Reagan is the Worst Movie of the Year: Review and Breakdown

it's mourning again America and that means I'm mourning the 2 hours and 20 minutes of my life I spent watching this horrible movie that's time that I'm never going to get back and if you add in the 15 to 20 hours it's taken to write edit and upload this video that means that even from Beyond the Grave Ronald Reagan is still finding a way to make the life of a gay man notably worse but I'm getting ahead of myself when I saw that there was going to be a movie called Reagan I assume it was going to be a somewhat honest historical retelling of one of the most cons controversial presidents in American history I was being optimistic or naive or most accurately stupid because Reagan boldly asked the question what if we made a Marvel movie and the main character is Ronald Reagan well then you would get this dog piece of film Reagan starring Dennis Quaid in some of the worst makeup I've ever seen more on that later is 140 minutes of director Robert mcnamar are proudly jerking off the legacy of one of the worst Presidents in American history with hor camera work in many obvious green screens as you may be noticing I don't have a lot of nice things to say about this movie that's going to continue throughout the duration of this review it fails as a biopic it fails as a neutral retelling of history and it fails as a movie on a very basic level real quickly though my name is Patrick but my friends call me Pat if you like my videos if you like my content please give this video a like and comment but also please subscribe only 12% % of you are subscribed and when you subscribe you help grow the channel you help make it easier for me to make more videos and you show my videos to more people and you will get my videos earlier and sooner than everyone else you know assuming that the YouTube front page wants to be nice to me but please subscribe thank you all so much love you all couldn't do it without you I watched this movie in a theater with a capacity of about a 100 people and there were six other people there including two elderly couples who were laughing at every Ronald Reagan oneliner and one man sitting in the front row on his phone entire time wearing a cowboy hat now I know what you're thinking it wasn't me yes I may be wearing this outfit looking like Ronald Reagan to debase myself on the internet but I probably wouldn't leave my house dressed like it and more importantly don't go on your phone in the theater it is my number one pet peeve I have literally broken up with somebody because they were on their phone that's not what I told them I just said I'm not really feeling it but that was the real reason I am so sorry engineer guy that I dated anyway those older people and that cowboy hat guys seem to be the only people with actual enthusiasm for this movie and I'm just saying that because I looked at the tickets for when the movie was having its prime time release on a Friday evening like this should be packed if it's got enthusiasm there was one person there and as one of my viewers the Mr guy pointed out they have put themselves not in the middle but at the edge so as to more quickly escape and in the spirit of honesty we've already got some in this review I'm a gay man obviously but I don't have a lot of affection for the president who actively down played the AIDS crisis so much is probably obvious but for all intents and purposes this movie is seeking to add to or Define the legacy of Ronald Reagan in a historic and academic sense fine Fair Play Let's try to look at it from that perspective but they failed to do one thing one very important thing which is they don't discuss any of the failures of Ronald Reagan basically at all the one failure they do bring up the Iran Contra Scandal they basically Brush by it like he you know he's trying to get back the hostages ignore all the illegal stuff it's fine but the story of Ronald Reagan is utterly incomplete without discussing his controversies and his failures if you earnestly trying to make a historical biopic you should do more than ignore and this movie is content to do a lot of ignoring it pretty much ignores anything that does not paint Ronald Reagan in the most saint-like of terms this is less of a movie and more of a Biblical retelling of a martyr who didn't actually exist of the Noble in christly Ronald Reagan who died on a nuclear cross to save the country of America give me a break but okay let me break down the movie so that you the viewer at home can watch a better movie this weekend maybe go watch Borderlands that movie is terrible but you're still probably going to have a better time than watching Reagan I'm not a big Kevin Hart fan but this movie easily would be at least two stars with Kevin Hart as Reagan they both love onliners I actually I think I might be cooking with this one this movie has been in development for over two decades which I'm learning is actually pretty common for a lot of conservative media projects it turns out if you want to produce a brain dead and unquestioning retelling of one of the most controversial presidents in American history and basically make it marketable only to conservatives it might be a little hard to find people to give you millions of dollars to make your movie I've already done a Marvel comparison but this movie basically is just Tony Stark subbed in for Ronald Reagan and although Ronald Reagan doesn't have a robotic suit the description pretty much matches the Gipper to a tea it was originally supposed to come out like a decade ago but they only found the funding necessary to start filming in 2020 in the middle of a pandemic where even God tried unsuccessfully to stop this movie from coming out with a covid outbreak even then the movie was supposed to come out sometime in late 20121 where it was delayed 3 years until now and I just have to say it was not worth the wait it'd be like waiting up all night for Santa Claus to come and then