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9
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37
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53
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70
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61
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43
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66
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23
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34
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41
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46
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73
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78
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69
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58
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47
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66
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34
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54
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67
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28
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58
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39
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30
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53
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33
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45
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46
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71
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67
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28
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73
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
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39
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66
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49
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86
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71
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65
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76
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26
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44
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81
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76
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70
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62
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65
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69
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60
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82
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75
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82
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53
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50
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67
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70
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85
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55
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88
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31
Fix
49
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80
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xx
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72
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89
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63
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74
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xx
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70
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46
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34
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84
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45
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55
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59
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66
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26
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68
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68
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79
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73
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79
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65
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50
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58
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82
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49
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73
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61
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49
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83
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45
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67
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32
War on Kids
67
Way We Get By, The
65
Wedding Song, The
xx
White on Rice
59
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74
Woman in Berlin, A
43
Women in Trouble
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Wag the Dog

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by:
Hilary Henkin
David Mamet
Larry Beinhart (book American Hero)
Directed by: Barry Levinson
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 25, 1997
DVD: September 2, 2003
Running Time: 97 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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)
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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...
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Barry Levinson's dark comedy is sly, funny, and unnerving.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Denby
Barry Levinsons political and media satire Wag the Dog goes as fast as the wind, and thats a relief because the idea behind the movie is thin. Very thin -- and at times offensively glib.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
A blithely unfunny, low-budget comedy from director Barry Levinson.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 6 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.
