I’m definitely not giving this movie an A because I’m a Reagan fanboy. Far from it. I’m super-liberal, socialist-democratic. I was too young to vote in 1980, and I voted for Mondale in 1984. But that isn’t to say that Reagan wasn’t the president that we needed at the time. And to be completely honest, getting through the 1980s without a nuclear war is cause for celebration.
As good as could be expected
Whoever had the idea to tell the story through the narrative lens of a Soviet psychological analyst should get an award. That was a brilliant storytelling device. Without this narrative point of view, the story would have felt like fanboy propaganda. But with this point of view the story feels more compelling and believable.
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Perfect Cast
Dennis Quaid did a fantastic job of capturing the essence of Reagan. He mimicked his vocal patterns, gestures, and facial expressions remarkably well. There should be an Oscar award just for historical performances. He would be nominated for sure. Penelope Ann Miller was also great as Nancy Reagan.
Pacing
This was a longish movie, at about 2h. 10 min., not including ten minutes of credits. Yet, the movie never dragged. The story never lingered too long on any given subject. Sometimes movies like this can’t help but have a stretch that goes on too long and feels like a miniature movie within the movie. Reagan never felt like that.
Envy
As a Democrat, I have to say that I envy Republicans because they have Reagan as an example of a great modern-day president. He wasn’t flawless by any means, but he was a good man who, I feel, genuinely had the best intentions for America and not just himself. President Carter was a great man, but maybe not a great president. It’s hard to find a politician on either side who hasn’t been a self-serving primadonna since Reagan. (Obviously, some more than others.) As Americans, I think we have to ask ourselves what we did to produce a system that continually pushes people of poor moral character into political office.
Grade: A-
About The Peetimes: The last Peetime is the best of the bunch, by far. The first and second are good. The third Peetime is only for emergencies. I tried to have the first Peetime before the 30-minute mark, but there were too many important scenes early in the movie to make that possible.
There are extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of Reagan.
| Rated: | (PG-13) Violent Content and Smoking |
| Genres: | Biography, Drama, History |
| Starring: | Dennis Quaid, Mena Suvari, C. Thomas Howell |
| Director: | Sean McNamara |
| Writer(s): | Howard Klausner |
| Language: | English |
| Country: | United States |
Plot
A drama based on the life of Ronald Reagan, from his childhood to his time in the oval office.
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Creator and developer of the RunPee app. When something doesn’t work right in the app it’s pretty much his fault. 🙂
Aspiring author. Would like to finish his “Zombie Revelations” trilogy if he could break away for working on RunPee and the cottage he’s building for RunPee Mom.
Enjoyed the movie, but didn’t stay long enough for the goldfish letter thing at the end. And I really don’t want to see the movie again just for that. What did the letter say?
The little boy said that it was okay because goldfish die all the time and he thanked Ron for the two new goldfish. That’s about all I remember.
Absolutely loved this movie. I cried quite a bit. Just done well. Dennis Quaid was outstanding.
I came close to tears myself near the end. I’m glad they didn’t overplay the love story between Ron and Nancy. I think they gave it the weight it needed without focusing on it too much. The ending was sad, especially knowing that it’s true.
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