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Bobby (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 159
Fresh: 72
Rotten:87
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 still reeling from the murder of Martin... 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
DVD Info
Reviews for Bobby
A fascinating reflection of the times, when idealism and hope still held pride of place in the minds and hearts of the American public
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.
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.
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.
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.
The ensemble structure of 'Bobby' becomes problematic, because some the stories are clumsy and dull.
Fantasy icon super-imposed over a whole menu of subconscious collective thwarted desires.
Quite apart from the fact that it's spectacularly uninventive and uncontroversial, it's just such a luvvie-fest.
Strong on stars but short on real drama. Impressive but ultimately unmemorable.
This dim movie invites suicidal comparison with Altman's ensemble pieces.
It makes you wish you were watching a biopic of Robert Kennedy instead.
If Estevez’s drama had been as strong as [RFK's] speech, Bobby would have been a far better film.
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.
It's hard to dislike a film with such laudable ambition. But watching this feels like being kidnapped by a hippie parade.
You can understand why somebody would want to make a film about such a famous "lost moment" in American history, but this celebrity ensemble piece is misconceived and poorly managed.
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