Review of Vice (2018) by Ryan S — 04 Jan 2019

An interesting look at some events in the life of Vice President Dick Cheney, Director Adam McKay (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Step Brothers (2008), The Big Short (2015)) brings this sort of bio pic as a dark comedy with facts thrown into the mix.

It works for the most part, but I will say near the last third of the film it definitely loses some of it's pacing becoming a bit of a slog. The movie stars Christian Bale in an incredible transformation as Vice President Dick Cheney.

Bale embodies the character and nails his mannerisms and voice. He went all out Christian Bale on this one and gained a ton of weight as well nailing the physical look. The film goes over Cheney's beginnings from dropping out of Yale, to his start in politics working as an assistant to Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell), to his rise in politics and then finally as Vice President during George W.

Bush's (Sam Rockwell) Presidential run. The movie definitely paints Cheney as a target the whole time and while it does have lots of facts I tried looking at it as non biased as I could and even I know it definitely changed a few things up such as conversations (which they admit during the movie no one would know what they were saying) and spicing up some events.

It definitely paints Cheney as the powerhouse during his time as VP and the crazy amount of stuff that went down under that administration. It's a film that won't be for everyone, but I found it unique (I especially liked the 4th wall breaking it does several times) and I think Bale's performance alone is worth the ticket price!