Review for Long Shot

Charlotte Field is Secretary of State for the United States and is told by the current President, a former TV star, that he will not be running for a second term instead he wants to focus on trying to break into the movies. She is then given advice on her image from her team and at a function bumps into Fred an ex-Journalist who Charlotte babysat as a kid. She hires him (against the advice of her staff) to help write her speeches as she goes on a tour to promote her environmental policies.

Despite the two being completely opposite both grow an attraction to the other. However, Charlotte’s team do not approve of the relationship due to the potential damage it could cause to her political career. The two must decide whether love is more important than how they look on the grand stage and how this will affect whether she can become President.

This has got to be the best political comedy film I have seen in a long time. The comedy is so perfect simply because of how real it all felt. This film feels like it has its fingers on the pulse of the political climate at the moment. Charlize Theron is perfect as Charlotte and her chemistry with Seth Rogan as Fred is perfect in that almost throwback to When Harry Met Sally (Meg Ryan/Billy Crystal chemistry). The ensemble cast is one of the strongest I have seen with some standout performances. Bob Odenkirk as President Chambers is just perfect and the scenes with him running lines for a script are just comedy gold.

June Diane Raphael and Ravi Patel are a joy to watch as Charlotte’s staff and Andy Serkis is unrecognisable (as always) as the thoroughly vile media mogul Wembley. Finally, we have O’Shea Jackson Jr as Fred’s friend Lance who has one of the best revelations of the film and Alexander Skarsgard who steals every scene he is in as the Canadian Prime Minister.

My only issue, which is a little bit of a nit-pick, is that at nearly two hours it does take far too long to tell such a simple story. That is not to say I didn’t enjoy spending all the time with these characters, I just feel that it could have been sped up a little and potentially make it even more enjoyable. That being said, I have no issues with this film and despite the length, I enjoyed every minute of it.

There are multiple extras and these are all fine in general. If you enjoyed the film there is much to enjoy here.

All's Fair in Love and Politics: Making Long shot is a half hour look at the creation of the film. A lot is covered and what isn't is covered in the other extras. If I am honest I think I would have preferred a commentary from Seth, Charlize and maybe the Director as they clearly enjoyed making the film and want to talk about it and so that would have been a great opportunity to do so. As it is, this felt like just a quick brush over the film and though an indepth thing wasn't necessary it would have been nice to have had a little bit more.

Seven Minutes in Heaven: Seth and Charlize Uncensored is a number of questions for Seth and Charlize with them answering honestly about each other. This was nice, but only five questions were asked and I feel this should have been a quick fire one word answer/multiple questions thing.

Secret Weapons is a look at the supporting cast. This is a nice look at those members who are usually overlooked. What this does show is just how great and strong the supporting cast is with the likes of Breaking Bad's Bob Odenkirk, Straight Outta Compton's O'Shea Jackson and the wonderful June Diane Raphael (whose husband Paul Scheer also appears) who is one of the hosts on the excellent How Did This Get Made Podcast. It is also amazing to see the transformation of Andy Serkis who insisted on the make-up for his role.

Epic Flarsky Falls is a look at the behind the scenes of the two fall scenes in the film, how they were done safely. As with a lot of things like this, it did break a bit of the spell of the physical comedy that the scenes give, but if you wanted to know how they did it, especially the first one, it is interesting.

Prime Minister Steward O-Rama is a look at Alexander Skarsgard and how the whole character was more or less an on-set improvisation. His performance is great and if you have been watching Skarsgard in things like Big LIttle Lies you will be astounded by how funny he is.

Hanging with Boyz 2 Men is, as you can imagine, a look at the performance of the band. This is only really interesting for fans and is a little redundant otherwise.

Just Kinda Crushing It is just four minutes of B-Roll and could almost be a gag reel, but not all of it is people making mistakes or laughing. A bizarre extra.

The First Mister: A Portrait is a look at the end portrait that was really created by Spawn creator Todd Macfarlane. This was great to see how he created the piece of work.

An Imperfect Union is a look at the collaboration aspect of the film and is nice and you can tell that everyone really enjoyed working on the film. Love and Politics is a look at the romantic comedy aspect of the film which is nice as it clearly is that type of film. Films Like These feels like a rehash of the Secret Weapons and I'm not sure why it is included.
 
Long Shot is a great romantic comedy and also a great satirical swipe at the political world. If you are puzzled by Brexit, Trump or anything else, you may want to sit down and laugh with politics, rather than at it. It is not a long shot that you will enjoy this film.