This movie was simply awful!!! First of all, this movie should have been titled. Nancy Regan, as the major focus of the movies was on her, not the former President. No matter your political bend, the movie portrayed President Reagan as doing nothing for the eight years that he was President. Instead of focusing on the fall of the Soviet Union, the booming Economy, restored faith in the country as a whole, it focused on, AIDS, the coldness of Nancy Reagan, and their bad relationship with their children. (This was true to an extent. Interestingly enough, one of the focuses of the movie was Patti Reagan's hatred of her mother and her "love" of her father. If she loved her father so much, why did she take her , mother's maiden name, and openly campaign against her father? None of which was mentioned in the movie. Aside from a typical left wing, one sided view of President Reagan, the acting was horrible. Brolin never had one moment portraying Reagan as serious. The whole movie was Jelly Beans and Bedtime for Bonzo. The movie was pulled because it was terrible. One last issue. The Kennedy movie with Martin Sheen was a total puff piece put out by Liberal Hollywood, but at least in that film, the acting was well done, and the movie was entertaining. The same can not be said of The Reagans.

If you're reading this, you probably are aware of the controversy that kept this mini-series off of CBS. At the time, this movie was made out to be a character assassination. After watching it, I realize that's not what it was, and why Reagan supporters hated this movie. The problem with this mini-series is that it's the dreaded docu-drama. Any insightful viewer who watches "The Reagans" will be left asking themselves how truthful this movie really was. This is the problem with the docu-drama in general. It's not a documentary, so it doesn't have to be held to any standard of fact (though Michael Moore somehow gets his movies labeled as documentaries, go figure).So this ends up being a hodge-podge of things that have been inferred about the Reagans' lives from tell-alls and public record. The script of this film tries to neatly fit tidbits of the Reagans' lives into 15 second exchanges of dialogue. For example, it's been long known that Nancy is/was interested in astrology. The way we get introduced to this is having Nancy get told about astrology at a party in 1958 or something like that. It's just a little too neatly put together. It's similar with the dialogue between Reagan and his political advisor's. Bottom line is, it's worth watching, though is too long, like mini-series always are. James Brolin does a very nice job of showing us the Reagan we all know. He also takes it past the Rich Little level -- he tweaks the character to show us someone that's just a bit deeper than the man we saw on television. At the end, you'll probably be left thinking it was entertaining, maybe informative, but you'll want to read a more detailed biography that might be a little more rock solid in fact. Did Reagan really not want to get out of bed on the day of his inauguration? Once again.. very hard to believe.

Ronald Reagan, 'The Gipper,' a supporting actor in the famous Knute Rockne story was catapulted out of a semi - historical TV show about the old west into Presidential politics by THE SPEECH, a campaign speech in favour of Barry Goldwater in 1964 in which Reagan managed throughout to omit Goldwater's name. Goldwater went down to an humiliating defeat but Reagan professing much of the Goldwater rhetoric went on to become the most popular president of the 20th century.The made for TV bio picture does fair coverage of the meteoric rise to power of Ronald Reagan and does honour to both Mr & Mrs Reagan. It covers most of the highlights well: election as Governor, the campaign for President against hapless Carter, the assassination attempt in which Reagan beat Techumseh's curse, the end of the cold war, Iran-contra affair and the departure at the end of the term.Comparable films: Backstairs at The White House.

James Brolin's portrayal of Ronald Reagan is easily the best I have viewed. Judy Davis was very good too in her portrayal of Nancy Reagan as she captivated Nancy's personality just as I would imagine it as Ronny's strong right hand. Viewers who criticize this as a "hatchet job" should either get their head out of the sand or read a history book because it is a well known fact that Ronny was an out of touch, hands off president who deligated power so recklessly that it finally got him in big trouble in the infamous "arms for hostages" debacle that casted a dark cloud over his final days as president. It is also well known that in his final years he was often in a memory lapped fog as his mind and memory were slowly degenerating in the early stages of undiagnosed Alzheimer's Disease. This was very apparent when he was interviewed about his role in the "arms for hostages" and he had a blank look on his face as he stated that he couldn't remember anything. Not long after that, his doctors finally diagnosed his condition and he made his final farewell speech and stated that he was going to "ride off into the sunset". He will always be remembered as a great president in spite of his flaws. This movie did a great job in showing Nancy and him, with all their blemishes, in a fair and accurate portrayal. It is also common knowledge that they had a poor relationship with their children and were somewhat cold and distant to them -especially Nancy being cold to her 2 stepkids by Jane Wyman. She was known to be quite jealous of Ronny's first wife and unfortunately for the 2 kids, they had to take the brunt. Knowing alot about this couple in advance made me enjoy the movie all the more, because it did not seem to pull any punches or gloss over their faults but also portrayed their good side too. James Brolin did such a good job of looking and acting like Ronnie that he deserves special recognition. My respect for him as an actor increased multifold after viewing this movie and it will remain as one of my favorites. Definitely a "10" out of 10 in my opinion. Banning this movie from television (it was originally a made for t.v. movie) was ridiculous and those who criticize this movie should have their heads examined!!