The Campaign 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Mostly but not entirely on. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: Will Ferrell, all is forgiven after the botch that was Casa De Mi Padre. And in fact this may be the best movie, comedic or dramatic, that you've made yet. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: It's like a sober, centrist, irrelevant op-ed column, but with bad words and belly laughs. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Maybe the surreal realities of the current campaign really are beyond satire, ridicule, parody or ready comprehension, but this ultimately puerile gagfest has little reach and less grasp. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: As a respite from real-life politics (and a nostalgic reminder that there are indeed still places where people line up to vote on Election Day), it's a just-good-enough diversion. Read more

Alessandra Stanley, New York Times: Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: It isn't really about the political issues of the moment, but neither, the film suggests, are the politics of the moment. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: "The Campaign" is a good idea with no place to go. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: As with politicians, we get the political movies we deserve. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Galifianakis scores most of the laughs, as you might expect, but there's some nice supporting work from Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, and Sarah Baker. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It's weak and witlessly crude. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: What these dog days of political campaigning needs is a good, sharp political satire. Alas, The Campaign is not that movie -- not even close. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: It's an average Will Ferrell comedy, nothing more. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: In its ramped-up media-farce way, The Campaign leaves no satirical stone unturned. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: "The Campaign" look much more like "Waiting for Guffman" or "Spinal Tap" than "Step Brothers" or "Talladega Nights". Read more

Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter: Ferrell and Galifianakis make for entertaining rivals in a flimsy political satire that too often mistakes bad taste for comic acuity. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: This cynical and funny film hits more often than it misses. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: It revels in showing the absurdity of politics as usual, touching on gaffes and scandals we all know too well. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Though it's crude and juvenile in ways that makes you vaguely ashamed at laughing so much, The Campaign is versatile enough to sneak in a good shot or two at the American political system. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: This big, broad, laugh-out-loud farce isn't in the business of deep swipes or sharp insights. Its main message is that politics pretty much makes fun of itself. Read more

Bruce Diones, New Yorker: Despite the obviousness of its political points, the film has a scattershot, breezy appeal. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: [A] very raunchy and sometimes pretty funny comedy - which isn't above going for dumb jokes, but is also smart enough to play to its two stars' strengths. Read more

Scott Tobias, NPR: Both funny and undisciplined, a political satire that works best when the commentary sags and the crass absurdism escalates. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A very funny satire that successfully calls out every moronic (and oxymoronic) part of our slogan-slinging, attack-ad-making election process. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This movie is single-handedly causing a major rise in our mirth deficit. It's so bad, I'm declaring a laugh emergency. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The Campaign is intermittently amusing, but more often just interminable. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: It's way over the top, but then again, so are most modern political campaigns. Lots of funny s--- here. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "The Campaign" made me think of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" if it had been written by the Onion staff. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Ferrell and Galifianakis will crack you up - guaranteed. Is it too much to expect more? Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Simply taken as a broad character comedy, "The Campaign" definitely has its moments. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Raucous in its send-ups of the moral, financial and sexual peccadilloes of the common political animal. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: "The Campaign" is too timid to aim a satirical shiv at the political jugular. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Siri Agrell, Globe and Mail: The movie has political savvy as well as comedic chops. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: It's loud and profane and relentlessly vulgar. It's also occasionally funny. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Often brings the laughs, but the movie's ultimate timidity over possibly vexing viewers of any political stripe renders the whole project somewhat sterile. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Director Jay Roach has two brilliant improvisers on hand, but The Campaign suffers from a compounded sense of fatigue, plotwise. Read more

Toronto Star: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis trade barbs and sling mud, but the humor is inconsistent and the political satire lacks bite. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Before the 2012 presidential election has a chance to get really nasty, The Campaign vigorously swoops in to satirize how low things can go between a pair of rival congressional candidates. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Most of the movie's big laughs are in the first half; like so many high-concept/low-character comedies, it runs out of steam early and then wheezes to an anticlimax. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Prefers silly, outre jokes and sight gags to a truly penetrating critique of partisan politics that has gone hopelessly off the rails. Read more