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 enlarge | Director: Barry Levinson
Studio: New Line Cinema
Category: Movie
Buy New: $2.99
Rating:  148 reviews
Sales Rank: 1213
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 97 Minutes
ASIN: B000YHIB64
Release Date: October 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 148
 Not a Happy Camper June 12, 2008
Dee
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I ordered "Wag the Dog" video to be viewed online. I have a new computer, with all the current updates. An error occured in downloading the program from Amazon needed to view the video. This error occurred on two of my computers. Since I had to watch the video that day for a class, I could wait another day for a response. I paid for the same video twice and Amazon refused to make any refunds. Sure I was out only $5.98, but the time and frustration far exceeded the cost. I will probably not use Amazon again for video viewings.
Hmm...sounds familar March 5, 2008
Travis W. Oliver (Philadelphia, PA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie is about the US government staging a phony war to the president could get relected...deja vu....lol. The difference between the movie and, well, real life is in fact the movie was funnier.
 Its funny cuz it's true... January 2, 2008
Andrew Ellington (Mulholland Drive)
When one watches `Wag the Dog', especially now in this politically charged time in history, one can't help but wonder if this film was taken from classified documents lifted from the White House archives. Did this really happen? I have a feeling it did, and recently at that (and personally, I'm not talking about Clinton). I couldn't help myself while watching this film to contemplate what was going through the minds of the actors and writers involved while they mulled over their source material. It is true, very true, that the funniest things in life are based on personal experience.
With that in mind...
`Wag the Dog' is a film about government conspiracy, both authentic and artificial. The president made a huge mistake just as he is up for reelection and it's up to his advisors to make that mistake disappear. His rival candidate is using this `misstep' to his advantage by trying to persuade votes in his direction but Conrad Brean, a `spin-doctor', has a plan of his own, a plan that will turn the public's eye away from the presidents misconduct and onto his heroic good deeds. Brean enlists the help of Hollywood producer Stanley Motss to manufacture a war with Albania in order to draw attention to the president's strength in leading his country to victory. Their plan is far from foolproof but Motss is a master of the lens and continues to stay one foot ahead of the apposing side.
Barry Levinson does a masterful job with this film. The script is very tightly woven, brilliantly adapted from its source material to create one hilarious trip through the actions of the presidents men. The acting is so superb it's almost unbelievable. Dustin Hoffman has always been one of my favorite actors and he does not disappoint as famed producer Motss. He steals every scene he inhabits and brilliantly constructs Motss from the ground up. Equally impressive is De Niro who soars as Brean. His fast paced wit fits perfectly against that of Hoffman and they prove to be one fantastically structured comedic team.
The supporting cast also does a fine job at shining. Anne Heche delivers, as does the likes of Willie Nelson, but its Denis Leary and Woody Harrelson that really make the most of their small roles. Kirsten Dunst also does a fantastic job in her short scene, creating a lasting, very lasting impression.
As the opening words plastered across the screen allude to, this is a story about a dog that was dumber than its tail, a story about tail that was forced to wag the dog.
Clinton - Lewinsky September 14, 2007
BigEd (Jax FL)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This movie was released during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. It is about covering up political scandal by CREATING a larger incident. Deniro is the president and Hoffman a hollywood director hired to solve the presidents problem. Very funny. Lots of INTERSTING characters. Excellent OVER-THE-TOP performances by Deniro and Hoffman! A must see at least once!
It could have been true June 27, 2007
Jacques COULARDEAU (OLLIERGUES France)
Yes the dog needs to be wagged severely by the tail. If politics is nothing but a branch of show business, it is nothing but tall tales and scary stories. In this film they fantasize the re-election of a President based on a Hollywood secret production of a story that sounds truer than reality. The President is going to be accused of some sexual misconduct - read my lips - twelve days before election day, so his advisers invent a war in Albania which is deflated by the CIA who do not like, for once, what is not true. Then they go on with the invention of a US prisoner of war left behind and finally freed and brought home, a Rip van Winkle of modern times. Poor Schumann. A rape-offender who is severely psychotic and who tries to rape the first woman he sees through a diner's window in the middle of nowhere. He ends up killed by the husband of the woman and he is brought back home, directly to Arlington. Superb. Unluckily the producer turns psychotic in his turn and wants the credit for the super production that re-elected the President. So he dies of a massive heart attack on his way to Hollywood, picked by some CIA agents, or is it FBI, and does it have any importance at all? They could have really done the same thing with the war on Iraq. It could and would have been a lot more palatable than it is right now. The film is greatly done though it has little depth and as a comic taste and bitter after taste. Of course it is all a story and it has no truth whatsoever, does it not?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
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