he finally shows up at 1:00 p.m. and just pees down your chimney so he can see it trickle down it opens in 1981 with Ronald Reagan getting shot and then it bounces back and forth between his time in Hollywood his time as a boy and then his time ultimately eventually as the president and from our perspective it's all being narrated by a KGB agent Victor Ivanov played by Soft cancelled actor John Voit and by the way I'm so tired of these biopics ideology of this horrible one aside that feel like they have to have a narrator like you saw it in Vice which I didn't really care for but that movie at least actually critically examines their main character and you saw with Elvis where Elvis's life is narrated by racist Tom Hanks he's white not really doing here is just giving the movie another couple opportunities to talk about how much communism is bad that's right let's just get it out of the way a large part of this movie is basically spent talking about how horrible and evil communism is and how awesome Ronald Reagan is for defeating it even though the Cold War ended 33 years ago so much so that it literally even in the opening scene kind of leaves like a cliffhanger as to who shot Reagan they're like who shot Ronald Reagan could the Soviets have been responsible for shooting Ronald Reagan and then it goes to the opening credits which are basically a bunch of like scary Cold War era headlines of like the Soviets are building nukes Cuban Missile Crisis Vietnam is communist and it's like are you implying that the Soviet Union tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan because that's what you're implying and if you don't know the history and you're clutch ing your pearls like oh did those dirty Reds try to kill my Ronnie boy let me just tell you the real history because the movie really doesn't Ronald Reagan was shot by the 1980s equivalent of an incel named John hinley Jr who thought that by shooting Ronald Reagan he would get the attention and affection of an actress named jod Foster and to give him some credit it appears to have worked a little bit and now he's on YouTube making videos he's got like 40,000 subscribers so plug to him I guess John Ley Jr is in fact probably one of the only actual victims of cancel culture because when he tries to book venues his venues frequently get canceled when they learn he's the guy who tried to kill a president so if anyone has a right to complain about cancel culture it's actually him anyway speaking of History don't come to Reagan looking for any much like actual Ronald Reagan this movie barely gives AIDS even a passing mention so wait actually I guess in that one aspect it is pretty historically accurate but and this is not an exaggeration I honestly don't think I've ever seen a more dishonest portrayal of history in a biopic in my entire life if this movie was telling the story of John Wayne gas's life they would do it like this they'd be like oh you know John Wayne was a family man he was married twice he managed multiple KFC franchises like a hardworking man and he dressed up like a clown to the Delight of the local children they would of course leave out the fact that he was a serial killer and murdered multiple innocent people because that information doesn't exactly paint him in the best of Lights does it to act as if Ronald Reagan of all people is a literal Saint there's a lot of Jesus in this movie so I feel like that comparison fits is absolutely ludicrous Ronald Reagan is perhaps more so than any other modern US president responsible for one of the most debatable legacies in American history which is at best controversial with mixed results and at worst horrible making him one of the worst Presidents ever and is responsible with his policies for some of the modern-day issues that still continue to plague America to this day trickle down economics doesn't work it's been proven not to work and it's still going to keep not working despite the fact that this movie puts in a cute little speech about how Reagan wants to cut taxes so people have more money and when they have more money everything is better just not how it works in reality buddy because it's great to have more money if you're an average middle- class person but if you're a wealthy person getting most of the gains from your tax policy you are not going to take that money you save and make more jobs you're going to make yourself a third yacht the War on Drugs is an abject disaster and so many of the other failures and controversies of the administration were not even mentioned in the movie or and this is really cute they do a one minute Montage during Ronald Reagan's process of seeking re-election where they just have a bunch of clips of protesters and photos of protesters and that's where those issues are mentioned okay sorry watching a movie about Ronald Reagan in 2024 where they unironically do not give even lip service to issues like the AIDS crisis in the War on Drugs it's just laughable it's gotten me a little riled up as you can probably tell frankly it's almost insulting to feature these issues for about 4 seconds each in a 60-second montage where you're talking about like oh Reagan's got haters and then basically completely moving past it not even addressing it in the story of the movie anyway let's get back to the story so after his brush with death where if you know HBO John Hanley Jr had succeeded this movie would have been a lot shorter would have been over in like 5 minutes we go back to his time in Hollywood and then back to his time as a child the movie likes to do that a lot and seems to be under the impression that if you show a clip of young Ronald Reagan crying because his parents are arguing I'll have sympathy for him nope try again sweetheart join the freaking club but here we learn that Ronald Reagan was inspired to be a president because of Jesus and God and we also meet Kevin sorbo's character who plays a reverend glad to see between God's Not Dead where he