A look at President George W. Bush's path into politics from his college days. "W" in his younger years is shown as a drinking, brawling, college student whose rich Daddy, Bush Sr. bails him out out of trouble more than once in addition to obtaining favors to get him into Harvard Business School.Wanting to have a baseball career more than be in politics, "W" does takes a position with the Texas Rangers as an office executive, but not before trying out the oil fields among other things. He eventually joins his family in politics, running for senator, governor, of Texas and then President of the United States in 2000.This is a mini biography which barely skims "W's" life, but elects to focus on the Iraq war and "weapons of mass destruction," that were never found. It leads the viewer to believe that he was not a leader, but a follower, a follower of his family's legacy and was either not capable or unwilling to create his own.

W. (2008): Dir: Oliver Stone / Cast: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Burstyn: Satire view of President George W. Bush with flashbacks to his younger days in a fraternity, to his shaky relationship with his father, to his failures with the war in Iraq. This is all very curios and it starts out with appeal but then it becomes choppy where scenes aren't followed up such as the scene where he chokes on a pretzel, or the outside jog where he passes out. Directed by Oliver Stone who is all over the place. It is as if he attempts to jam as much of Bush's life into one movie regardless how it fit. This is not Stone's first Presidential film. He previously made J.F. K and Nixon. He does highlight the youthfulness of Bush, played with appeal by Josh Brolin who brings a certain comical edge to Bush's desires and accomplishments. Elizabeth Banks plays Laura Bush in a departure from her usual romantic comedy flare. James Cromwell is terrific as the frustrated Bush Sr who cannot seem to straighten out his drunken son and get him to take life seriously. Then there is Richard Dreyfuss as the extremely criticized Dick Cheney. Ellen Burstyn is featured as Barbara Bush who witnesses the confrontations between father and son. Doesn't always work but it gives an often amusing look at a President that was seen as not being with it. Score: 7 / 10

-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."

I put off seeing this until 2012 because of the reviews here. When I finally watched it I was irritated that I allowed short-sighted reviews to ruin my chance to see it in a fun group setting. I have since learned to read between the reviews.This was a fantastic performance by Josh Brolin, who nailed the publicly perceived persona of Dubya so well! The movie was a brilliant satirical depiction of the caricature the mass public created of Dubya. It was also a great impersonation of the public opinions of Cheney and other characters from this infamous administration.This, while depicting true events and basic facts of the life and presidency of this man, what a balance to maintain! While portraying the caricature, it still gave a sympathetic portrayal of his childhood, family relations and life events which actually had me wishing I could help the adolescent and young man rise above the emotional turmoil which created the grown man he became. It was done well.