I think a lot of people felt that Stone was really going to lay into Dubya but he didn't. Instead Stone made Dubya look as if he was really trying to do good and that due to bad circumstances things unfolded the way they did, unintenionally. In the end you be the judge for what you want and don't want to believe. But overall if the viewer looks at W. as a film of fiction and nothing else, it's not half bad. Brolin is a fantastic actor and he was superb in this one as Dubya. Worth the watch for Brolin's performance.

As as I'm not a true big fan of the man, I haven't taken the time to watch the movie before now. I was afraid that this movie would serve as a way to restore a little the image of George W. Bush and it's not falling far from here as I now saw it.I've seen many biopics about the famous people who were an active part of the history of the country. Every time, it was treated with depth and kept being really objective. But there, it's looking like unfinished.Most of his career is overlooked. Not any mention about his oil businessman success story. His governorship is really depicted poorly. We don't even see him getting elected president. 9/11 was the most important event of his presidency, the one which changed it all and made it what it was but still except of mentioning it during several exchanges with his cabinet, we don't see any scene about that day nor his declaration of war against Afghanistan. The only real focus was the war in Iraq explained in a very simplistic way. About that fact, I have also my grief. Oliver Stone wants to make us believe that Bush was just a puppet of his cabinet. Someone who just jumps in because he's told so. I have my doubt about that. Sure W is not very bright but come on he is not that gullible even from my point of view. He was a governor and a pretty acclaimed one before he was elected to the Presidency. He inspired some leadership. He must have had some control of his policy as President of the United States.The only thing they got their part right is Colin Powell who was maybe the smartest of the Cabinet and the only one who expressed doubts about the WMDs in Iraq but was shut off by Cheney, Rice and ultimately Bush. That was the only part I really liked. But the rest seems to be pure propaganda.I feared that it could be that way and i wasn't wrong. Like the real President himself, this movie will definitely not be a part of my favorites.

I was reluctant to see this film for a long time. The reason for that reluctance was the lack of desire in reliving what I considered to be the period in which our country was governed by the least able man in the history of this republic. Starting with the stolen election of 2001 (in which his brother was a willing accomplice), the 8 years of "Dubya's" presidency were lackluster at best and criminal at worst. Having said all this, I bit the bullet and finally watched the film and my reaction shocked me. I even ended up liking (just a little bit) poor Dubya. As was once said in a MadTv skit which played a mock debate between Bush and Kerry, Kerry says "I know why America loves you, it's like loving a retarded baby" and that's the truth! There are moments that utterly hysterically funny in this film and yet don't come across as mocking or degrading. I dislike Texas "swagger" (or "walking" as they call it in the film) and yet Stone portrays it all in a very palatable way. The acting is excellent, the dialogue is well written, and it all moves along at a good pace and plays out very well on the screen. The relationships within the family are fascinating to watch (Ellen Burstyn is fantastic as the very caustic Barbara) - so what I expected to watch with one eye closed I've now seen a few times and kept both eyes fully open during the entire film. Strange indeed.

-W. is a 2008 American biographical drama film loosely based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush. It was produced and directed by Oliver Stone, written by Stanley Weiser, and stars Josh Brolin as Bush, with a supporting cast that includes Ellen Burstyn, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Scott Glenn, and Richard Dreyfuss. Filming began on May 12, 2008, in Louisiana and the film was released on October 17. -W was Oliver Stone's third film in a trilogy he made about the Presidency, set in the time from the 1960s to today: the set began with JFK and continued with Nixon. Critical response: W. received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports 59% of critics giving the film positive write-ups, based upon a sample of 212, with an average score of 6/10, compared to audiences giving a 42% positive review (3/5) based on 109,205 ratings. The website summarized the reviews of the film by calling it "A surprisingly sympathetic portrayal of the 43rd American president, W. is fascinating in spots, but merely rudimentary as a whole." At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 56, based on 36 reviews. Giving the film four stars in his review, Roger Ebert wrote that it was "fascinating" and praised all the actors, noting that Richard Dreyfuss, in particular, was "not so much a double as an embodiment" of Dick Cheney. In contrast, Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post called the film "a rushed, wildly uneven, tonally jumbled caricature." Film critic James Berardinelli negatively compared the film with Saturday Night Live skits, saying of the actors that "None of them are as dead-on as Tina Fey as Sarah Palin." The Bush administration never officially commented on the film. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who is portrayed in the film, called the sibling rivalry portrayed in the film "high-grade, unadulterated hooey" and said that Stone's exploration of the family dynamic could have benefited from actual conversations with the Bush family. Slate Magazine 's Timothy Noah, however, noted that "most of the film's more ludicrous details" are actually directly taken from non-fiction sources, and argued that the film was too kind to Bush in omitting certain historically recorded dramatic events, most notably Bush's alleged mocking of murderer Karla Faye Tucker, a woman put to death during his tenure of the Texan governorship. However, the incident is disputed by Bush himself, and as such is also unconfirmed. In a March 2010 "Screen Test" interview with The New York Times ' Lynne Hirschberg, Josh Brolin claims Bush did in fact watch the film. Brolin said Oliver Stone met with Bill Clinton in China and Clinton told Stone he'd lent his copy of W. to Bush. Reportedly, Bush himself "liked it very much" and "thought there were sad moments." The film appeared on some critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008. Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News named it the eighth best film of 2008, and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times named it on his top 20 list (he did not assign rankings). Newton's performance as Condoleeza Rice was criticised as 'awful."