was a horrible atheist in this movie He's finally embraced the good book it's a minor role but I guess your career options are somewhat limited when you spend all your time posting conspiracy theories on Twitter after seeing his troubled childhood we go back to his time in Hollywood where he learned that he single-handedly stopped the Communists from taking over Tinsel Town this telling of history is shall we say a little dubious because it both overstates the amount of influence the Soviets had in Hollywood at the time as well as overstating the amount of power and influence Reagan had personally in stopping them if this sounds interesting to you stop it get some help the only thing you're missing is a lecture from your conservative Uncle to Thanksgiving yes he's coming up again where he talks about how socialists are evil and you should stop voting for the Democrats because of socialism I joke about the conservative Uncle a lot but every one of those jokes is a conversation that really happened and your boy was keeping track it's at this point I want to say whatever they did to Dennis Quaid to make him look younger in these young Reagan sequences didn't work he looks creepy and unsettling he looks like if they combined a Victorian doll with a real life human being or if a human being in real life was airbrushed too much much like these pictures of new and his not at all enhanced digitally wife kalista Gingrich we then also see Reagan in college played by Justin from Wizards of Waverly Place and everyone I I watched this movie talked about God a lot so please everyone join me join me in prayer please let's all pray for David Henry let's pray that the Wizards of Waverly Place reboot is successful the jobs clearly must be drying up if he is if he is in the Reagan movie please let's let's pray let's get him some work guys let's get him some good roles I don't want to see him in Mr burum season 2 I want better for him I want Justin I want better for you Reagan then goes on to meet his eventual wife and throat goat Nancy Reagan Penelope andne Miller who portrays Nancy described this movie as mostly a love story between Ronald and Nancy and I'll admit they are kind of cute together but you got to feel a little bit bad for Nancy because presumably she was a human being with hopes dreams and agency and you wouldn't really get that impression if you just watched this movie because Nancy Reagan in this movie doesn't really have a lot of agency she's mostly like I'll do whatever you want darling and and she kind of exists just to be a piece of arm candy on the side of Reagan in the background quietly to be seen and not heard and when she is heard she'll be like like you know I really feel like she was a more nuanced person in a real life than this it's really underselling the amount of work that a woman like Nancy Reagan had to do when her husband was exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's arguably even during the presidency and she had to keep it all on the hush hush and she did a good job Reagan then goes on to be the governor and they spend about uh two minutes of him doing that in those two minutes he is portrayed as someone who is universally beloved even by those pesky radical school student protesters but he realizes he can't fight the Communists as a governor and he's sad about that so he decides he has to run for president and if you know your history you'll know that Ronald Reagan before he ran against Jimmy Carter in 1980 actually ran against Gerald Ford in the primary in 1976 so we spend a little bit of time on that and we get this fun scene with all of Reagan's old white guy AIDS where they're like hey we have to win guys we have to win let's bring one home for the Dipper and then they do like a Boop and then they lose which personally was my favorite part of the movie I really should have walked out right there on the high point when he's just sat on the couch and he's lost that it it went downhill from there because obviously he then goes on roughly an hour into the movie to win the presidency then the movie Mostly decides to focus on that we even see the debate between him and Jimmy Carter which they do something very weird which is they'll put the real image of Jimmy Carter speaking like the actual clip of the real Jimmy Carter then they'll cut to the debate stage where they have like a basically a body double for Jimmy Carter while Reagan is speaking like why not just have the actor say the line why would you know who far beate for me to question these decisions it's also almost comical the few moments when they depict regular people in the context of all of this history because they'll basically just have a bunch of people watching the debate like people will literally stop getting their haircuts because they'll be watching Ronald Reagan to his epic were you better off than you were four years ago like it's just it's really laid on very very thick this movie is also aggressively anti- Jimmy Carter which you know I guess makes sense his defeat is kind of central to Reagan's Legacy and whatnot but you know a little bit uh poor taste don't you think this guy's been in hospice care for over a year although probably not fair because given how long this movie has been in development Jimmy Carter probably was still running marathons by the time they finished that first script second half of the movie is focused on his presidency and even in the context of that is pretty much only focused on his diplomacy with the Soviet Union which even from the movie's own perspective and retelling of History doesn't really make a lot of sense like if you had no knowledge of American History whatsoever and you were only going off of what was presented by the movie from that perspective you would basically be like Ronald Reagan gives like three speeches talking about how horrible the Soviet Union is how we're going to beat them destroy them whatnot but then like meets the prime minister of the