You're Welcome America: A Final Night With George W. Bush (2009) Reviews

• people either like it or not, I liked it. It's the right decision ever (actual quote)

  Quinoa19842009-03-28

  Going through the history of George W. Bush, both as a man and as the 43rd President, is like dissecting a living, breathing train wreck that has a goofy look on its face like the train gave someone a wedgie before it went chuckling off the rails. Whatever your political views are, it's hard not to see Bush's flaws to one degree or another, and at the same time his status as a cultural icon (yes, icon, sad to say it's kind of true). So, Will Ferrell took a hold of that and did a one-man show as Bush going through his own history. One might see that it's just a long-form version of one of his SNL skits as Bush addressing the nation, but it also has that quality of the retrospective; this is Will Ferrell doing his own riff on that play (later Altman film) Secret Honor where Richard Nixon sat with a tape recorder going over his paranoid history as president. For Bush, history will judge him rightly (or rightfully?), but for Ferrell it's a chance to blend history with rumor and just downright surreal exaggeration, always for comic effect. Sometimes it doesn't totally work (I grew tired of the secret service guy dancing on stage; the lighting guys have a ball but it doesn't strike up the same amount of laughs as the star), but for the most part Ferrell and his writers have a blast with actual quotes from Bush, or just pictures of people from his cabinet (I busted a gut over his line about Richard Pearl being like a "Cuddly bear"), or just going completely off the wall about things like the rumored monkeys from Morocco for Iraq to detonate land mines. It is almost too much at times, but it's never less than amusing and at times it's some of the funniest material from Ferrell in years. Now, there will be some who may grow tired of the shtick faster than others; it's not a total laugh-a-second venture like with Ferrel's movies at their very best. There's even a few moments where there's an ironic seriousness, something about the whole show that is sobering to what the past 8 years have been like. For most fans it should be a treat, and maybe it will bring some non-fans over as well. It's crazy and smart satire with more hits than misses.

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• Excellent

  deathisrad2009-08-13

  Obviously someone missed the point of this. Will Ferrell has been playing this Bush character since his days on SNL and this is that character at his best. Most level headed people that don't tie political satire with extreme political biased, will understand that it's just a big goof; George Bush himself would probably find this to be quite amusing(maybe that's a stretch, but even Bush is smart enough to see that this is satire not a serious political movie). No matter your party affiliation, if you can think with a free mind and don't take everything that Will Ferrell says to be him preaching a serious liberal agenda, you should be able to enjoy this. I mean c'mon it's Will Ferrell, after Stranger Than Fiction I don't think he'll ever be serious again.

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• Quite a good performance

  melinda20012011-07-02

  It is really hard for me to judge this movie because it is politically charged, historically educational, and a rather scattered collection of lewd and extreme segments, all at once. The first two thirds were excellent and I laughed really hard and often. Much of what Farrel says about G.W. is both shocking and true, so there is some really valuable recent history delivered in a very entertaining way. No small feat. Some of the information was even shocking to learn and I had to look it up and always found that he was correct. I haven't looked up everything but I would bet that nearly everything he says that wasn't obviously a joke is completely true. The movie is very valuable for anyone who doesn't know much about G.W. or misremembers or just plain forgot. Even though the first two thirds has some really hilarious parts, it is shot through with some serious material which I did not mind. The performance takes an abrupt and very serious turn for the final third. I was OK with that too but was sad that most of the laughs were gone. Still, I thought the latter material dragged on far too long. So if you don't watch the whole thing that is perfectly OK. Just know that the wrap-up and interaction with the audience at the end is precious. You will either love this movie or love to hate it, so either way you win!

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• Spoof of George W. Bush.

  michaelRokeefe2009-03-28

  First of all I'm not an admirer of #43, President George W. Bush. Nor am I a fan of Will Ferrell, and probably never will be. This HBO special is tasteless, lewd, crude and a barrel of laughs. Ferrell of course lampooned Bush on Saturday Night Live and now has taken it to the stage. Mispronounced words and all the malapropisms along with the schoolboy bully stances and mannerisms are here. Sometimes seeming pointless, Ferrell uses all the ammunition W. gave the nation to find disappointment in. I found the vulgar language and manners a hoot. It actually gives you the feeling you are spending a night with the bitter Texas politician. I have yet to find much to laugh at in Ferrell's juvenile movies, but I did find this project funny. Maybe its just me. The visit does seem a bit too long and redundant. Ferrell's brother Patrick plays a Secret Service agent always standing by and Pia Glenn spoofs Condoleezza Rice.

