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The Worst Film Ever

Crappy film

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Director Steven Zallian appears NOT to have got the best out of his stars, Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo and James Gandolfini. They all give us below par performances. Sean Penn (an excellent actor) is terrible in this. He is in the lead role and is so bad...he is almost funny. When a movies lead actor is not functioning, the movie is in dire straights...before the cue ball has been touched. Its very possible that the other principle actors were so surprised by Penns inadequacies, that they just switched off. After the first scene, Zalliain should have had a long chat with Penn, and told him to play the character he was supposed to be playing (maybe he did !!). Whatever..this is a very poor motion picture. In the D.V.D. extras one of the actors said he felt he had such a great time...and the parties were amazing (or words like that). Under another director this could have been a pretty good movie. As it is, this is messy and not worth watching.

I just can't imagine how this film did not generate more money at the box office. Look at the star-studded cast: Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Mark Ruffalo, James Gandolfini, just to name a few. You have three Oscar winners in that crop of stars. I mean on name recognition alone more people should have gone to see it. Penn did a great job in his role as Willie Stark. Penn is an avid political activist and it was great to see him play a politician in one of his films. His role as Harvey Milk was better than this but still the Willie Stark character was one that no one else would have played better. I had to read the book for an English class back in high school and I have to say that while the book was better, the film was great as well. The film has an interesting storyline just like the book and each character in the film plays the one that they should have played. Anthony Hopkins was great as Judge Irwin but it was quite different to see Hopkins play someone other than a villain. I would definitely recommend this film to anyone has an interest in politics and is a fan of Penn's because he really played this part incredibly well.

A truly horrendous alleged adaptation of the brilliant book, "All the King's Men," it begs the question - did Zaillian even read the Cliff Note's version? Apparently not, as his hack job misses the true subject matter - do the means justify the ends and the corrupting influence of power - by a mile.There are too many flaws in this movie to enumerate, not the least of which is the zombie-like performance of the entire cast, which includes some fine actors; I like Sean Penn, but his wild arm-waving portrayal of Willie Stark was phony and distracting - actually almost laughable.But I'll just list the most obvious flaw: Probably the key moment in the book, which eventually leads to Willie's assassination - the tragic end to Tom Stark's football career which sends Willie back to his wife and infuriates Sadie Burke(horribly miscast by Patricia Clarkson) - isn't even addressed in the film! Don't waste your time watching this travesty - read the book instead; this movie is an insult to it's memory.

This film features some of my favorite actors, but the entire thing doesn't work. I suggest reading Todd McCarthy's review in Variety. It sums up all of the film's numerous weaknesses and accurately describes the questionable Southern accents of the leads. I love Sean Penn, but somehow, even the mighty Penn cannot make this film work.Like Variety said, something about it wasn't real. There are several distinct scenes where you can sense you are on the set and the director has yelled "Action!"... and the actor goes through with his scene because he knows his lines and his marks... but that's it. It's really a tragedy; it should have been a great movie.The other thing is... you'll get lost with the plethora of characters and you will spend 2/3 of the movie trying to figure out what the relationships are... and then you'll forget half of them, which is too bad, because some of them will come back and you'll have to recognize them all over again. Overall, a big mistake.