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Movies / On DVD / Bobby
Bobby

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Bobby (2006)

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Reviews Counted: 160

Fresh: 72

Rotten:88

Average Rating: 5.6/10

Consensus: Despite best intentions from director Emilio Estevez and his ensemble cast, they succumb to a script filled with pointless subplots and awkward moments working too hard to parallel contemporary times.

Runtime: 2 hrs

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Nov 17, 2006 Limited

Box Office: $11,098,707

Synopsis: An ambitious labor of love from writer/director/star Emilio Estevez, BOBBY attempts to distill the hope, anger, and confusion that gripped the U.S. in the late 1960s. With the civil rights movement... An ambitious labor of love from writer/director/star Emilio Estevez, BOBBY attempts to distill the hope, anger, and confusion that gripped the U.S. in the late 1960s. With the civil rights movement still reeling from the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the country embroiled in the confusion of Vietnam, Senator Robert F. Kennedy's campaign preached a message of peace and tolerance. In a style similar to the sprawling works of Robert Altman or Paul Thomas Anderson, Estevez uses the June 4th, 1969, assassination of Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles as the means to take a snapshot of the problems facing the country as the 1960's came to an end. The hotel is a microcosm of class and race, with characters bouncing off each other until the violent conclusion. African-American head chef Edward (Laurence Fishburne) presides over a kitchen staffed primarily by Mexican Americans who are the victims of the racist restaurant manager, Timmons (Christian Slater). Timmons is reprimanded by hotel manager Paul Ebbers (William H. Macy), who is having an affair with a switchboard operator (Heather Graham) behind the back of his beautician wife (Sharon Stone). Meanwhile, a young Diane (Lindsay Lohan) prepares to marry her classmate, William (Elijah Wood), in order to save him from going to Vietnam, and two collegiate campaigners for Senator Kennedy remove their ties to take their first LSD trip, courtesy of a resident hippie drug dealer (Ashton Kutcher). Though the sheer volume of characters--and celebrities portraying them--is often overwhelming, Estevez is deft at making each plot thread convincing and involving. Though BOBBY is not a biopic and will in no way be mistaken for the definitive statement on the man or his life and times, it is thoroughly adept at distilling both his message and the time in which he fought to deliver it. [More]

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, Harry Belafonte, Nick Cannon, Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBeouf, William H. Macy

Director: Emilio Estevez

Director: Emilio Estevez
Producer: Ed Bass, Holly Wiersma
Composer: Mark Isham
Studio: Weinstein Company

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Release:

Apr 10, 2007

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Reviews for Bobby

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This movie as everything to do with Estevez' needy ego, and nothing to do with Bobby Kennedy. It is a disgrace.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
04/24/09
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Michael Atkinson
Boston Phoenix

a great cast but a little crowded

Full Review Source: sbs.is | comment Comment
07/05/08
Stefan Birgir Stefansson
sbs.is

Bobby throbs with tremendous contemporary relevance.

Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
BrandonFibbs.com

Emilio Estevez has done a terrific job with Bobby , a film that explores the lives of people who were at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the day that Robert Kennedy won the California primary and was shot to death.

Full Review Source: Movie Magazine International | comment Comment
07/22/07
Moira Sullivan
Movie Magazine International

Despite problems with its subplots, the larger story of the times and the man are so compelling, and the actors here are so capable, that the movie succeeds.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
06/08/07
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
05/12/07
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
03/09/07
Sydney Morning Herald
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The surprisingly masterful Bobby washes over you as a lament for a lost era, a lost legacy, a lost dream of the country that could have been.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
03/01/07
Frank Lovece
Film Journal International

A fascinating reflection of the times, when idealism and hope still held pride of place in the minds and hearts of the American public

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
03/01/07
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile

There's nothing worse than a movie that knows it's important, and Bobby reminds its audience of that fact in almost every scene through character development, dialogue and plot.

Full Review Source: IGN Movies | comment Comment
02/19/07
Todd Gilchrist
IGN Movies

The ensemble structure of 'Bobby' becomes problematic, because some the stories are clumsy and dull.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
02/11/07
Dan Lybarger
eFilmCritic.com

Fantasy icon super-imposed over a whole menu of subconscious collective thwarted desires.

Full Review Source: WBAI Web Radio | comment Comment
02/06/07
Prairie Miller
WBAI Web Radio

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
02/03/07
Melissa Anderson
Time Out New York

Quite apart from the fact that it's spectacularly uninventive and uncontroversial, it's just such a luvvie-fest.

Full Review Source: BBC Radio Five Live | comment Comment
01/29/07
Mark Kermode
BBC Radio Five Live

Strong on stars but short on real drama. Impressive but ultimately unmemorable.

Full Review Source: Sunday Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
01/28/07
Mark Adams
Sunday Mirror [UK]

This dim movie invites suicidal comparison with Altman's ensemble pieces.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
01/28/07
Philip French
Observer [UK]

It makes you wish you were watching a biopic of Robert Kennedy instead.

Full Review Source: Independent on Sunday | comment Comment
01/28/07
Nicholas Barber
Independent on Sunday

If Estevez’s drama had been as strong as [RFK's] speech, Bobby would have been a far better film.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment Comment
01/28/07
Cosmo Landesman
Sunday Times (UK)

Using his haunting elegy for Martin Luther King over the final scene, Estevez makes most of what's gone before seem entertaining enough but fairly trivial. This is not, after all, Grand Hotel.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
01/26/07
Derek Malcolm
This is London
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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