Soviet Union and their best friends like when he meets gorbachov they're like chilling and all of the negotiation sequences they include basically have Ronald Reagan be like no they don't even show like the signing of the landmark treaty in 1987 which you know by the way a few years ago Trump did pull out of just you know funny coincidence given the how much the people who made this movie probably love Trump but but Reagan's big signature foreign policy treaty no longer a thing there's also a fun jump scare sequence where he's running for re-election and they're like oh I don't know if he's going to do it guys I don't know if he's going to do it which again if you have any understanding of US presidential history which you know I do and I would assume probably most people going to see a Reagan movie probably do too it's just laughable how they try to play this moment for dramatic tension like obviously he wins he wins by a lot and we get to see some more of his speeches we see a lot of speeches in the movie then the movie kind of spiritually ends with him giving the triumphant tear down this wall speech in Berlin then there are also some scenes on the ranch where he has Alzheimer's and he rides horses and then the movie actually ends and to point something out Dennis Quaid's impression of Ronald Reagan isn't really that good it's funny that with all this effort and time put into this movie the impression is really not that much better than this Whitest Kids You Know sketch Mr gorbachov teared down this wall Mr gerbach tear down this wall now now hold on I I think I might do a pretty mean Han Solo impersonation watch it Chey there Stormtroopers around and I know this because in this movie is 140 minute runtime there's like 10 minutes that are just dedicated to the speeches this movie is already too long I did not need to hear extended excerpts from his 1964 time for choosing speech I just didn't need to hear that look I'm going to be nice you can pick two speeches three if you're being extra good you can do a minute most from each okay no more no no no no no I know he did a lot of speeches it's too much movies are not meant for many many many speeches spread throughout the entire movie it's like a freaking roadblock and a highway you just can't do that and moreover a lot of the film making really just didn't look good at all there were a lot of shots where it was very clear that they were filming in front of a green screen the Marvel comparison keep getting louder and louder basically anything shot outside has a incredibly weird soft focus which is ever more noticeable because a lot of the shots outside are just the color grading it's just off it's too overly saturated it really makes it look like a Hallmark movie and I mean that in the most derogatory way I can possibly Express with the English language the acting performances are serviceable and really not worth talking about at all the writing is horrible but you probably already could assume that given everything I've said up to this point what did I like about this movie well there's one joke where they keep cutting to Russian leaders smoking Andor drinking and then immediately cutting to their funeral rule of thirds they do it three times and then Ronald Reagan is like how can I expect to talk to them if they keep dying I thought that was funny they also fit in a scene where Ronald Reagan's wearing his iconic beanie outfit and when I saw that I was like geeking in the theater I'm like ah it's the beanie outfit it's the beanie outfit I'm a big fan of the Beanie outfit if you couldn't tell I also like that it ended I kept thinking when is this going to end and eventually it did and I very much appreciated that it did end although apparently according to some people on Twitter there's a post credit scene which I did not see because as soon as it ended and there was like oh they're doing the funeral next to the credits I'm like I'm out I am out I've been here for almost 3 hours but yeah that post-edit scene really proves that this is just a Marvel movie for Republican retirees would I recommend this movie no I am a worse person for having time out of my day to go watch this horrible piece of Cinema in a nearly empty Cinema it is a mockery of History it is a mockery of the medium of movie making itself and frankly it's a mockery of the whole concept of Art in general to see a figure as in my opinion horrible as Reagan represented as a Biblical figure with soaring orchestral music really makes you want to vomit but then you know I want to be nice to the theater employees I would never put them in that position if you want an understanding of history or frankly if you just even want mild entertainment you unironically would be better off reading Ronald Reagan's Wikipedia page which at least attempts to pay lip service to the idea that he wasn't the second coming of Jesus Christ maybe I'll do an in-depth breakdown of it when it's out of theaters but it's really not even bad in a fun way it's just bad but I'm glad I got to review it and tear it apart for you all right here but that's going to do it for me guys I hope you enjoyed the video If you enjoyed it please leave a like please comment please subscri subscribe all these things Help Me Grow the channel keep making regular uploads for you guys one to two new videos every week see I'm even double dipping now to keep the quot but comment down below let me know your thoughts are you going to see this movie if you are comment down below I will reply with a crisis hotline number so you can get that fixed uh but have you seen it there probably have been some of you who've seen it let me know your thoughts do you agree with me disagree with me anything I left out do we like Ronald Reagan you can even let me know if I'm totally wrong if I'm an entitled jenzi or feel free to mock me I do read every single comment and as always my name is Patrick but my friends call me Pat and I will see you for the next one