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Wag the Dog
New Line Cinema


7.4

based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Andrea Martin, Kirsten Dunst, and William H. Macy

Wickedly fictional with historical overtones truer than many care to admit, Wag The Dog examines the blurred lines between politics, the media and show business. (New Line Productions)

GENRE(S):	Comedy
WRITTEN BY:	Hilary Henkin David Mamet Larry Beinhart (book American Hero)
DIRECTED BY:	Barry Levinson
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 2, 2003 Video: June 4, 2002 Theatrical: December 25, 1997
RUNNING TIME:	97 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Nominated, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Hoffman) and Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium), 70th Annual Academy Awards

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is a satire that contains just enough realistic ballast to be teasingly plausible; like "Dr. Strangelove," it makes you laugh, and then it makes you wonder.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

If the result is often as glib as the targets it's satirizing, it's also driven by a cruelly distilled joy. Wag the Dog is an ode to the thrill of deception, a thrill embodied in Hoffman's inspired performance.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's a deliciously outrageous premise, and director Barry Levinson and writers David Mamet and Hilary Henkin know just how to spin it, savaging Washington and Hollywood with merciless wit. It's a hoot.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A gloriously cynical black comedy that functions as a wicked smart satire on the interlocking worlds of politics and show business, Wag the Dog confirms every awful thought you've ever had about media manipulation and the gullibility of the American public. And it has a great deal of fun doing it.

Dallas Observer Michael Sragow

Director Barry Levinson has given this swift, sure-footed film a matter-of-fact, improvisational look and feel. To appreciate its brisk, confident, wild comedy, all you need is a funny bone and a BS meter.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Wag the Dog, the poison-tipped political satire that's as scarily plausible as it is swift, hilarious and impossible to resist.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Sharp scripting, note-perfect performances, and nimble direction and technical execution combine to make Wag the Dog one of the wittiest and most mordant political satires to come along in quite some time.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is one of Levinson's best films, and the screenplay, co-penned by noted writer David Mamet (along with Hilary Henkin), is brilliantly on-target.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

Wag The Dog is an oft-hilarious, witty, scathing satire that represents four gifted if uneven artists (De Niro, Hoffman, Levinson, and Mamet) at the top of their respective games.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

This is hilarious, deadly stuff, sparked by the cynical gusto of the two leads as well as the fascinating technical display of how TV "documentary evidence" can be digitally manufactured inside a studio.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Barry Levinson's dark comedy is sly, funny, and unnerving.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Levinson's sure touch keeps audiences smiling and manages to maintain an aura of good nature in a film that, at heart, offers a caustic, almost bitter vision of American institutions and contemporary politics.

San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego

It's a testament to what happens when all the right ingredients come together. Wag the Dog is the best political satire in years.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

WAG the Dog is a cozy political satire, the warm-and-fuzzy kind that is always entertaining yet never disturbing.

Variety Godfrey Cheshire

Glib cynicism isn't a tremendously appealing quality, but in Wag the Dog it at least has the benefit of comic precision and polished handling.

New York Magazine David Denby

Barry Levinson’s political and media satire Wag the Dog goes as fast as the wind, and that’s a relief because the idea behind the movie is thin. Very thin -- and at times offensively glib.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Wag the Dog is such a crisply delivered political satire, so packed full of wickedly amusing details and expertly modulated performances and with its heart so obviously in the right place that I really, truly wish I could tell you it was also a good movie.

Empire Bob McCabe

Written in part by David Mamet, Wag The Dog is a lovely idea, with credibility buoyed by its incredible timeliness. But, content with its initial premise, the movie lacks the necessary bite to develop the satire further, to the point where it's difficult to spot whether Washington or Hollywood is the target.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

So insidey it's almost parochial.

Film Threat Tom Meek

Hoffman's electric performance carries the film beyond its banal pretext and Dennis Leary and Woody Harrelson are a scream in cameos.

TV Guide Sandra Contreras

But anyone who would be inherently interested in this kind of sendup is unlikely to be surprised by anything in this film -- overall it feels like a trifle, if an entertaining one.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A blithely unfunny, low-budget comedy from director Barry Levinson.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Michael D. gave it a3:
I watched this in Luxembourg a couple of years ago and some people in the audience were laughing at scenes for reasons unclear to me.. It seems to be an on the whole well regarded movie but I found it predictable, corny, cliched yes I did not like it at all.

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Wag the Dog New Line Cinema

Wag the Dog
New Line Cinema