A Long Shot (2019) Review
It feels like every movie that Seth Rogen is in, he is the exact same character. A pot head who is down on his luck who gets the women of his dreams. Let’s be honest, if you’ve seen a movie where Seth Rogen is a main character, you’ve seen them all.
The story follows a journalist names Fred Flarsky (Seth Rogen) who quits his job and runs into his old baby sitter that he had a huge crush on. In walks Charlotte Field (Charlize Theron) the Secretary of State who is getting ready to run for President. And luckily enough, she needs a writer to help make her funnier to seem more open to the viewers.
None of the above bothers me. The part that gets annoying is the dated, on the nose, political commentary. I’m 90% sure Charlize Theron even said “Trump” instead of this universes version of him, President, no first name, Chambers (Bob Odenkirk). There is no subtly in this film, even the make believe news organizations share the exact same design and color scheme to their real life counterparts. It even violently leans to the Democratic/Liberal side where the Fox News of this universe is incredibly sexist and overall rude. And the CNN and MSNBC are the most unbias, most fair, news sources on the planet.
I’m fine with social commentary in movies, I think it’s needed, however this is so one sided, so unfair, so on the nose, to where it loses a lot of the comedy factor. Most of the jokes in this movie are either about sex or drugs or about the President. Everything about this movie felt juvenile.
The parts that weren’t so political felt very funny and genuine. I enjoyed the part to where Fred and Charlotte are running through a hotel during a civil war and had to hide which allowed their characters to be alone and bond. I liked seeing them yell and freak out because she was giving up on something she was so passionate about her whole life. That part felt genuine and something I could connect to.
Sadly the best parts of this movie are obscured by the political interest of the writers/director. The desire to get this out before the 2020 election lead to an uninterested hour and a half.
I’d give Long Shot a 5/10. Maybe if you’re down to light up and make some Trump jokes you’ll enjoy it more than I did.
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