DAVE

DAVE (Director Ivan Reitman. Starring Kevin Line, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn, Ben Kingsley)

So, there's this president of the United States, right, who's an absolute asshole politician who has a stroke while romping with his mistress. And there's this other guy, an ordinary Joe, sorry, Dave, who looks exactly like the president, so they get him to stand in, right? And anyway, even though he knows nothing about politics he turns out to be a better president than the real one. I'm not getting too complex for you here, am I?

The makers of Dave would doubtless like to imagine they had constructed some populist political satire in the manner of Frank Kapra. Wrong. Dave is populist, sure, but politically it hasn't advanced far beyond The Prisoner of Zenda. But perhaps it is to director Ivan Reitman's credit that he spends more time on his jokes than his satire, creating a genuinely amiable, lightly played comedy.

Yet, as it comes down in favour or order over change, you can't shake the feeling that, while it might poke jokes at bad government, it would still urge you to vote for the devil you know.