Rating  - Great movie, check it out!
I had been meaning to see this movie for a long time, and I'm really glad I did. I had heard a couple of less-than-glowing reviews, so I was prepared to not like certain aspects, but I found it very interesting, extremely well acted & the script was excellent. The actors seemed to riff off of one another. The dialogue was fast, witty, sharp & funny as hell! The subject matter is interesting, sadly still relevant in that there are many atrocities occurring around the world, but to catch a glimpse of some behind-the-scenes workings was intriguing & illuminating. This movie is well worth a watch, and the acting is very strong. Tom Hanks & Phillip Seymour Hoffman are both brilliant in their roles, and I really enjoyed Julia Roberts' performance too. Overall, this movie is interesting, funny, sharp, and again relevant to the world today. It doesn't sugar coat the subject matter or tie anything up in a neat little bow, it addresses flawed systems and 'solutions' and reminds us that the world is a very complicated place. A great script handled with skill.
Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands
Rating - True Story
What a wonderful story, and it's based on true events. This movie is highly recommended. It is also very well acted!!
Rating  - very enjoyable
Based on a true story (although overstating the importance) this movie is a short ,but not complete look at the Afghanistan war. Charlie Wilson had a role but certainly not as central as the movie implies. For a better perspective read "Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll. However the movie was fun to watch.
Rating  - Charlie Wilson's List
There are many, many shocking things about this movie. The first of which is that it was written by Aaron Sorkin. I've invested in Sorkin's previous work, and was shocked to see his name in the closing credits of this awful movie. Second of all, I was even more shocked to see the positive ratings this trash has gotten from Amazon reviewers. Maybe I'm in the minority here (I certainly am on this site) but this film is one of the worst I've seen, bar none.
There is literally nothing good about this movie. There are a few things that aren't altogether awful (such as Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance), but when nothing in an entire movie can be described as "good," you know you've got a whole mess of problems at work. Here is a list that just cracks the iceberg.
1. There is absolutely nothing done by the filmmakers to get the audience involved with the story. There is no suspense, no character development, no character moments, no storytelling techniques used to pull the viewers into the story. It's just a sequence of film that I cared absolutely nothing about while watching it. I understand that this is based on a true story, so some will argue with this point. However, I'd counter that a true story deserves to be well done, because if a sequence of non-fictional events are worth telling, there is certainly an interesting story behind them. With better writing, a different director, a different producer, and a different cast, this could have been a poignant exploration of one man's journey to make a difference by aiding a cause he truly believed in. What this actually came out as is a sexist, dumbed-down mockery of real events.
2. This is based on a true story. They even had real footage blended in with the plot of the film, which further grounds this film in reality. However, if you plan on grounding the film in reality so much, why would you have the rest of the movie be so blatantly silly? Women in tight sweaters and skirts make up the entirety of Charlie Wilson's staff, and are draped all over his office like furniture. Not only does this add an undercurrent of objectification of women to the film, it makes for horribly cheesy scenes that totally pull the viewer out of the reality of the film.
3. There is not one scene here to establish a morally grey area. Americans are good, Russians are bad. Point blank, period. I'm sorry, but that's bull and makes for horrible viewing. All the best war movies show the morally grey area of combat and war as a whole, that two ideologies are at conflict and neither is good or evil, but that both sides are real people at conflict with each other. Not so here. This movie neglects that superbly intriguing moral grey area for cheap jokes and contrived speeches.
4. You know a movie is bad when an hour and forty minutes feels like you just watched The Stand. Twice.
Very simply, this film is a mockery of real life events that isn't worth your time. If the story of Charlie Wilson was worth telling, which I'm sure it was, I wish a more competent team had tackled the subject matter. This sinker easily takes a place on my Worst 20 Movies list.
1/10
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