Super Frat

This better-than-average Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis vehicle centers around North Carolina election for Congressman and the two rich guys (Dan Aykroyd and John Lithgow) who secret fund it.  Ferrell plays Cam Brady, a career politician in his fourth term about to run unopposed for his fifth.  The rich guys (Aykroyd and Lithgow) are the Motch brothers an obvious nod to the Koch brothers, currently pouring money into the presidential election.

When Brady gets caught up in a scandal, the Motches decide to run Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) against him.  But Marty kind of an effeminate weirdo with two pugs and a local travel business.  Fortunately for him, the Motches send the ruthless Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), who nearly steals the show as Huggins’ shadowy campaign manager.  The funniest moments tend to be early on when Cam makes blunder after blunder and Marty transforms into a political dynamo.  Jason Sudeikis plays Cam’s campaign manager, but it’s pretty much a straight man role for him.

One of the drawbacks of this movie is that there are scenes in the commercial that do no appear in the film.  For some reason, the crossbow shot is actually a gun in the movie.  I thought the crossbow is funnier, but I guess the commercial couldn’t show that?  Weird.  Nothing pisses me off more than having teases of the DVD.  I paid ten-fucking-fifty to see this movie, I’m not renting or buying the DVD.  If I wanted to do that, I would’ve just waited a few months.

Also, every major cable TV news icon does a cameo.  I found it both funny and kind of upsetting at the same time.  Don’t these “journalists” have more important things to do?  Also, two running gags in the movie only get done twice.  Where’s the third follow up?  Gotta do comedies in threes.

Marty eventually realizes he’s sold his soul to politics and that it’s ruined the good man he was.  You can pretty much write the rest, but still, not bad.  Political junkies will note the asides to famous political scandals throughout the movie.  Those not-so-political will still probably get a good laugh or two, especially at Cam’s last TV commercial.

Should you rent it?  Well, I was going to say “no”, but now that I realize there are probably cut scenes on the DVD, I think I have to say wait for Netflix or rental.  But if you’re up for a comedy, you could do a whole lot worse than The Campaign.  You’re not going to rave about it, but you probably won’t feel that you completely wasted you money.  Unless of course, you wanted to see the extra scenes.

I give The Campaign 6 out of 10 keggers.