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• Brilliant show by a brilliant mind

  Cartwheeling2009-03-20

  The show starts with a very funny message by (I think) Adam McKay as Dick Cheney. Moments later, we hear a chopper, and coming down from the ceiling strapped to another guy (who I first thought was McKay as well, but it later turned out it wasn't him) is Will Ferrell. The crowd starts to cheer; and they should as it was quite an entrance. Will has to wait patiently for about a minute for the crowd to stop cheering and clapping. As soon as he opened his mouth the laughter started and didn't stop until he left the stage about 75 minutes later, which generated even more cheering and clapping. Throughout the show there was some strong language, which I guess could be expected. It never went overboard though. Will did what he did best when he's in total control. He improvised a lot of the audience reactions like a master. Other than Will Ferrell we got to see his brother Patrick Ferrell as his bodyguard, who did a great job with a constant straight-face except for the times he'd do some highly impressive dance-moves as soon as Will Ferrell went to change his outfit (which he did pretty often). We also got to see a hilarious erotic dance-routine between Condoleezza Rice & Dubya that had the crowd in stitches. Of course, Will was smart enough to include the now infamous shoe-throwing incident that happened to Bush when he was in Iraq a couple of months ago, and made a hilarious bit out of that. He actually harassed a guy sitting two rows behind me during the show, which would later turn out to be the shoe-throwing man, not a real ticket-holder of the show. Now keep in mind, you don't have to have been very involved and alert regarding George W. Bush's eight years as president of the United States, you can still laugh your a** off at the material presented to you by Will Ferrell's great comedic mind, because the show is not all references of his two terms in the White House. But it certainly doesn't hurt to have been updated about some of the more known incidents during his period in office; it will definitely make you laugh more. For those of us very acquainted with his movies, we can spot several references from the two Ferrell/McKay movies Talladega Nights & Step Brothers. As if the show wasn't awesome enough and by far the funniest thing I have ever seen on any stage, I was actually handpicked by Will Ferrell in one of the bits of the show which requires a lot of improvisation from Will. The bit was this: He wanted the audience members to raise their hands, give him their name and what they do for a living and he would come up with a nickname for them, to show the audience he (Bush) is quick on his feet, if I remember correctly (he was talking about some of the qualities he had) So at first, I wasn't sure I wanted to do it, because I suspected I would stutter and make no sense with my Swedish accent (my English is good, but if I'm nervous when speaking English I'll sound terrible). He came by my part of the crowd (I was on the front row), I decided to raise my hand in the last second, but it was too late, he gave the opportunity to someone else. He then kept moving to the other sections of the audience. I thought he wouldn't come back to where I was sitting, but he did. As soon as I saw him walking towards my section, I raised my hand. Now before I share my brief but awesome interaction with him, keep in mind that the other members of the audience he talked to worked with traveling, human resources, store-owners & financial stuff. My job was the least attractive one up to that point. This is not 100% accurate of our words of exchange, but almost: Will: (walking towards me & looking at me while my heart rate goes through the roof, points his finger at me) You? Me: I'm ****** and I work in storage Will: You're ****** and you work in storage…? (Gives an odd look followed by laughter from the crowd) Me: Yeah Will: So you put stuff in boxes & sh!t? Move them around in different positions? Me: Yeah (laughing with the crowd) (Silence from Will while the crowd laughs at his physical reenactment of working in storage) Will: I'm gonna call you Captain Nerd! (at this time the audience laugh even harder, as did I, and I raised my hands and clapped with delight of my new nickname) It doesn't end there though. By the end of the show he reminisces about what he's said on stage, and says "I've come up with some cool nicknames…" He then turns his head towards me, looks & points at me, gives me a thumbs up and says "Captain Nerd…" In return I give him a thumbs up, and get two thumbs up from him back. The show ended about 2 minutes later and I walked out as if I was walking on clouds. Before I left the theater I bought a lot of merchandise from the show though! So to sum it all up, great show, lots of laughter & greatest night of my life.

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