it does have two things going for it that are the complete opposite of a real life election campaign. It’s short (only 85 minutes!) and it understands the cringingly bombastic nature and lack of humility that characterises these goings on. Roach’s film isn’t actually about a Presidential election campaign, but a battle for a place in Congress. This is a wise decision as is means there is more room to manoeuvre with the script. Vying for the seat are Democrat Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) and, following some machinations from corrupt local businessmen (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow, both barely breaking a sweat), former tourist shop owner Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) reluctantly running on the Republican ticket. Both Ferrell and Galifianakis are well cast in the leading roles, having decent chemistry and both having fun playing against “political” type (Ferrell as a loudmouth Democrat, full of bluster and Galifianakis camping it up as a soft Republican). Roach hasn’t directed anything decent for a while now, but the man behind the camera for Meet The Parents and Austin Powers still knows that the more gags you have onscreen the more chance there is a laugh for someone, somewhere. The short running time also helps as it does become a bit repetitive at times, though Roach tries to get over this by introducing scenes that get progressively outrageous. In respect of that, and as hinted at above, along with the standard lampooning of peeps from The South (this is partially written by Eastbound & Down writer Shawn Harwell) the humour does trip over into being overly offensive at times. Basically, if you find the silly answer phone message left by Ferrell at the start of the film amusing, you’ll probably going to enjoy most of the rest of what follows. If you want biting satire, you need to look elsewhere. However. this is over the top dumb fun, highlighted in what is the funniest scene of 2012 involving a slow motion shot of Ferrell punching a baby in the face. Yep, you read that right.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict

Give it a vote. Rating: 7/10.