Robin Williams, a TV satirist, runs for president as a joke and because of a glitch in the electronic voting machines, he wins. Everyone is stunned. Williams' manager, Christopher Walken is stunned, partly because the percentage he will take of Williams' presidential salary is so much smaller than what he was getting when Williams was a monumentally successful comedian. Laura Linney is stunned when she discovers that the voting machines developed some kind of complicated glitch based on the double letters in the names of candidates like Mills, Kellogg, and Dobbs and elected Dobbs (Williams) by mistake. Jeff Goldblum as the head of Delacroy, the company that manufactured and programmed the voting machines, is more aptly described as concerned than stunned. When Linney discovers the error and wants to correct the election results, Goldblum sets out to correct Linney. The programming error had to be inadvertent because the movie isn't ballsy enough to suggest anything else.

Williams comes up with his usual gags, most of them successful. He wants "freedom of religion", where a person can be Buddhish, part Buddhist and part Jewish, so they can sit and wait for the item to go on sale. He's the best part of the movie, wearing his phony George Washington costume to Congress and complaining that his buckled shoes confused him. He couldn't decide whether he was a Pilgrim or a pimp. Next laurels should go to Christopher Walken as the practical, cynical show-biz manager. When it is revealed that his client's election was a fraud, he shrugs. So what? The whole thing is a fraud anyway. (His character's name is Mencken.) Linney is given a chance to stretch her chops in a breakdown scene in a Starbucks, after she's been mugged and pumped full of every drug under the sun by Goldblum's agents in an attempt to discredit her before she squeals. (Lord help Delacroy stock if the word gets out.) She drops her coffee cup, gets paranoid and accuses strangers of going through her purse, and is carted away in an ambulance. Her performance was, I thought, brimming with verisimilitude, reminding me so much, as it did, of an ex girl friend.

He handles the dramatic scenes as well as anyone could. The problem is that the dramatic scenes stink. The second half has Laura Linney running from place to place, pursued by Goldblum's Goons, and trying to reach Williams and convince him that his election was a mistake. Here you will find every cliché in the book. Linney doesn't know she's being watched by a heavy from a parked car as she runs to a phone booth out in the middle of nowhere and frantically phones Williams. Guess whether the car revves up and smashes through the isolated phone booth. When Linney finally reaches Williams on their cell phones, he's on his way to an airport to catch a plane and she only has a few minutes to convey her important information about the computer problem. The script causes her to do what every character with an important message must do under these conditions. She goes to pieces, tries to explain the mechanics of the glitch, falls all over herself, and produces what might charitably be called word salad. "You need help," Williams tells her sadly. There are car pursuits, phone taps, everything you'd expect from a Grade B thriller.

Too bad. The movie could have gone in the direction of "Primary Colors," mixing comedy and realism. It might have gone in the direction of "The Parallax View," with a deliberate sabotage of the voting system. But it does neither. I can't imagine its offending anyone. It has no politics whatever, as far as that goes. Williams is an Independent candidate who is "for" freedom of religion, improving the educational system ("half the kids think that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife" -- he thinks he's kidding?),health care, world peace, ridding the capitol of special interests, addressing environmental issues, making it easier to extract DVDs from their cases, and -- yawn.

I wish someone would harness Williams' talent more effectively. The guy is brilliant in his own unquiet way. He can do drama as well as comedy ("Insomnia"),but he's made some mighty purple script choices. "Patch Adams" anyone? At any rate I'm glad he wasn't elected. We've had enough clowns in the White House lately. We don't need any more. What we need now is some kind of civil engineer who can build something out of the rubble.

Robin Williams ... if one ever forgets how great of a comedian he was ... there is so much video evidence of him being just exceptional - one of those cases is right here. He would have made a great late night host for sure - even if he might not have believed so himself. Then again, would we have believed to elect a clown to office? When I saw we I obviously mean the American people in this case, though it can be any other country too.

I'm obviously talking about Trump. No one back then could have imagined something like this happening. Though the character depicted in this movie actually is honest, so don't try to compare them. He has dignity, he has courage, he has a soul! While the voting is going on, you have something happening here that Trump (and his minions, no offense to minions everywhere) claimed happened in the 2020 election ... it is almost eerie. And of course something previous reviewers had no chance of predicting - or seeing as a possibility of being something that could actually happen.

All that aside - the acting is superb here. The pacing may have some issues from time to time, but all the actors involved here (and what a fine bunch we have!) make more than up for it! Yes it also is predictable, but why would you derive yourself of having fun? Just go with the flow ...

I saw one of the posters for this film, where the leading star is dressed like George Washington, so the concept was going to be obvious, and one that I was willing to try, from director Barry Levinson (Good Morning, Vietnam; Rain Man). Basically Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) is the host of a satirical comedy politics talk show, and someone jokes in the show that with his quick wit he could run for President of the United States in the up and coming election. He thinks to himself that he could actually do it, and he becomes the independent candidate, and he almost deliberately shows himself up as a questionable candidate, and he makes for good viewing. So it comes to the day of the election, there are small but doubtful to happen hopes that Tom does actually win the election, against Democratic Incumbent President Kellogg (David Nichols) and Republican U.S. Senator Mills (David Ferry),but to everyone's surprise, he does win. He and everyone around him, including his sick manager Jack Menken (Christopher Walken) and Eddie Langston (Lewis Black),are pleased with the result and happy to see him shake up politics as the new President elect. His luck may be about to change though, because Eleanor Green (Laura Linney),who was removed from her job at Delacroy, the private company with rising stocks that created the new computer system for votes to be cast, has discovered a glitch. The voting computer made the mistake of believing the votes for Dobbs counted on the fact that the other two candidates have double letters in their names too, i.e. Kellogg = two Ls and two Gs, Mills = two Ls. After going temporarily mad, being drugged by men sent by her slimy boss Stewart (Jeff Goldblum),she struggles to get this information out, but she does eventually reach Dobbs and explains the glitch. Even being told that she took drugs and stuff, Dobbs is pretty sure that Eleanor is telling the truth that he is not the true elected President, and the conspiracy is becoming more hyped with Eleanor trying to be killed to shut her up. In the end, Tom steps down as President, explaining the glitch to the world, but his actions work for the better, the right man is made President (not great, but good),Stewart is arrested for hiding the information, and Tom goes back to hosting his now higher rated show with Eleanor working beside him. Also starring David Alpay as Danny, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Williams makes for good viewing with his comedic stand up skills coming into play as he rises to the high rank, and Linney is effective as the pressured and at risk programmer. I myself liked the turn from comedy to conspiracy thriller when it happens, the idea of a comedian becoming President is very good, it blatantly picks on the fact that actor Ronald Reagan did it, it could have covered more ground, but it is a likable film. Okay!