Man of the Year

PG-13

Released Oct 13, 2006

1 hr. 55 min.

Comedy

List

21%

145 Reviews

Tomatometer

45%

100,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams), the satirical host of a political talk show, decides to shake things up by running for president after making comments that he would be a better president than the leader who currently occupies the White House. His fans begin a grassroots campaign that catapults him into the Oval Office, but soon after moving in it is revealed a computer glitch mistakenly awarded him the presidency. Tom is left with a tough choice, stay the course or head back behind the microphone.

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Critics Consensus

Weakened by second-half attempts at thriller and romance, this presidential comedy also fails to hit any sharp political notes, resulting in a confused and unsatisfying mess.

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Donald A

Yes, "Man of the Year" won't even come close to nailing down any awards (positive ones, anyway). Nor will it stand the test of time against Robin Williams' and Barry Levinson's best work. But in the moment of the film, Williams' jokes made me laugh. Quite a bit, in fact. Yes, it would greatly benefit from an entirely focused effort to ditch one of the additional two genres thrown in with the comedy: a thriller and a romance. Yet, I think the film should not be entirely ignored.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/08/24

Full Review

Andrea S

Not a masterpiece, but still a great movie. Robin Williams is such a gem. For me, the biggest problem was that the action drama aspect ruined the overall atmosphere of political satire. However, the movie carries important messages that are still relevant, almost 20 years later now.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/16/23

Full Review

Tyler B

Hands down one of the worst comedian vanity projects ever made. This movie had all of the potential in the world.. it had Williams in the prime of his later career. Chris Walken's in it. Lewis Black at his peak was in it, and Jeff Goldblum as well. What could go wrong? Well.. a lot. Firstly this movie ultimately had struggles with what the tone was gonna be. The first half is what everyone wanted: Williams being a troll mocking the political scene and raising hell in a chaotic fun way. The debate is one of the best moments of Williams at his manic peak, and the montage that followed with Bohemian Like You was genius. However it causes the movie to peak within it's first 45 minutes and it never recovers. Then it becomes a bi-polar drama movie that constantly switches between sad, dark moments mixed with comedy attempts. It doesn't work at all. Then add to it the director's forced in political commentary/lecturing. This was 6 years after the 2000 Florida fiasco and Hollywood was still salty as hell about it. Barry Levininson's usually fantastic but he went overboard too hard here and it shows. It makes him look out of touchy, whiny, and bitter and downright paranoid even. The whole political conspiracy crap the movie gets into is just goofy and it didn't need to be forced in. Laura Linney's a great actress and all but her character is SO annoying. They try to make her sympathetic but she's so far from it it's ridiculous. She invites all the bad that happens to her and she's flat out creepy stalking Williams's character. Yuck. This movie woulda worked so much better if it focused on the campaign itself and how Dobbs is a constant troll. That's what it was advertised for it and what the post suggests. The entire voting conspiracy never needed to be added to the movie, if Dobbs wins at the end it should be due to fate, not someone else doing it. This coulda been one of Williams's best later career movies if Levinson had gotten out of his way and allowed it to be. He didn't, and we got this stinker instead. So sad.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

08/22/23

Full Review

Martha W

This movie couldn't figure out what kind of movie it wanted to be. Comedy? Drama? What? I don't know. Laura Linny did not give a good performance. She was hyper and an all around bad actress.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

05/16/23

Full Review

StephenPaul C

LOL, the funniest 01 hour: and 55 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/05/23

Full Review

R B

Too close to home. It was sickening to watch the story play out.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

04/08/23

Full Review

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Barry Levinson

Director

Robin Williams

Tom Dobbs

Laura Linney

Eleanor

Christopher Walken

Jack Menken

Lewis Black

Eddie Langston

Jeff Goldblum

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Derek Malcolm

London Evening Standard

Too compromised to be more than a reasonably pleasurable entertainment, as if it is scared about what it is saying about the American political process.

Rated: 2/5

Nov 2, 2007

Full Review

Tim Robey

Daily Telegraph (UK)

This being Robin Williams, it's hard to find his routines as vote-winningly hilarious as they're meant to be.

Nov 2, 2007

Full Review

Karl French

Financial Times

There are good moments, although it doesn't work properly either as a satirical thriller or a rom-com.

Nov 2, 2007

Full Review

David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

Barry Levinson's Man of the Year is a negligible and insipid film. If one takes a storyline "from the headlines," one should do it with some depth or not bother at all.

Feb 14, 2021

Full Review

Mike Massie

Gone With The Twins

A mess of incongruous ideas that even Williams can't redeem or effectively rib.

Rated: 4/10

Nov 21, 2020

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Impeach this one already.

Rated: 1/4

Nov 6, 2020

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams), the satirical host of a political talk show, decides to shake things up by running for president after making comments that he would be a better president than the leader who currently occupies the White House. His fans begin a grassroots campaign that catapults him into the Oval Office, but soon after moving in it is revealed a computer glitch mistakenly awarded him the presidency. Tom is left with a tough choice, stay the course or head back behind the microphone.

Director: Barry Levinson
Executive Producer: David Coatsworth, Guy McElwaine, David Robinson
Screenwriter: Barry Levinson
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures, Morgan Creek Productions
Rating: PG-13 (Drug Related Material|Brief Violence|Language|Some Crude Sexual References)
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 13, 2006, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 26, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $37.4M
Sound Mix: Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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