The pReview Re-viewing of..
The Campaign
CLICK THE TITLE TO VIEW THE TRAILER IN A SEPARATE WINDOW
(it is highly recommended to view the trailer and THEN read!)
(warning: Reality is stranger than fiction.. But this fiction is pretty damn close to reality. Fuck.)
by Jeff Finck
written: 7/10/2012
Release Date: August 10, 2012
The premise: Will Ferrell plays a four-peat senator from North Carolina called Cam Brady. While running for a fifth term, Cam somehow manages to piss off his political backers by.. I don't know.. Giving them all wet willies.. Or Rick-Rolling them.. Or playing Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe on repeat for 12 hours straight through a megaphone outside of their offices.. Or some.. Other equally horrible thing. (Who am I kidding, I fucking LOVE Call Me Maybe!) Regardless of what his transgression will end up being (knowing past Will Ferrell movies, his gaffe will have something to do with ignorance, chauvinism, and bravado. Something like, "Hi, I'm Cam Brady.. And I am going to rape your face with my handsomeness. And if you don't let me.. I. Will. Rape you." Something along those lines..) As Cam begins tanking his campaign, it becomes evident that his antics aren't going to hinder him THAT much on account of the fact that he's running unopposed. Enter Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis). Marty is conditioned to run against Cam by Cam’s former backers in order to get revenge on him for probably telling a child that he thinks if Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go! had dinosaur kids together, that they wouldn't survive long on account of all the tacos they would be eating. Which sounds like a very racist comment.. But if you think about it.. It’s also a fairly racist picture.
The trailer starts out in true Will Ferrell-braggadocious fashion. (think: Every line from Anchorman) Cam, admiring himself in a compact, lets his campaign manager (Jason Sudeikis) know that his hair could lift a car off of a baby. Unlikely. Not one person's hair is capable of such a feat.. Unless you're that girl from Tangled, Sindel from Mortal Kombat, any demon chick in any martial arts movie.. Or fucking Willow Smith. Okay.. So, no MAN'S hair is capable of such a feat.
Continuing on the John Edwards train (Dear God, please never let me utter that phrase ever again), Will Ferrell takes his overly tended looks on the road to pander to-- I mean, pander to citizens in his North Carolina district. Will Ferrell is channeling Edwards and Mitt Romney so hard that it looks effortless. Cam is trying to rally the people of his district: The educators, farmers, bankers, women, veterans, and even the Filipino Tilt-O-Whirl operators. Though, he proves it isn't entirely pandering by closing out his speech to the Tilt-O-Whirl operators with a hearty "Salamat!" (Which everyone knows, Salamat means "It was very lovely speaking at you today, vote for me, I learned one word of your language.") Even with all his pandering, rallying of support, and dashing style, it seems as though it is all just for show: It’s pointed out that just by signing the registration ballot, he will win his fifth term, hands down, because not one person sacked up and ran against him. That's like having a Walmart raffle that excludes Walmart employees in a small town where everyone but Carl, the crazy but well-dressed homeless man works there.
As Cam is about to make his fifth term official, in walks Zach Galifianakis' little Marty Huggins. Huggins becomes the dark horse, effeminate, creepy mustachioed foil of Will Ferrell's Mr. Brady. Well.. He walks in after figuring out the door.. With some effort. Naive and painfully shy, Marty manages to still put up a pretty well fought battle versus the incumbent senator. Marty prepares himself.. But more importantly, he prepares his family. His wife and two sons at dinner mull over possible targets for smear ads, and one of his sons volunteers that he's a dirty Lord's-Name-In-Vain-Say-er, while his other son, albeit slightly more tame, offers up that he tricked the local goat into thinking his pee-pee was a freaking salt lick. And goats fucking LOVE salt licks!
The two candidates start to go after each other hardcore as the trailer hits the middle mark. Everything is fair game: Be it ill omens from Greek folklore involving brides-to-be, fart balloons, comparisons of ones mother to household appliances that double entendre with sexual acts, or even live, male genital caressing. But the whole movie can't just be smear tactics, right? Of course not! The hopeful congressmen have to get out into the streets! We've already seen Cam take a crack at pandering.. Now, it's time to check out what Marty can do! Marty takes on a Jewish synagogue with all the charisma of Judas at a "Welcome Back, Jesus" convention. First he thinks he's wearing a Yamaha, and then he mispronounces balagan as Donkey Kong. But to be fair, it is a well-known fact that Donkey Kong was Jewish.. AND very messy.
Then the holy war begins. Cam takes to every religion like Mitt Romney takes to stances. He's shown hamming it up and rocking out for God in a gospel choir.. He looks like he's falling asleep trying to reach Kurt Cobain in a Buddhist meditation garden.. And at one point he takes the Book of Mark and the Book of Luke WAY too seriously. I assume at a Pentecostal church.. This culminates when he is bitten by a snake and makes a call to arms to shove a throwing star up a Chinese monk’s ass. Which sound uncomfortable until you look at this:
Huggins' campaign slogan, "It's a mess." is pretty spot on as the trailer winds down. Mean mugging turns to anger, anger turns to hate, hate leads to suffering.. And it'll all, of course, end up at a party in the Dark Side’s one bedroom apartment full of empty promises and Republican hot air. Sure enough, a full on fracas unfolds: Fist fights and manhandling.. At one point Marty actually shoots Cam with a freaking crossbow and then turns and goes about his business.. Which isn't quite Cheney-balls, but pretty close. Of note, Cam refers to himself as a Black Hawk. This, of course implies that he is probably a Transformer and needs to get some Energon quickly so he can heal up for the rest of the campaign!
I know that a lot of people are on the "I hate Will Ferrell" bandwagon, but I can honestly say that I am not one of them. So far, I don't think I've seen a Will Ferrell movie that I hate.. I should rephrase: I haven't seen a Will Ferrell role I hate. And this basically looks like Talladega Nights meets Blades of Glory.. So, you know, win/win. Not to mention, Zach Galifianakis, who is taking a step outside his ridiculously funny, deadpan deliveries. He's basically taking the character he created (his twin brother, Seth Galifianakis) to the next level and wrapping him up inside of this insane ride through North Carolinian politics. The guy who directed all of the Austin Powers movies and Mystery, Alaska (I shudder to mention the Fockers movies and Dinner With Schmucks, but he did those, too) is behind this, so it will at least be in decent directorial hands. But the writers of Eastbound & Down (Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell) are the guys who brought this into existence, so it should be painfully funny. I can't effing wait, though! Oh! I almost forgot to mention! There's a baby in this.. With an iron jaw! (Probably.)
Who will YOU be rooting for?