The Campaign (2012)

What a great disappointment this film turned out to be.  Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis in the same movie, that phrase alone generates laughs.  Maybe it's too much to ask for, a comedy that actually makes you laugh all the way through.   Sure I laughed, director Jay Roach and writers Shawn Harwell, and by Chris Henchy gave us some inspired moments, material for Will and Zach to munch on.  Yet what helps a comedy keep its momentum is solid storytelling.  This film has zero story.  It's more like a long SNL skit mocking today's politics.  The satire is dead-on, yes, I give them that.  I love the rhetoric and the giant middle finger to the Koch brothers, but guess what?   That's not going to support a film for the long haul.  Worse, characters become the mechanics of the punch line instead of the modifiers of plot.  Basically I would avoid this ill-paced heap of drivel and find something else.  I just hope this film doesn't prevent Will and Zach from starring in another film together, maybe one written by someone who understands that we need to root for our heroes, not root for the minute hand to hurry it around the clock face.  Grade: C