Bulworth

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

Beatty has fashioned a hilarious morality tale that delivers a surprisingly potent, angry message beneath the laughs.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Warren Beatty sounds off angrily and shrewdly about politics, delivering what is possibly his best film and certainly his funniest and livliest.

Variety Todd McCarthy

An uncommonly smart, sharp and irreverent American picture.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

This political satire that's as fresh and exhilarating as anything we've seen come out of Hollywood in quite some time.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

It has the audacity that “Primary Colors” should have displayed, but was afraid to. Bulworth is willing to openly offend to get its point across. That's something that “Primary Colors” was nervous about doing.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

His movie isn't a surgical attack at this problem and that; it's a cluster bomb intended to reap destruction, make a mess and jolt all who see it to react.

USA Today Mike Clark

Warren Beatty's uproariously rude Bulworth is 90% triumph.

New York Daily News Dave Kehr

A brilliant and astounding black comedy.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Warren Beatty's Bulworth made me laugh -- and wince.

Film.com John Hartl

There are some cheap shots, and there's an argument to be made about whether the film is sending up stereotypes or simply perpetuating them. But for every dubious moment, there are plenty that connect.

Film Threat Chris Gore

Bulworth has the distinction of being the only summer movie that might make you think and for that, it definitely deserves ample praise.

Newsweek David Ansen

A dizzying mixture of the sophisticated and the naive, the deft and the clumsy, Bulworth is overstuffed, excessive, erratic -- and essential.

Film.com Ted Fry

There are extreme moments that lurch between inspired absurdity and near failure -- but as a ballsy movie about human politics with no correctness in sight, it's a triumph.

Slate David Edelstein

The film has a kamikaze comic spirit that's spectacularly disarming.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

It's daring, deliberately offensive and, for a comedy, it has far more ideas in it than actual laughs.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Beatty's contribution to the ranks of recent political satire is bold, merciless and frequently very funny, and his performance is just plain fearless.

Mr. Showbiz Richard T. Jameson

In a season of mechanized spectacle and brain-dead comedies, Bulworth is a brave and bracing exception.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Beatty himself is high wattage, revved up, sharp in his comic timing, gleaming with eagerness to put his film across. As director, he carries on from where he left off in “Reds;” he is sure and fluent, and occasionally he tips his hat to the past. [June 8, 1998]

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Frequently awkward, peppered with moments that make you shake your head, Bulworth's singular nature makes it a film that can't be shrugged off.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

This is a great liberal movie, which is to say, it will be loved most passionately by great liberals, and despised by the conservatives it contemptuously fails to notice.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Its best moments come from witnessing the Senator's inspired unraveling, not from watching where it will end.

Film.com Tom Keogh

One can be forgiven for leaving the theater feeling a modicum of hope, and for that we owe Warren Beatty something.

New Times (L.A.) Peter Rainer

With all its hip-hop and jive, Bulworth may seem new-style -- but actually it's proffering a populism that Frank Capra would have loved.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

To his credit, Beatty has designed Bulworth along the classic lines of Shakespeare's Fool -- the antic truth-speaker who has the ear of the court.

Film.com Robert Horton

Bulworth shoots along with great vigor, and its non-politically correct jabs are occasionally exhilarating.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It's a tease of a satire that never really follows through on its audacious premise.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

As a movie, it's a disaster. As political speech, it's imprecise, shrill and sometimes clichéd, but it's also alive.

San Francisco Examiner Barbara Shulgasser

The movie hits the ground running, so Beatty the actor is forced to go all out from the start.