Silly Season Double Feature

I dislike the kabuki theatre of American politics - millions of dollars spent, endless hours of TV coverage, all for a "choice" that isn't much of a choice at all. Sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh at the whole thing, at these people scrambling all over themselves to be popular with a bunch of strangers. Today's post features two examples of political mockery...

The Campaign

Will Ferrell has made a career of playing man-children, so his latest character - four-term Congressman Cam Brady - is about as much of a stretch as Al Pacino playing a gangster:



Here, Ferrell's teamed up with Zach Galifianakis, who has a similar cinematic M.O.  Their fictional campaign is a childish, petty, and ridiculous game of one-upmanship that eventually destroys their families - in other words, the movie's exactly like a real election.

There are more chuckles than full-on laughs, but maybe that's because of the subject matter (whenever I see an actual politician, after all, I want to change the channel). The movie also has a general anti-Citizens United/anti-campaign contribution vibe, which some might take issue with. In any event, it's done and over with in 90 minutes, which is more than I can say for an actual political race.

Rating: 6/10

VOTE!!!

Modern debates are tedious exercises in soundbite swapping, so Chair Entertainment (makers of the wildly successful "Infinity Blade") decided to liven things up with good old-fashioned bloodlust:



Yes, it's just a re-skinned "Infinity Blade," but this is about as close as you're going to get to punching Romney or Obama in the face without getting taken down by security. It's free, the hits and combos have funny titles, like "Personal Attack" (worth a ton of points, natch), and the game takes only 50 megabytes on your iPhone. Play it long enough, and you wonder why we couldn't settle a real election with ritual combat.