I can understand fully why this Kevin Costner movie fell so far under the radar, if the man has any sense he put it there!It's not that it's a bad film, it's just a mediocre one with one of the most offensively ridiculous concepts of all time.So we have Bud, a redneck and all round failure at life (Especially to his daughter). His daughter registers him to vote but then due to a fault with the voting booth he becomes the "Swing" voter. Namely this hick has the single handed decision who becomes the President of the United States.Yep, THAT dumb.Despite a great cast including Costner, Patton, Tucci, Hopper & Grammer this is a foolish movie. Yes it is highly accurate in it's presentation of politics but lacks in the comedy and simply isn't as dramatic as it aims to be.One for hardcore Costner fans only.The Good:Bill MaherSolid castThe Bad:Laughable representation of the Republican partyConcept is ridiculousToo much FOX "News"Things I Learnt From This Movie:The writers were high on weed when writing the script and somewhere along the way someone was high on crack for giving it the green light!

Bud Johnson (Kevin Costner) is an apathetic slacker drunk who can't even keep his job at the chicken egg factory. It's 2004 presidential election, and he promises his daughter Molly (Madeline Carroll) that he will vote for her school project. He has a bug about jury duty, and is not happy to vote. On election day, Bud gets fired and drink away the day. Molly faithfully waited for him at the polling station. She eventually sneaks in to try to vote for him. However, the machine's cord was pulled and her vote was lost by the machine. The election is a close one, and it all boils down to an unaccounted vote from Molly in place of Bud. Now everybody is pitching Bud for that decisive vote.This is a civics lesson more than a comedy. Bud is not a likable guy. Then you add all those political wonks and TV people. It becomes an avalanche of wonky characters all geared to the heavy handed message of every vote counts. The best thing about this movie is Bud's relationship with his daughter. If it was more about that, the civics lesson could be learned with a lighter touch. Madeline Carroll is the best one of them all. More than anything, this movie suffers from a general political fatigue. It's much better as a movie about a struggling father daughter relationship.

Kevin Costner was actually in another decent movie. His last movie I saw, Mr. Brooks, was pretty good also. I would call this movie a political satire, that tries to be a little funny at times. However, the idea that one guy determines the presidential election is absurd, but if you can get past that, then the plot is OK. It was funny how the movie had the political parties doing adds for things they oppose. Example, the democrats supporting pro life because Bud says he's pro life.The plot is struggling, every day man, Bud Johnson, just got laid off. He has a very smart daughter and she cares about the presidential election. Bud promises to vote since Molly thinks it's important. But, when he doesn't show, Molly votes in his place but the power goes out and the vote didn't count. The election comes down to New Mexico and for some reason, not told in the movie, Bud's vote will decide the electoral votes. I mean, how could the votes be even for each side and even if they were very close, how many months would it take for all the recounts that would take place. But any way, it's up to Bud, whom doesn't care about politics. He becomes an instant celebrity and is courted by both candidates. By the end of the film, Bud grows an appreciation for the political scene and realizes that it is important to care about social issues.FINAL VERDICT: Funnier than I thought and provides a message. Plus, the movie doesn't try to say that one party is better than the other.

Gave this a nice 5/10 because half of it was good, half of it was not.It started off pretty charismatic, introducing a young and devoted daughter in a broken home. I liked the movie already, given it's realism. A few "lazy guy" jokes later, it gets into the plot. The election is close. Not by distance, it's election DAY. But both candidates are very much at 50/50%.The protagonist, Bud, doesn't want to vote. His daughter sneaks past a sleepy poll booth guy, and votes for him. A malfunction occurs when the power is cut. She sneaks out with the stub. She WALKS to the bar and DRIVES a TRUCK home. She's like, 11. But whatever, she's semi-intelligent. But the movie doesn't even try to explain how she manages it. The next day, the error is detected and some officials are sent to Bud and give him 10 days to vote again.It's kind of hinted at, Bud tells this officials, "Why can't I just... whisper it to you...?" so he can get on with his life. No, that would be TOO simple, wouldn't it? So ten days it is.Cue presidential managers, the driving force behind both platforms. The movie doesn't exactly fall flat from here, but it's a bit predictable that it soon will. It's them that really make the presidents look like jackasses.On various occasions, the presidents appeal to Bud's simplistic good nature to get his vote. It's a humorous process, seeing a republican promising gay rights, and a democrat giving a pro-Life campaign.Cue sad part. The daughter falls out with her father. She finds her boy/friend, same age, ALSO manages to drive a truck down a highway in what the movie made look like a rather long ride. No cops. No logic. It skips the explanation for a second time.So far this sounds pretty harsh, and I DID like the movie, for the first half. But as soon as the "sad part" started, it didn't pick back up. The movie forgot it was a comedy and drifted into a drama. Introducing the drug-addict mother who shakes and jitters as she tries to explain to her daughter that she'll be famous any second now. Daughter learns truth, goes back with dad.Bud, by the end of the movie sees the "error of his ways", or whatever, and hosts a special type of presidential debate.Bud smiles at his daughter as he pulls the curtain over the voting booth, end movie. Angry at first, but then I understood why it didn't show us who he voted for. I appreciated that the movie stayed neutral.But at the end, I didn't appreciate how the movie just dropped it's comedic value.A 5/10 may be a bit harsh but I did not, by any means, hate the movie. I enjoyed it. But there are just as many holes of logic and explanation as there are in the political system.